July saw The North Face and agency FRED & FARID Shanghai continue to leverage the post-Covid opening up in China with a campaign titled ‘TNF10000 Reasons To Get Back To Trail’ which used AI (ChatGPT and Midjourney) to rework its earlier ‘100 Reasons’ initiative aimed at reigniting the national spirit of outdoor exploration.
Following an extremely challenging, lengthy and strict Covid-19 lockdown which saw millions confined to their homes and isolated from nature, the city of Shanghai (like many other Chinese urban centres) sought to return to normality and reclaim ‘going outdoors’ and North Face sought to help encourage people to venture outside and re-embrace the natural world.
The aim was to inspire Shanghai’s 27m residents to rekindle their love for the great outdoors.
It was in March 2023, as the country first began emerging from lockdown, that the Denver (Colorado) headquartered outdoor wear company and FRED & FARID Shanghai initially launched ‘TNF100 Reasons To Get Back To The Trail’ primarily to promote the return of the ‘TNF100’: the iconic 100km ultra trail race which was back after a three-year, pandemic enforced hiatus. This original campaign featured a five-minute film, a huge billboard in the centre of Shanghai, and a series of posters to encourage people to venture outdoors and embrace the natural world.
Following what the brand described as ‘an overwhelming response to the campaign’, thousands of Chinese outdoor enthusiasts shared their own personal reasons for getting back out on the trail. So to further fuel this spirit of exploration, The North Face and its agency asked “How much further can we go?”
The question was posed to Open AI chatbot ChatGPT and it responded with 10,000 reasons to return to the trail – inspiring the agency’s creative team to create a follow on ‘TNF 10000 Reasons’ campaign led by a fully AI-generated two-hour and 42-minute film, backed by another expansive billboard at the TNF100 race camp in Moganshan and an additional collection of campaign posters.
Each poster offers an immersive experience and enables individuals to zoom in and discover the intricately woven treasure trove of 10,000 captivating reasons within the artwork.
The marketers utilized ChatGPT and Midjourney to generate and present a huge set of persuasive reasons (and no excuses to resist) to get back out into the great outdoors.
The hero ‘The North Face – TNF10000 Reasons To Get Back To Trail’ was supported online by the full length, two-hour and 42 minute film.
The campaign was not only created for client The North Face by FRED & FARID Shanghai, but was also brought to life by its in-house FF Production unit which also handled grading, online and music along with Ker Sound (Shanghai).
The combined agency team included Chief Creative Officers Fred & Farid
Executive Creative Director Feng Huang, Group Creative Director Adrien Goris, Creative Group Head Billy Liao, Copywriters Peilin Guo and Miranda Han, Art Director Billy Liao, Agency Supervisors Paul Lin, Quinn Jiang and Jenny Wei, Agency Producer Charles Renard and Editor Kai Yuan.
Comment
Built on the original campaign and film from earlier in 2023,
‘TNF10000 Reasons’ certainly showcases multiple aspects of the potential and the power of AI as a means of robotic generated inspiration leading to real human connection and physical action: this initiative smartly blends human creativity with AI-generated insights.
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