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Branding

Creative

Engagement

Strategy

Walls Outdoor Goods

The sterile fluorescent lighting. The claustrophobia. The boredom. To make Walls a hero, we turned the indoors into a villain, painting it as oppressive, limiting and draining. In contrast, we positioned Walls as liberators, who supply professional tradesmen with gear built for outdoor work. Our social campaign used bold, quick-hitting headlines over powerful outdoor imagery, in disruptive placements like Facebook carousels and Instagram Stories.&nbsp;

Outside or Die

Campaign materials used tell-it-like-it-is language paired with rugged, in-the-field imagery that proved our gear could walk the walk. A relentless digital campaign of display and pre-roll video ads was rolled out, tested and refined continually. Outdoor executions were a natural place to carry out the new brand, and in-store executions were bold and attention-getting, giving retailers a way to catch attention while reinforcing the campaign with our audience.&nbsp;

Work Outside the Box

A robust digital display campaign with weather-triggered ads helped reinforce the campaign online.&nbsp;

You can’t have an Anti-Indoor brand that doesn’t play well on outdoor media. These bold placements put Walls right where it’s most comfortable: in the elements. And even in cozy retail environments, we helped the audience imagine themselves outdoors in Walls gear.&nbsp;

Standing Up to Mother Nature

More detailed videos put high-priority products front and center and demonstrated how they stood up to the elements.

Working Over Time

Email was used to provide message versatility that we delivered right to our audience’s inbox.&nbsp;

Finishing the Job

This campaign works as hard as its target audience, and the results prove it. Before we rallied against the indoors, Walls had single-digit unaided awareness. Our campaign moved almost half of the audience into highly considering them for their next purchase. We like to call that a job well done. Research showed that, among our target audience:&nbsp;

Pulling a Brand Up by the Bootstraps

viewed Walls as a unique brand, helping it stand out against entrenched players.

said Walls was either “Definitely” or “Probably” for someone like them, meaning we’d connected in a relevant way with our Anti-Indoor message.

would either “Definitely” or “Probably” buy Walls.

One-Boat Challenge

E-Comm Overhaul

Advertising

Content

Mobile

Motion Studio

Positioning

Product Launch

Social Media

Websites

Outdoor Recreation

Minn Kota

Humminbird

Minn Kota and Humminbird have earned a reputation for innovative technologies that save anglers time on the water. Riffing on this core message but taking it in a fresh direction, our team shifted away from a traditional, feature-benefit conversation to something new and more adventurous.&nbsp;

Airlifting a bass boat by helicopter and dropping it into a lake in the heart of Mexico? Now that’s something no brand in the fishing space had dared attempt before. And it was only one scene in this unprecedented competition, carefully crafted to show off Minn Kota and Humminbird fishing technologies in unexpected, visually striking ways.&nbsp;

A Big Idea Was Born

To make the production successful and the resulting integrated campaign even more effective, we sent out a casting call and request for partnerships through our industry and production contacts. The resulting cast included recognizable B.A.S.S. tour pros, multi-species guides, online fishing influencers and real-life anglers from around the U.S.

The Perfect Cast

To help with the production and make the show an industry-wide event, we partnered with other influential fishing brands for wardrobe, tackle, trucks and — most importantly — boats. Then, we gave viewers even more reason to root for our contestants by giving back to the fishing charities of the winning team’s choice.&nbsp;

Strength in Numbers

Digital and social advertising directed traffic to the campaign landing page, where viewers could watch the show. A One-Boat Network product package giveaway helped drive additional page visits, as well as growing the customer database.&nbsp;

A Winning Strategy

Both brands have built a loyal following of anglers, who subscribe to e-newsletters, attend B.A.S.S events and keep up with industry publications. Email was a no-brainer tactic to cross-promote between the brands and activate some of their most fervent fans. We premiered the show at the Bassmaster Classic, fishing’s biggest annual event. A movie poster directed media members to an advance screening, while pull-up banners and flyers were handed to consumers to drive them to the landing page.&nbsp;

Setting the Hook

The hub of the campaign, a landing page housed episodes along with overviews of products featured on the show. These overviews drove users to detail pages on the brands’ e-commerce sites. After gaining momentum on the site and YouTube, the show began airing on three additional media properties: Pursuit Channel (broadcast and streaming), Mossy Oak (streaming only) and Bassmaster.com. This unexpected development helped broaden the show’s reach exponentially.&nbsp;

Bringing It Home

The four-episode series launched with a special screening on the eve of the 2020 Bassmaster Classic, followed by an appearance by cast members on-stage during the first day’s weigh-in.&nbsp;Show momentum spilled over into trade, new media and social coverage. The competition earned a feature story in Fishing Tackle Retailer, complete with the show’s signature image of a bass boat hoisted above the lake by helicopter.

Taking This Show On the Road

What began as a wild idea had become a reality. But did it move the needle for Minn Kota and Humminbird? That’s the question we ask ourselves at the end of every project. And for the One-Boat Challenge, one of the biggest and most audacious ideas ever seen in fishing, the answer is as crystal clear as the sonar returns on a Humminbird fish finder.&nbsp;

Did It Work? Hell yes.

Total Impressions/Reach (Approx. Cost Per Impression of $0.01)

of Viewers Were Somewhat Likely to Purchase from the Brand in the Future

of Surveyed Viewers Thought the Show was Somewhat or Very Enjoyable

Minutes Viewed (Over 56,000 hours)

Ride Over Everything

The Place for Pros

Brand Health

Customer Experience

Email Marketing

Endemic Media

Influencer Marketing

Programmatic Media

Iconic fishing brands <a href="http://www.minnkotamotors.com">Minn Kota®</a> and <a href="http://www.humminbird.com">Humminbird®</a> have long shared a product- and technology-focused marketing philosophy. It’s worked for them. Each owns a sizable share and enjoys the kind of devoted following most other brands covet. But new competitive threats forced these perennial powers to double down on what distinguishes them from their competitors: an unmatched focus on the fishing consumer.&nbsp;

Challenge

Breaking free from the traditional product launch cadence, the teams at Swanson Russell saw an opportunity to get in front of our audience with a disruptive video format more resembling a reality series than a traditional fishing show. The approach showcased existing products and technologies in a new context, tapping into the common bond that exists between fishermen from all walks of life, all over the country and world.

Solution

Walls® Outdoor Goods makes the gear that our nation’s unsung heroes and hardest workers need, from insulated coveralls to weather-resistant work jackets. The problem? Their competitors do, too. And their pockets are deep (not to mention well-constructed and fleece-lined).&nbsp;Up against those behemoths, Walls’ unaided brand awareness didn’t crack double digits. But on the plus side, their younger audience segment was less brand loyal, and willing to try something new if it came from a brand that understood them and what kind of gear they needed.&nbsp;

To find an edge for Walls, Swanson Russell took a hard look at their target audience and how other brands were speaking to them. Everyone else was selling “tough gear for tough guys,” so we dug deeper into that sentiment. We found that these professional tradesmen aren’t just tough enough to work outside — they’re wired to do so. They believe in a life lived outdoors, and view desk jobs as death sentences.&nbsp;