At a press event held on Governor's Island in New York City, Timberland previewed its biggest and most environmentally-focused marketing campaign yet – Nature Needs Heroes.
Showcasing its Earthkeepers collection, which is made with materials like recycled rubber and recycled PET, the campaign employs outdoor imagery and light-hearted humor to drive home the message that “small acts of environmental action” can make a difference. In one “Lost Bottle” TV ad, a man is seen scrambling across the tops of trains and others precarious points to fetch an empty plastic water bottle.
“It's really about better communicating what the Timberland brand is all about, including our use of recycled materials,” said Brian McGovern, senior marketing manager and head of social and digital media for the brand in North America, in an interview with The B.O.S.S. Report.
The campaign marks a much more aggressive TV buy than in the recent past. Targeting young men, the TV ads will be running this fall on ESPN; Comedy Central; Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's irreverent late-night slate; and G4, a channel for young men into video gaming. Print will also be featured much more than recently although the focus will be on women with a major placement in the U.S. in Lucky magazine. On the digital side, high profile partnerships include outlets such as pandora.com; Massive; MTV.com; and lastfm.com.
“These are our target consumer passion points,” McGovern told BOSS. “Our customer spends a lot of time online, a lot of time on their mobile phones, and in gaming.”
On Facebook, an Earthkeepers “Virtual Forest” application allows users to create their own forest – or join a friend's, which will result in Timberland planting live trees in Haiti to supplement its reforestation project there.
McGovern said the brand's entry into social media about a year ago has confirmed that Timberland has “a very global audience.” Among its top cities of Facebook followers, half are still in Europe. Later that day, the marketing team would be sending out images from Governor's Island event.
Attendees at the event were offered free bike rides to explore the island as well as offered trees to plant when they went home.
“Social media just ties into everything we're doing,” said McGovern. “The dialog has changed. We don't broadcast to consumers anymore and there was a dialog about Timberland that was going on with consumers and we wanted to be part of it. We have a very engaged consumer audience.”
Other parts of the campaign include a Nature Needs Heroes microsite featuring 360-degree imagery and high definition 3D technology to showcase its humorous commercials. The 3D technology from the Nature Needs Heroes microsite will also be incorporated in store windows at select Timberland retail stores worldwide. Customers will be given 3D glasses to explore the windows. Point-of-purchase displays also depict an x-ray into the Earthkeepers 2.0 boot, a visual representation of Timberland's commitment to product transparency, which also highlights the company's use of recycled and renewable materials.
But beyond the sustainability emphasis, the campaign will also promote the outdoors. Grassroots initiatives are being planned for Bend, OR; Seattle, WA and other areas.
“We held this event on Governor's Island to get New York media out of their city surroundings for a bit,” said McGovern, adding, “The campaign does put emphasis on the use of recycled materials in our products and the sustainability message but it's an ever increasing focus on the outdoors. It all reinforces the values we stand for and how we put our products together.”
Meanwhile, Timberland relaunched its website last week. Beyond the Earthkeepers microsite, it features links a women's fashion microsite as well as a Heritage microsite.
The Heritage site includes videos of company Chairman Sidney Swartz discussing the brand's origins.
At the Clinton Global Initiative held in New York last week, his son and CEO, Jeff Swartz, also reiterated Timberland's goal to plant five million trees over the next five years. That goal will also be seen in some campaigns as an aspirational message around sustainability.
