Merrell was a global brand that had lost its way with competitors like Salomon and The North Face challenging the category, there had been a fundamental step change.

Merrell had lost its shine. The challenge was not a simple one as we still needed to drive sales in this increasingly competitive and price-conscious environment. We needed to reinvigorate the brand, once again behave like a brand leader and get people talking about Merrell.

The brand line “Let’s get outside” was still a powerful and own-able territory.

However, there was little understanding of why Merrell was different. We needed to give it a voice, a personality, real meaning and bring the brand alive for our loyal existing customers yet inspire new audiences to embrace Merrell.

Merrell is built on a passionate belief that everyone should get outside. A belief that the world  would be a better place if we all got active, outside every day. We identified that there was one thing that really unified our audience globally, culturally and socially; it was their love of the outdoors. And what made Merrell different is that it really understood that the love of outdoors, although often shared, is such a unique and personal experience. Adventure is whatever it means to you.

Add Your Own Scenery:
Global Campaign 2011 – 2013
Print, Digital, OOH, Video

We developed a global print and interactive online campaign inviting people to ‘add your own scenery’.

We challenged the category conventions head on and threw away the rule book. Rather than the conventional outdoor shot we tore away the scenery in the creative inspiring consumers to ‘Add their own scenery’.

By ripping away the stereotypical advertising imagery, our campaign turned the category on its head. We created a rallying call for the brand; a 360 degree campaign that placed the original brand essence ‘Let’s Get Outside’ right at it’s heart.

Taking the leap from couch potato to active sportsperson is a daunting thought for most people.

And many of the brands in this category have done nothing to quell that sense of dread. The levels of acceptable achievement seem very high and off-putting.

In a digitally informed world people seek inspiration and encouragement from their friends and peers. ‘If they can do it, so can I’ is the maxim of the day. Our work encouraged this behaviour. We created an Online, Press and POS campaign of people engaging in outdoor activity but with one difference. We shot people in action but without any backdrop. We then encouraged potential customers to upload their own images to complete the picture and share. Using GSP data we then populated an interactive site that built a global panorama of where people were and what they were doing.