As Tour de France fever heats up, Oakley is tweaking its ongoing, global, multi-sport ‘One Obsession’ campaign to focus on cycling – with new work rolling out fronted by twin bike ambassadors road racer Mark Cavendish and bike messenger Chas Christanson.
A few weeks before Le Tour’s Grand Depart, the Luxottica owned specs brand has launched a Cavendish-led spot for its ‘Jawbreaker’ range.
The theme is built around Cav’s infamous attention to detail and single-minded drive and the spot shows the sprinter (who now rides for Etixx – Quick-Step) analysing every detail of his performance.
The ad follows the road racing legend’s role in Oakley’s multi-ambassador ‘One Obsession: Where do you #LiveYours’ launch commercial back in February
Essentially, the umbrella ‘One Obsession’ campaign explores the internal passion, desire and drive of great innovator athletes and aims to use its 450 Oakley endorser obsessions to inspire fans to pursue their passions and build a global obsession movement where members of the brand’s community are urged and encouraged to #LiveYours.
‘Pursuing an obsession isn’t unique to professional athletes. It binds everyone who shares a driving passion to turn their ideas into reality.’
The ‘One Obsession’ platform was developed in harness with agency Eleven San Francisco and, as well as Cavendish, it features a varied mix of Oakley ambassadors – from San Diego Padres star Matt Kemp and Moto GP champion Marc Marquez, to skateboarder Eric Koston, Indian cricketer Virat Kohli, surfer Gabriel Medina and badminton player Lin Dan.
The campaign’s multimedia content – spearheaded by a flagship, central 60-second TV teaser commercial
and blossoming out through a set of individual video portraits and other content pieces such as a striking set of image executions from The Wades (see http://www.making-pictures.co.uk/photographers/the_wade_brothers/oakley_one_obsession-406) – explores how each ‘toils away’ at their craft away from the spotlight.
It is skateboarder Koston who opens the athlete narrates of the central spot: ‘It’s such a mental game. If you can try and close your eyes and imagine yourself doing something, it’s actually really hard to have that picture of yourself following through it.’
Oakley’s objective is to provide a platform for its consumers and fans around the world to ‘share their own places of obsession’ via the hashtag #LiveYours.
It incentivises such sharing by reward its favourite fan obsessions with surprise experiences partnering with its Oakley athlete ambassadors.
As the campaign evolved through the first half of 2015 Oakley unveiled three ‘branded hubs’ open to the public to live out their passions: skateboarding (Los Angeles), baseball (New York) and urban cycling (London).
As Le Tour approaches, the brand has upped its focus on this latter hub to leverage the heightening interesting in cycling around the sport’s major annual event and content based around bike messenger cum brand ambassador Chas Christanson leads this push – with help from famous former Tour winners such as Greg LeMond.
Past and present. #TDF legend @GregLeMond and messenger cyclist Chas Christiansen take to the road. #LiveYours pic.twitter.com/VMUbWEx5Er
— Oakley (@oakley) June 17, 2015
According to this campaign strand ‘What started off as a way to pay the rent in San Francisco, soon turned into a new way of life for Chas Christiansen. Messenger cycling opened up a world of opportunity and introduced Chas to an international community of like-minded people. Taking his bike everywhere that he goes, travelling the globe in search of new people, cultures and experiences.’
Another recent aspect of the London-based urban cycling activation strand dovetailing with road racing is Oakley’s recent ‘Giro Pop-Up Cafe’ – Oakley in residence: London (at Exmouth Market).
This sees the brand bring its presence, products and skills to grass routes cyclists with a pop-up space that it hopes will ‘raise the bar of cycling café culture’.
Promoted via PR, earned media, cyclist word of mouth and its own social channels (such as its Twitter feed),
Die Räder müssen sich drehen – Das ist die Mission unserer Londoner #InResidence.
http://t.co/ZQ2x5TYXUB pic.twitter.com/HYaNvgku90
— Oakley (@oakley) June 11, 2015
the space offers cyclists and chance to drink quality espresso and have their bikes fixed and/or tuned-up for free while they watch the Giro (and later the Tour) on a giant HD projector.
The pop-up, which comes in partnership with coffee outfit Prufrock and bike repairers Seabass Cycles, will remain open through the Tour De France and the summer until late August.
Both Cavendish, Christensen and Oakley’s design team all influenced the pop-up’s design: it boasts a stripped-back unpretentious feel: wood tables and benches, exposed chrome fixings and custom-sprayed frames adorning the walls.
This is a branded pop-up is part creative space, part workshop, and part cafe.
Oakley In Residence: London is also acting as a meeting point for brand-led weekend rides – in harness with urban crew East London Fixed (and even comes with changing rooms, lockers and free Muc-off to sort yourself out, post-ride).
Comment
The term ‘Pop-Up Creative Hub’ has become overused in London (especially East London’ in recent years, but this initiative certainly has a genuine claim to the moniker.
(Shame it is only open from Wednesday to Sunday – but then again, at Activative we are obsessive about cycling).
The idea for the wider ‘One Obsession’ campaign came began exploring what professional athletes have in common not just with everyday athletes, but with creators and innovators and found the idea of ‘obsession’ links them all.
‘This is not about results, winning, or achieving perfection,” says Oakley’s global brand communications director Tom Cartmale.
‘It’s about the journey there. By taking athletes out of more familiar and expected territory allows us to explore the mental and physical places of obsession they share with others, and find new ways to connect and inspire this passionate community.’
This campaign has both depth and breadth and is based on some genuine behavioural and consumer insights.
It certainly ought to help Oakley to cut through in what is becoming an increasingly cluttered athletic crossover sub-sector of the sunglasses landscape.
But Oakley has early mover advantage in this growing space and has been building brand prescence in professional sport – from golf, hockey and surfing, to baseball and, of course, cycling – for two decades now.
Oakley’s aim will be to differentiate itself through its sports ambassadors, active content, plus social media touchpoints and real-world touchpoints.
It will hope to consolidate its position and values and to boost awareness (and later market share) in the 22 markets that the initiative spans.
As for Cavendish, who will once again tackle the Tour record for stage wins and the sprinter’s green jersey, his One Obsession work follows hos role fronting previous Oakley, Tour-De France focused campaigns such as 2013’s ‘Conquer The Road’
and 2012’s ‘Train Harder’.
Links
Oakley Website:
Oakley YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/oakley
Oakley Twitter:
#LiveYours
#InResidence.
Oakley In Reesidence:
http://www.oakley.com/in-residence
Oakley Jawbreaker
http://www.oakley.com/jawbreaker
Eleven San Francisco:
