The North Face: Futurelight 'Made To Defy'

CAMPAIGN | ART DIRECTION | DESIGN | DIGITAL

DEFY THE PAST, WEAR THE FUTURE

The North Face wanted to push the boundaries of what it meant to be an outdoor brand and showcase its newest and most advanced breathable-waterproof material made with nano-spinning technology. Tested in the world’s toughest conditions, FUTURELIGHT is the first of its kind: waterproof gear that feels so soft it’s like a second skin, breathes as hard as you do, and defies what a breathable-waterproof fabric can be.

To celebrate FUTURELIGHT, we developed a 360 multi-channel campaign that ranged from content films, print, digital, social, and augmented reality. While there were a lot of moving pieces to this project and many hands on deck, I was able to own a large part of the digital executions that occurred after our initial launch. Working closely with one of our creative directors, I conceived and art-directed the implementation of our campaign assets across digital and social platforms, which helped to educate, inform, and entice people to learn more. The final result was a campaign that inspired people to defy their own limitations and explore the future with an awakened curiosity to take on the impossible.

This became one of the brand's biggest campaigns to date – observing a +676% increase in revenue compared to 2018 and achieving $1.8M in total sales within one month of the launch.

PRESS CALL OUT

Iconography

BETTER BREATHABILITY

Ultra-thin nanomembrane creates airflow while keeping water out.

INNOVATIVE WATERPROOF

Rigorously tested to withstand the harshest weather conditions.

SUPERIOR SOFTNESS

Soft, lightweight, and nimble for movement without constraints.

SUSTAINABILITY DRIVEN

With face and back layers crafted with 90% recycled materials, it’s our most sustainability-produced fabric to date.

PROVEN DURABILITY

Tested by our elite athlete team in the world’s most extreme environments.

Key Visualstton on the top right. Have Fun!

Digital & Social

FACEBOOK INSTANT EXPERIENCE HIGH IMPACT UNIT

FACEBOOK AR PARTNERSHIP

To extend the FUTURELIGHT narrative and demonstrate its weather defying jacket technology, we collaborated with a third-party vendor to create an AR experience that would live in Facebook feeds. Within the world-facing lens, users could see the jacket nano-spin its way into space, drag and pinch to position, and toggle between snow and rain effects. Users could also zoom into the jacket at a nano-view to see the jacket's advanced waterproofness and breathability.

AR EXPERIENCE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ATLANTIC

To show FUTURELIGHT's impact in the mountain performance category, we decided to tell the story of The North Face athletes, Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison's expedition up Lhotse – the world's fourth-largest mountain – in an immersive way. To do so, we collaborated with The Atlantic to develop an augmented reality (AR) experience, which would be activated when our custom magazine spread was scanned with a phone's camera. It would trigger a digital version of the mountain to emerge from the spread into 3D space and users could see a rendering of Hilaree and Jim’s expedition.

Throughout the experience, users are provided with information to learn more about how FUTURELIGHT helped the athletes along their journey. The AR experience was also accompanied by two articles – a profile of Hilaree and Jim, and the second an interview with Jason Israel, the Group Creative Director at The North Face.