Why Columbia Sportswear Went Wild

Sometimes it’s worth taking a walk on the wild side and, having done just that, Columbia Sportswear’s brand repositioning has already gone down a storm. Released in August, ‘Engineered for Whatever’ featured an unexpectedly irreverent tone that embraced the potential chaos of the great outdoors, featuring real-life stunt people proving the strength of its clothing.

For 87 years, the outdoor clothing brand has stayed true to its mission: crafting meticulously engineered gear proven in the planet’s harshest conditions. This enduring commitment has led to the development and patenting of dozens of proprietary technologies, elevating performance across hiking, fishing, skiing, and running.

With echoes of Jackass, it's hard to think of a recent brand campaign quite like it - and that’s why it feels special. It’s certainly a new direction for creative partner adam&eveDDB to take.

The main film that launches the brand platform features snippets from various outdoor activities going wrong, from attacking snakes, cartoon vultures chasing a hot dog, to a cameo from mountaineer Aron Ralston getting his other arm caught between rocks. “Not again,” he complains to camera, referencing the incident that cost him his right hand. Even the Grim Reaper makes an appearance. This is a campaign that is entirely about entertaining its target consumers.

It aims to recapture the surprisingly tough tone of the campaigns that made Columbia Sportwear's name in the 80s and 90s, such as ‘One Tough Mother’, which featured the late chairwoman and matriarch Gert Boyle and the rest of the team trialling products.

It follows the introduction of a new roadmap by the senior team of the family-owned business two years ago. The ‘ACCELERATE’ growth strategy is an initiative designed to attract younger and more active consumers through a shift in product and marketplace strategies.

And within months of release, the brand platform is already showing signs of success with Columbia Sportswear reporting an increase of 1 per cent in net sales to $943.4m for its third quarter in November.

“The launch of our new brand platform, ‘Engineered for Whatever,’ was a major milestone, celebrating the extremes of outdoor adventure and rekindling the brand’s irreverent spirit from the ’80s and ’90s. The early response has been overwhelmingly positive, and we intend to build upon that momentum with a robust pipeline of differentiated activations and other media investments during the important holiday sales period ahead,” commented chairman, president, and CEO Tim Boyle.

A new roadmap for marketing

The introduction of ‘ACCELERATE’ followed an internal discussion around what Columbia Sportswear stood for. This reflection resulted in the introduction of six new pillars that would help drive growth for Columbia Sportswear - among those, two were focused on marketing. One around developing the brand and another that placed the customer at the heart of its communications.

Every part of the business remains close to the Boyle family’s heart and scrutiny, even its marketing, which is overseen by EVP and Columbia brand president Joe Boyle, grandson of Gert.

This family ownership has allowed Columbia Sportswear to develop its own tone of voice and point of view on the outdoor sports industry, explains Romain Cancilleri-Michy, senior brand marketing manager for Europe.

The line itself, ‘Engineered for Whatever’ emanated from a piece of print work that outlined that the company didn’t just make clothes, they engineered them from its research and development department and by patenting products. He believes that it shows a deep caring for the quality of the company’s products and in preparing customers for dealing with the unknown when entering nature.

“The outdoors does not belong anymore to the outdoor brands,” states Cancilleri-Michy, explaining that it is no longer a niche sector, but one many brands have crossed into. “You can be a car company or an insurance company. The outdoors is really big and it’s really nice for everyone, and when you enter any other outdoors company you see that ‘sea of sameness’”.

He believes that as a brand with a strong history and an authoritative tone of voice, Columbia Sportswear can grow its audience share in the sector, and that it speaks to different generations of outdoor lovers without patronising them.

Walking the talk

With a platform that boldly positions Columbia Sportswear’s products as safety solutions for even extreme circumstances, the brand felt it necessary to support the main film with films of wild stunts that would be shared by audiences, but also showcase their apparel. And to attract a younger audience, they had to be funny as well.

One of the supporting films features comedic warning messages at the start of each featured stunt. One of the videos features a woman inside a giant snowball [see below], which is rolled down the side of a mountain towards a set of bowling pins. Spoiler: she lives, but it’s a bit of a disaster.

“Who are the best people to test something which is not supposed to be tested? A stuntman or a stuntwoman. So they become our new spokespeople where we can put them in a situation to test the product, but of course, we also say that you should never treat the product that way. It's not exactly be reality, but you can see it actually happening.” says Cancilleri-Michy.

And those online videos were followed up in October, just before Halloween, with a social film that featured a return for the Grim Reaper, this time acting as a collaborator.

‘Death Wishes’ sees the spectre front the film while chatting to fans about a limited-edition Powderkeg II  jacket, sharing that “Columbia makes its gear so tough it could outlive you.” That’s because the jacket includes a legally binding Will & Testament stitched into the lining.

“They had a lot of creative freedom,” says Cancilleri-Michyo of working with adam&eveDDB to develop the work. “We may have said that as a concept to keep pushing it further so we can see where we can go. We can play with it, and the advertising identity can become a partner to brands in different ways from just being a creative role. They also help us to simplify things.”