May saw adidas TERREX promote its hero hiking shoe – the Free Hiker 2 – through a film, influencer and competition led campaign called ‘United By Summits’ spearheaded by a film titled ‘Summit Of The Determined Dreamer’ featuring hiking influencer Arielle Shipe revisiting the majestic Pacific Crest Trail.
Created by agency Iris Worldwide, the film seeks to drive awareness around the adidas TERREX sub-brand and specifically the new Free Hiker 2 outdoor shoe which sits at the heart of the collection.
The documentary-style short film follows Shipe’s journey revisiting the Pacific Crest Trail for the second time whilst she prepares for life as a new mother. After first completing the mammoth, beautiful trail back in 2022, the long-distance hiker returns with adidas TERREX and the Pacific Crest Trail Association (a group of volunteers who monitor, maintain and manage the trail) to share long-distance hiking stories of adventure, dilemmas and resilience.
The film, which documents the 2,650-mile journey (which included 22-hour hiking days and intense heat along the LA Aqueduct), dropped on 2 May across adidas TERREX’s YouTube and Instagram channels tagged with the hahstags #hiking, #unitedbysummits and #adidasterrex.
The campaign was built on primary brand research – through both focus groups and quantitative surveys – which found that fellow hikers (not brand marketing) were the primary source for product recommendations.
So, as well as working with Shipe, the film was supported globally by an influencer strand seeking to further drive authentic outdoor sport representation in various regions around the world. This saw adidas TERREX and Iris work with 12 influencers and partners across five key markets; Chile, Korea, the UK, North America and Germany. They each produce content for adidas’ and their own channels which celebrated the most famous hiking routes in their own countries alongside the Free Hiker 2 kicks.
A parallel competition to offered hikers a chance to win a trip to hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail alongside the ‘adidas TERREX United by Summits Relay Team’ along a 455-mile Oregon section of the trail. This experience will also be filmed and promoted across Instagram to promote its WMNs shoe – adidas TERREX’s first hiking shoe designed specifically for the anatomy of the female foot.
Iris Worldwide Global ECD Grant Hunter said: “adidas TERREX have a different take on the outdoor category – a belief that everyone should have the chance to experience the transformative power of nature. This latest chapter in the United By Summits story focuses on the connection we have with nature and how being present in the moment allows us to learn more about ourselves. Arielle’s incredible journey on the PCT is at the heart of this season’s narrative.
The team at creative agency Iris Worldwide that worked on the project included Executive Creative Director Grant Hunter, Creative Director Ross Taylor, Planners Rory Natkiel and Samaneh Zamani, Account Managers Hannah Thorn, Charlotte Coombes and Laura Wills, Producer Jasmine Willson and Photographers Blake Hendrix and Ian Dzilenski.
Production was run by Camp 4 Collective, post and VFX by Absolute Post and editorial was handled by Search Party
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Outdoor wear is regularly cited as the fastest growing sports category in the world and thus offers a key opportunity for sportswear brand growth. While Adidas has a strong track record in high-performance product lines in the hiking, mountaineering, skiing, snowboarding and trail running categories, its brand legacy and strength in mainstream sport and fashion means that for many it isn’t yet as credible an outdoor brand as rivals such as Arcteryx, North Face or Patagonia.
So over the last year agency Iris was briefed to position TERREX as a credible outdoor brand by bringing its ‘United By Summits’ platform to life.
The agency’s planning and research found that marketing in the adventure and outdoor wear space was broadly ‘a sea of sameness’ in terms of messages, narratives and visuals. So, the team aimed to cut through by offering ‘an authentic, inclusive and realistic portrait of the outdoors in all its inclusive glory’ by ‘aligning with the brand’s vision to encourage everyone to get out into nature no matter who you are or where you’re from’.
The agency’s approach has been to subvert stereotypes and to tell outdoor stories from those whom the category has thus far largely ignored: thus reframing what the outdoors means to different people who are all ‘United by Summits’.
The tactical marketing outcome of this approach, which included a new TERREX visual identity, was been based around a series of long-form, authentic story-telling films and hero moving image assets for YouTube and BVOD.
Each of which focuses on one of the adidas Terrex activities – bike, climb, hike, mountaineering, snow and trail running. Each tells a genuine human story of how a real outdoor athlete and striven for and celebrated their individual summits with a focus on the transformative nature of the outdoors.
This campaign launched with a 60-second hero film – ‘This Is Not Another Inspiration Video: United by Summits’ – which dropped on 18 August 2022 and aimed to redefine what the brand means by ‘summits’ and this was supported by OOH, digital, social and retail assets.
Plus, the platform also encouraged the audience to go on their own adventures and offered help to those wishing to share their own personal summits through the ‘My Summit’ initiative.
Since then, other notable and inclusive adidas TERREX initiatives have included the launch of the first ‘Sports Prayer Mat’ with Wiggle in a tie-up with the UK based Muslim Hikers group.
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