Canada Goose is using its history in documentary content to give it a step up as it enters the footwear category.
The apparel brand is known best for its parkas, but with “Forces of Nature,” it advances an approach established in efforts like its “Live in the Open” campaign to unveil its new Journey and Snow Mantra boots.
“Force of Nature” draws on both of the themes prevalent in the earlier “Live in the Open” work – perseverance and resilience – while telling “true stories that come alive and share a powerful calling to get out there, explore and define the path forward,” says Penny Brook, CMO at Canada Goose.
To help deliver that message, the brand has tapped footballer Romeo Beckham (top), Indigenous artist and activist Sarain Fox (at left) and Indigenous leader and former NHL player Jordin Tootoo, each of whom Brook says embodies the message the brand is trying to convey. Tootoo previously worked with the brand in the first season of its “Live in the Open” campaign.
“Their stories are powerful, meaningful and influential,” says Brook. “Each personality’s ability to be one with nature in the campaign helps demonstrate how the performance of Canada Goose footwear enables them to focus on the task at hand and reach their metaphorical summit.”
Those powerful stories were necessary to promote Canada Goose’s entry into footwear, which “was no small feat.”
“We’ve purposely and strategically taken our time. It’s been years in the making – assembling a team, researching, planning, experimenting, designing, testing,” says Brook. “
The campaign was developed by Canada Goose’s internal teams and is being executed internationally with support from the company’s creative agency partner, Virtue. It will be in market from mid-October through to December of this year. North Strategic handled PR in Canada.
The campaign’s video components will run on YouTube, Amazon and Twitch with a paid social component across Tiktok, Facebook and Instagram. The campaign also incorporates “OOH high-impact 3D ad placements and digital projections in key cities globally,” says Brook. Those placements will incorporate a QR code that connects to an AR lens on Snapchat that enables consumers to virtually try on the boots.
Canada Goose will also use its own channels – social media, its website and digital displays in-store – to help tell the “Force of Nature” story, while select stores will offer “interactive and immersive” activations for the new products; at its Sherway Gardens location in Toronto, the apparel maker is rolling out a 3D visual of the Northern Lights above the entryway to its store, while offering a globally exclusive “Coccoon” experience, which Brooks describes as “a crafted vessel that is intended to evoke protection and symbiosis from the Canadian landscape.”
