#optoutside
REI
Issue 40 | September 2016
Agency
Venables, Bell & Partners
Creative Team
Chairman: Paul Venables Executive Creative Director: Will McGinness Creative Director: Lee Einhorn Copywriter: Adam Wolinsky Art Director: Avery Oldfield Design Lead: Jarrett Carr Designer: Nicola Broderick
Production Team
Director of Experience Design: Jeff Teicher Lead Digital Producer: Adela Chung Director of Integrated Production: Craig Allen Director of Art Production: Jacqueline Fodor Senior Producer: Jake Grand Production Company: Tool of North America Director: Benji Weinstein Line Producer: Jason Manz Executive Producer: Lori Stonebraker Managing Partner Live action/Executive Producer: Oliver Fuselier Managing Partner Digital: Dustin Callif
Other Credits
Head of Strategy: Michael Davidson Communications Strategy Director: Gavin Jones Senior Strategist: Mike Riley Business Leader: Colleen McGee Account Supervisor: Krista Muir Account Managers: Ariel Rosen, Gillian McBrayer Business Affairs: Sametta Gbilia Director of Analytics: Jeff Burger Project Manager: Shannon Fischer PR: Edelman Editorial Company: HutchCo Technologies Visual Effects: Brickyard VFX Media Buying and Planning: Starcom MediaVest Group Experience Design Company (Microsite): North Kingdom
Date
October 2015
Background
Black Friday is the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving and is known as the biggest shopping day of the year.
Research confirmed that interest in the outdoors was up and the health benefits of spending more time outside was gaining traction. Tangentially, enthusiasm for shopping on Black Friday, was decreasing.
This cultural dynamic provided the perfect opportunity for the REI brand to make a bold statement that reflected its values and mission as a company. REI exists to help people enjoy the outdoors and they believe that a life outside is a life well lived.
Idea
To support their mission, REI closed all 143 of their stores on Black Friday. 12,000 employees were paid to spend the day outdoors and all of America was invited to #OptOutside with REI. Employees, members and the public were encouraged to use this day to reconnect with the outdoors and each other.
A cross-channel approach was used to unite employees, co-op members, outdoor enthusiasts, the outdoor industry and non-profit partners to generate a national conversation about the benefits of a life outdoors while crafting inspiring content to invite people to #OptOutside. Using a hashtag as the campaign line and call to action, the brand was able to create a simple way for anyone to stand up and join.
The integrated campaign spread the #OptOutside movement across social, PR, TV, print, out of home and influencer outreach. Supporters were given a simple call to action: #OptOutside.
An online hub equipped the movement’s growing ranks with everything people needed to spend Black Friday outdoors. A custom meme creator on the site allowed users to share images announcing their support to social followers, inspiring friends and family members to join the ever growing number of people choosing to spend this Black Friday differently.
Results
Over 170 organizations showed support for REI with some even closing their doors on Black Friday in solidarity. Hundreds of parks in the US opened their gates for free.
#OptOutside became a widespread cultural movement. 1.4 million people chose to spend Black Friday outside with REI. The campaign earned 33 straight days of media coverage with 3,423 placements leading to 6.7 billion media impressions.
#OptOutside generated 1.2 billion social impressions, becoming a trending topic on Twitter for three separate days and Instagram for two separate days. #OptOutside was #11 of Brandwatch’s top 15 Twitter trends of 2015. The hashtag entered the larger social vernacular - six months later, it was still being used thousands of times per day.
While #OptOutside was designed for long term community engagement, not to drive short-term sales, REI revenues were up double digits year over year (bucking industry trends). Applications to work at REI were up 92% in Q4 2015 and the co-op added nearly 1 million new members.