Eddie Bauer 100 Year Anniversary Tour & Campaign.
With a reputation dating back to 1920, Eddie Bauer has celebrated a rich history of innovation and inspiration in the outdoors. From developing the first American patented down jacket to outfitting the first American ascent of Mt. Everest, Eddie Bauer has always challenged nature lovers to find themselves outside.
To celebrate a milestone 100-year anniversary in 2020, AMP Agency worked with Eddie Bauer to develop a 360-degree campaign, including a touring pop-up activation in several American cities, a touring photo booth activation near select Eddie Bauer stores, and a robust social media campaign.
THE PARTS
1. Mobile Gear Shop Pop-Up
2. In-Mall Photo Kiosk Pop-Up
3. Digital Ad Campaigns
MY ROLE
Lead Environmental Designer
-and-
Social Media Strategy Support
Mobile
Tour.
First part of this 100 year anniversary campaign is a mobile pop-up tour. We need to activate in ten cities across the USA to sell Eddie Bauer gear, educate the public on Eddie Bauer history, and generally celebrate the centennial milestone.
Sky’s the limit on our first ideas. All the client wants is a no-holds-barred, top-tier experience. Excellent. Let’s tell these people Eddie Bauer’s gear is rugged. That it’s trustworthy. Let’s encourage the cityfolk to get their butts outside. Heck, let’s bring the outside to them. We’re going to use natural, sturdy materials. Trustworthy finishes. The look is utilitarian, tried and true. But earthy. Unpretentious, and unmistakably Eddie.
ROUND 1 CONCEPTS
Inspired by James Turrell’s skyspace at UW. And by shipping containers. And poolside cabanas? This custom-fabricated gear-library-in-a-box folds shut and easily loads on to a flatbed truck for the ultimate in mobile utility. The interior features gear displays, while the exterior has a point of sale and chillax zone for guests to congregate.
Box Module.
Fold-A-Tent.
Does it get more obvious than building a giant tent to promote your outdoor gear? Do I even get credit for coming up with a shape so obvious? Another custom-fabricated, foldy-modular box takes advantage of the iconic tent shape, while also giving room for the triangular 100 Year Anniversary badge to shine. The Fold-A-Tent was the client’s pick coming out of round 1.
FOLD-A-TENT RENDERING
Round Two.
Okay, maybe there was a limit. Turns out, there’s a budget when you’re building custom fabrication. Who knew metal was so expensive! (I should have known metal was so expensive.) The vibe from the first round was spot-on though. Client loved the natural wood finishes and the triangular shapes to match the campaign logo. Let’s just try to pare it back a little? Capture the same energy for 2/3 the price, maybe?
ROUND 2 CONCEPT
Lean-To.
Trying to keep with the triangle tent look, but thinking mainly about material and build cost for this one. This lean-to concept would be assembled from wood trellis walls and fold completely flat for transport. An interior cleat-shelf system would allow for modular merchandising that could be reconfigured for any stop along the mobile tour.
LEAN-TO RENDERING
Budget Cuts.
And now comes the time for the balancing act. As we approach the brass tacks of production, it’s apparent we’re going to have to trade custom fabrication for more stops on our tour. And you know what? That’s totally fine. All we can afford is a custom-kitted shipping container, but joke’s on the finance fates, because shipping containers were in my original round one mood boards. So let’s go ahead and make the coolest shipping container you’ve ever bought socks from. We’re even going to put VR headsets in there, just in case you don’t have time to summit Everest this weekend.
ROUND 3 CONCEPT
Shipping Container.
I’ll admit: a shipping container does solve a lot of logistical problems despite the abject lack of excitement as compared to a fully custom fabricated build. So, to make up for the lack of exterior excitement, I’ve designed a very exciting, fully custom interior! Meant to evoke a retail feeling, this shipping container features a VR exhibit with interactive brand history, a photo booth, and tons of shelving.
SHIPPING CONTAINER RENDERING
AND INTERIOR ELEVATIONS
✿ ✦ ✽
Mall Kiosk.
The second, parallel component of the Eddie Bauer 100 Year Anniversary is a mall kiosk pop-up tour. With a slightly smaller physical scale, but higher number of stops on tour, this activation created similar (but not identical) dilemmas to the larger mobile tour. With the main goal of engaging customers and directing them to Eddie Bauer stores, the kiosk needed to be recognizably Eddie, but universally fun.
MALL KIOSK CONCEPTS
This design needed to be a spiritual echo of the main event branding, and evoke the design language of the mobile tour vehicle. Many concepts revolved around mimicking the triangle logo, and incorporating the slatted design language as seen in later versions of the mobile vehicle build. Due to the activation being a photo booth, it was necessary to balance larger light-shielding with the capability of nimble deployment for on-site staff.
MALL KIOSK RENDERINGS
I played around with a few different concepts based off various stages of the mobile tour vehicle design, but ultimately we chose a simpler design that evoked the Slat Cabin. The balance of a light-controlled environment coupled with easy-to-transport materials made the mall kiosk a slam dunk. It was also the only piece from the tour that was fabricated before COVID hit, and lemme tell ya, it was super cute.
✿ ✦ ✽
Digital.
And the final element to this campaign was a fairly robust social media activation. I was lucky to work with a very talented, dedicated social media team and assist them in ideating for an Instagram instant experience, an AR filter, and some paid social ads. All mocked up by yours truly.
INSTAGRAM INSTANT EXPERIENCE
✿ ✦ ✽
INSTAGRAM AR FILTER
PAID SOCIAL ADS
Mock up.
Reality…
National Park dating app concept.
Little photo tour for locations the
activations would pop up.
Design your own silhouette if you
can’t visit the mall kiosk!