A worldwide tech outage on Friday disrupted flights, banks, hospitals and more, as systems crashed leaving only a “blue screen of death” behind.
Global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike’s distribution of its Falcon Sensor software caused Microsoft Windows to crash on machines and servers around the world. The result caused costly chaos and confusion, but it also presented an opportunity for Decathlon.
Working with creative agency partner Rethink, Decathlon moved quickly to send out a message on Friday, shown on screens that look similar to the blue screens that popped up on many Canadians’ computers when Windows crashed. The message called for Canadians to go outside and enjoy a screen-free day, an idea that lines up well with the sporting goods retailer’s brand, which also includes a colour palette similar to the blue seen in Microsoft error messages. The campaign included an offer of 50% off the brand’s outdoor goods.
After waking up to the same news of the tech outage as the rest of the world, Rethink director and national managing partner Alex Lefebvre says the team at the creative agency saw the blue screen of death and thought it looked like Decathlon branding. From there, they pitched an idea to connect the news of the day to a message for people to go outside, which was an opportunity the brand jumped at.
Decathlon Canada director of marketing Marie-Lou Blais says that knowing how Canadians often struggle to find time to get outside, the news seemed like an ideal opportunity to encourage people to unplug.
From there, existing DOOH buys running in Toronto and Montreal and Rethink’s nimble team quickly switching gears creatively, brought the idea to life. To act quickly in this way, if the work is still aligned to a brand’s strategy, is very effective, Lefebvre says.
“A lot of brands try to be reactive for the sake of reactivity. Sometimes it backfires because it feels a bit opportunistic. In this case, the tie-in between what’s happening and what the brand stands for is obvious,” Lefebvre tells strategy.
Office workers not being able to work because of the tech outage was the obvious audience for the creative’s message, but the larger intent is for the work to attain a broader reach and become water-cooler discussion and appear in people’s social media feeds.
Lefebvre adds that Decathlon has picked up on the Canadian work around the world, and compares the potential for growth in this campaign to the brand’s previous “Ability Signs” work with Decathlon. “Ability Signs” reimagined the International Symbol of Access by incorporating different sports like tennis or volleyball into accessibility signage. The effort took off globally, to the point that the French Olympic Committee announced its intention to use the symbols at the 2024 Summer Games.
Overall, the reactive work is also beneficial for Decathlon in Canada because of its status in the country as a challenger brand.
“If they want to gain awareness, consideration and traction in the country… They need to be a bit smart with the way they execute,” Lefebvre says. “It benefits them in the long-term, this being a small step, but overall I think the more we do stuff like this the better it contributes to creating a halo effect around the brand.”
Rethink helped develop the initiative, which was executed along with Cossette Media. The campaign will run in English and French across owned social media and DOOH.
