First Tracks
Helly Hansen
Issue 31 | June 2014
Agency
Forsman & Bodenfors
Creative Team
Advertisers Supervisor Helly Hansen Dennis Koraen Account Executive Hans Andersson Katarina Klofsten Account Manager Anneli Kjellander Jenny Edvardsson Art Director Karl Risenfors Copywriter Rikke Jacobsen Designer Christoffer Persson Christopher Ek Agency Producer Stefan Thomson Production Company Mad In Sweden Postproduction Pontus Danielsson Music Karl Risenfors
Date
December 2013
Background
Helly Hansen was one of the leading Scandinavian outdoor clothing brands. Founded in 1877, the company made some of the best skiwear on the market, especially for those who liked doing extreme stuff in fresh powder.
Idea
First Tracks was an app created for iPhone or your Android that used skiers' and snowboarders' location to determine weather in their local area. If it snowed in the night, then the app woke you up early so you could be one of the first to get out onto the mountain to carve clean new tracks through the powder. On the other hand, if it hadn't snowed, then the app let you slumber on.
Users could share their photos of their first tracks and if they tagged them #HHFirstTracks and uploaded them to Instagram, they could win weekly prizes of Helly Hansen gear.
Results
There were approximately 12,000 downloads of the app, a good number since the target group was quite narrow.
Though the app was distributed only through Helly Hansen's own channels (Facebook, hellyhansen.com and press releases) there was good PR coverage in magazines and on skiing blogs and in social media, where it was referred to as 'This winter's must-have app for skiers and snowboarders.'
There was also increased activity on the Winter 13 website, where visitors spent longer and bought more on average than usual.
This revealed a strengthening of Helly Hansen as a brand for skiers and skiing as well as demonstrating Helly Hansen's understanding of its target group and their values.
Our Thoughts
This starts with an insight into the strange mind of the dedicated skier. There is nothing quite so satisfying as carving your way through virgin snow and looking back up the mountain at your curving tracks. Whenever Helly Hansen talk to skiers, that’s what they talk about, that fantastic moment when you are “skinning up, knowing there’s no-one else for miles around, searching for that perfect run, where no-one has ever skied and the powder lies like a glittering soft blanket before you.”
The app and the invitation to upload your photos of your own first tracks are just two more expressions of an idea that can run and run. This is quality thinking by people who know their target audience inside out.