The Timex Corporation has stuffed four lucky outdoor adventure junkies into a pimped-out 1992 all-wheel-drive Chevy Astro Van stocked with Thule racks full of kayaks, mountain bikes, climbing hardware, as well as and first aid kits and road and topo maps of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and sent them out into the great unknown with specific instructions to “have the time of your life.”
The road trip, dubbed Expedition 4:00AM, is a unique brand communications campaign — part vision quest part community development — designed to further immerse the Expedition brand into the core outdoor lifestyle by evangelizing and celebrating the 4:00AM lifestyle. What is the 4:00AM lifestyle? It is an outdoor junkies ability to plow through lack of sleep, bad micro beer headaches, and 7-11 coffee in order to harvest the best conditions.
“It hurts, but 4:00AM is the time we start our best days,” said Timex Expedition brand manager, Alison Napolitano. “Whether we are bagging a peak, heading out on dawn patrol for waves, in search of untracked powder, or taking off on a road trip to Mexico or to a music festival, the alarm goes off at 4:00AM. I hate it when that happens ”
The Expedition 4:00AM crew will be immersing themselves in 4:00AM culture for the next 5-6 weeks as they travel in and around the Rocky Mountain west. As well as undertaking climbing, paddling, mountain biking, fly fishing, and scrambling expeditions, the Expedition 4:00AM crew will also be having conversations with 4:00AM icons that personify the lifestyle as well as exploring issues and current events that both positively and negatively affect the continuation of the 4:00AM lifestyle, including access and conservation issues and local and regional politics.
The crew is accompanied by a “reporter” charged with chronicling the exploits of the road trip on www.expedition4am.com.
www.expedition4am.com will serve as the crews online journal and communication board. As well as documenting their trials and tribulations, the crew will also be harvesting suggestions from the online 4:00AM community on their itinerary, places to explore, people to meet, beers to try and other tips. The goal is to have this crew explore the places and people that define the lifestyle for the entire 4:00AM community.
The open forum model allows the community to define the 4:00AM lifestyle and the program. “Were providing the infrastructure and framework, the forum members are in charge of taking the reigns and directing the road trip to the places and people they think deserve the recognition, and in doing so will further define the 4:00AM lifestyle,” said Napolitano.
As the road trip and the online community develops, Expedition4am.com will become a harvesting grounds for Expedition spokespersons, heroes, stories, images and videos for use in future Expedition collateral marketing programs.
The Timex Expedition 4:00AM concept was developed and is managed by Base Camp Communications, a Jackson, Wyoming based brand communications firm that specializes in the adventure sports and travel industries.
