Quicksilver’s Stylish Japanese ‘True Wetsuits’ Viral Makes A Global Splash

The combination of a stylish concept and stylish creative makes Quicksilver’s new ‘True Wetsuits’ spot inherently shareable.

It is this blend of an innovative product idea (yes – a business wetsuit) and dynamic footage (cool surfing) that has driven this video viral.

This late April Japanese marketing campaign from surf brand Quicksilver is based around a simple concept – as business suit that is also a wetsuit.

A Saville Row, Surf-Ready suit(complete with shirt, tie and slim-line trousers).

It’s less about solving a problem for board level and office bound surfers, and more about firing our dreams and impulses about spending more time doing what we want to do rather than what we have to do.

The spot follows a sharply-tailored, besuited man dressed for work who embraces the moment and the lure of the waves.

(And it also offers some solid product placement for Nissan X-Trail and Apple’s iPhone 6).

The online ad has generated 651,945 in its first week (it was launched on 19 April) and within a few days it had racked up 20,000 shares on Unruly’s Viral Video Chart.

The same day as the spot was first posted on YouTube, an accompanying ‘Making Of.’ behind-the-scenes webfilm also appeared on the site.

The campaign was created in harness with Tokyo-based agency TBWA\HAKUHODO.

The spot drives viewers to the product website were the high-tech waterproof ‘True Wetsuits’ are promoted as a product for the office and for the beach.

Comment

Less ‘Suits’ meets ‘Baywatch’ and more ‘Obey The Suit’

meets ‘Endless Summer’.

There is lashings of style, a hint of sex appeal and a sense of earnestness in this spot.

There may be a touch of the absurd (and a pun, play-on-words) about the product – but it’s a shareable concept nevertheless.

It’s not entirely dissimilar to the fascination with Nike’s gimmicky announcement that it intended to launch the ‘Back To The Future’ Air Mag self-tying trainer (see previous case study).

Despite the fact that those consumers who enthused about the idea, knew all-to-well that the trainers wouldn’t self-tie nor make the wearer fly.

But this didn’t diminish the enthusiastic fascination.

In itself, the stylish, eye-catching footage, isn’t particularly ground breaking. Is it really about our gimmicky, childish sense of humour and wonder.

Links

True Wetsuits YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwyoZgY8SPYvs8K_5rORqu

True Wetsuits Google+

https://plus.google.com/106063285659756258872/pos

True Wetsuits Website:

http://truewetsuits.jp

Quicksilver YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/quiksilver

Quicksilver Website:

http://www.quiksilver.com/

Quicksilver Facebook: