Eugene, Oregon- Spencer’s Butte, Skinner’s Butte
The North Face Ad Campaign for the Disabled Community
Scroll ↓
Where Everyone is Welcome
This project showcases a conceptual advertising campaign for The North Face, specifically tailored to the disabled community. The campaign emphasizes inclusivity in outdoor activities and adventure sports, highlighting adaptive gear and the spirit of overcoming challenges.
Key aspects of the campaign:
• Authentic Representation: Collaborated with a disability group at the University of Oregon, incorporating their members as models in the mockups. This ensures genuine representation and adds credibility to the campaign.
• Empowering Messaging: Developed slogans and copy that emphasize ability, adventure, and the outdoors being accessible to everyone.
Research and development process:
• Conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups with members of the University of Oregon disability group to understand their needs, challenges, and aspirations related to outdoor activities.
• Analyzed existing adaptive gear in the market and identified potential areas for innovation or improvement in The North Face's product line.
• Developed personas based on the research to ensure the campaign speaks to a wide range of experiences within the disabled community.
Creative Brief
*
Creative Brief *
Key Fact:
North Face currently targets mid to high income, outdoor individuals who enjoy being adventurous and spending time hiking while following the clothing trends.
Problem that Advertising Must Solve:
Since North Face has typically targeted able-bodied, athletic and outdoorsy types of people, the advertising objective is to encourage North Face to also target the disabled community so they can be included and catered to in the outdoor activities while sporting the brand and keep the functionality of their products.
Advertising Objective:
To promote accessibility and inclusion in outdoor activities and sports by letting people know that North Face is committed to making goods and experiences that are accessible to people with disabilities. This also gives people with disabilities good quality outdoor wear that is tailored to their needs.
Creative Strategy
Target Audience/Prospect Definition:
The target audience is people with disabilities aged 20-35. People with disabilities who want to do outdoor activities but might feel left out because they don't have the right gear are the target audience for this promotion. Our prospect for this campaign is Susan, a 26 year-old woman with sensory sensitivity who still enjoys going on adventures but hasn’t found comfortable clothing to suit her needs. North Face’s comfortable products will help ease Susan’s anxiety before tackling her next adventure.
Principal Competition:
Patagonia, Colombia, Arc'teryx, and REI are some of the direct competitors of North Face having very similar style products and themes in advertisements. Some indirect competitors are Nike, Walmart, and Amazon being that they all sell outdoor wear and products. While there have been efforts in the past to cater to the disabled community, not much widespread success has been found.
Positioning:
North Face wants to be a leader in the outdoor business when it comes to being open to everyone and easy to get to. North Face wants to stand out as a brand that encourages everyone to enjoy the great outdoors by focusing on people with disabilities and emphasizing its dedication to making high-quality outdoor clothing that fits their needs.
Concept:
The concept for the campaign will be primarily fact and demonstration based, showing how everyone should be able to go out and explore, regardless of physical ability. North Face will show their commitment to diversity and inclusivity, with advertisements displaying the different accommodations that support explorers of all abilities.
Tone:
Inclusive, empowering, and respectful is the tone we are trying to achieve to make sure we cater to the disabled community and keep the functionality of a North Face product.
Key Consumer Benefit:
North Face’s mission statement says that it provides the best gear for their athletes and the modern day explorer. There’s not one way to describe the modern day explorer or athlete, and the ‘modern’ athlete can look any type of way. By advertising to people with disabilities, North Face can stay true to its mission statement, and provide gear to and empower different types of athletes.
Reason Why:
North face’s accessibility statement says, “At The North Face, building a culture that respects the dignity and differences in others, is the driving force behind our success. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is supported through our actions, decisions, and initiatives.” North Face is committed to being accessible and welcoming, and its name for quality and new ideas backs this up. The brand has a history of making goods that last long and work well, and its commitment to expanding its product line to meet more needs gives it more credibility in keeping its promise to be welcoming to everyone.
Media plan
This media plan was designed to maximize the reach and impact of our advertising campaign by strategically selecting and allocating resources across various media channels. The goal was to effectively engage our target audience and achieve specific marketing objectives, such as increasing brand awareness and increasing sales in that demographic.
Pictured at Skinner’s Butte- Eugene, Oregon
Pictured at Spencer’s Butte- Eugene, Oregon