Helly Hansen has launched its inaugural digital-first campaign promoting its new ‘alive’ message to drive brand awareness and affinity amongst skiers. The integrated creative and media strategy has been developed collaboratively between WPP’s Grey and Maxus, and the activity will run across the UK, US, Canadian, Swedish and Norwegian markets.

The campaign uses a contextually-driven approach to leverage programmatic to its full strategic and creative potential. The activity targets ski enthusiasts during six crucial ‘media moments’ of the customer journey, from inspiration and research all the way through to product purchase. These moments, identified by Maxus, allowed Maxus and Grey to develop a media approach and creative executions that are meaningful and relevant to the audience.

The digital films bring to life how Helly Hansen makes professional grade gear to help people stay and feel alive, showcasing Helly Hansen clothing being worn by professionals and enthusiasts in their winter pursuits. 

The video content will be served programmatically as well as being hosted on the Helly Hansen website. The activity will be supported by digital display in UK, Canada, Sweden, Norway and US, as well as a cinema campaign in Norway. The campaign is live now and will run until January 2017.

Joumana Løvstad, Director of Brand Marketing at Helly Hansen, stated: “We wanted to create a campaign that moved away from our traditional print activity in order to connect with consumers on both an emotional and rational level. The campaign is driven by moments uncovered through our consumer research, helping us to not only punch above our weight in key markets such as Norway and Sweden, but also boost brand awareness throughout the UK, the US and Canada by leveraging efficiencies of a digital first approach that taps into programmatic.”

Nick Vale, Worldwide Head of Planning at Maxus, commented: “For some, ‘programmatic’ is just a line on the media plan. For us, it is the vehicle to deliver on bigger strategic thinking and targeting that has shaped how Maxus and Grey have collaborated and delivered on our respective specialisms.

“The Alive activity is the first time that Helly Hansen has used a digital and video focused campaign following a complete overhaul of the brand’s media strategy. The moments-based approach, based on extensive consumer research from Maxus and Grey, allows us to leverage programmatic more strategically and creatively to target consumers in a more nuanced and multi-dimensional way. This close collaboration has been developed to best deliver the consumer context and demonstrate Helly Hansen’s core messaging, while engaging with its audiences on a deeper level.”

Alistair Green, Grey’s Global Planning Partner said, “Helly Hansen is a great brand with rich heritage and exceptional technological know-how – the approach we took to communication had to reflect this. We created something special and outstanding through a combination of original content that reflects the essence of the brand, and an innovative approach to content distribution via the use of programmatic. It’s a true case study for the benefits of a collaborative and integrated approach.”

Maxus was awarded Helly Hansen’s media account in 2016.