Background

Jones Lang LaSalle is a global real estate company that has built up an incredible reputation in the B2B space, however they remain relatively unknown to the person on the street. With Rock Climbing being included into the 2020 Olympics as a competitive category for the first time, JLL wanted to find a way to leverage the sport and demonstrate that they are a tech-enabled company that understands urban passions. They wanted to be seen as a company that believes in helping urban dwellers achieve their ambitions.

Describe the creative idea

Scaling New Heights A brand sponsorship that aims to help 6 young Olympic hopefuls achieve their qualifying ambitions through the use of wearable technology to help them train better.

Describe the strategy

According to the International Federation of Sport Climbing, it is estimated that there are 25 million recreational climbers globally. Currently practised in over 140 countries with six million registered climbers, we saw an opportunity to leverage this rising popularity by creating JLL’s first brand sponsorship campaign. We found 6 promising athletes from Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Singapore and started them on their journey to qualifying for 2020. To reinforce JLL as a tech-enabled brand, we also wanted to use technology to help them train better and gain a competitive advantage. Finally, we documented their stories of ambition through a National Geographic content partnership to bring JLL’s efforts to the masses.

Describe the execution

We started by speaking with climbers and soon realized there weren’t any tools that could help them precisely analyse their strengths and weaknesses. Coaches miss movements that are too fast, video recordings can’t capture details that are out of line of sight and athletes themselves rely on vague memories of their past climbs. That led us to use camera-less motion capture technology to capture positional data of an athlete’s movements and recreate the kinematics of their climb virtually. With this powerful new tool, they are able to examine precise interactive replays of their climbs and sit together with coaches to figure out how they could improve. A training camp was organized in Japan under the guidance of an international coach where they could train with the technology. The back stories of the climbers and the training process were then told through a nine-part documentary series through a National Geographic partnership.

List the results

During the first phase of the campaign, the branded content netted 2.5million impressions and 235k views. Content trailers that also enjoyed an 87% completion rate. This was achieved with only 35% of the media drivers activated. Augmenting the ambition and determination of these young athletes with advanced sensor fusion technology has also caught the imagination of the national press with coverage from the Straits Times in Singapore. South China Morning Post and CNET Australia have also expressed interest at the time of writing. More importantly, all 6 climbers have reported gaining new insights that have led to efficiency gains in their climbing, with some climbers achieving new personal bests. A great result for JLL's first foray beyond B2B marketing.