Building on a rich history of environmental action and innovation that includes planting one million trees in China’s Horqin Desert, developing the Earthkeepers™ line of environmentally-forward products and launching an online “Earthkeepers movement,” Timberland announced its biggest and most environmentally-focused marketing campaign yet— Nature Needs Heroes.
Launching globally over the next several weeks, the campaign showcases Timberland’s Earthkeepers collection, made with materials like recycled rubber and recycled PET (1.5 plastic bottles are used in each pair of Earthkeepers boots). The Nature Needs Heroes campaign also seeks to inspire consumers to consider what actions they might take to be «heroes» for the outdoors themselves.
Specific elements of the Nature Needs Heroes campaign include:
«Lost Bottle» advertising: Depicts how even small acts can make a difference when one environmentally-heroic moment (recycling a runaway water bottle) becomes an adrenaline-fueled outdoor experience. Television ads will air in Europe, Asia and North America during high-profile live sports and prime time and late night programs. Print advertising will appear in Europe throughout the fall.
Nature Needs Heroes microsite: Playing off the humorously heroic focus of the «Lost Bottle» advertising, the microsite suspends time and takes site visitors into a frozen moment using 360-degree imagery and high definition 3D technology.
Retail windows: Timberland takes the 3D technology from the Nature Needs Heroes microsite straight to the street in select Timberland retail stores worldwide. Store windows feature oversized 3D graphics which consumers can experience using complimentary 3D glasses (made with recycled materials) available in store. Point-of-purchase displays depict an x-ray into the Earthkeepers 2.0 boot—a visual representation of Timberland’s commitment to product transparency, which also highlights the company’s use of recycled and renewable materials.
Virtual forest: Under the Nature Needs Heroes banner, consumers can create their own heroic moments on Facebook with the new Timberland Earthkeepers «Virtual Forest» app. Users are invited to create their own forest (or join a friend’s), which will result in Timberland planting live trees in Haiti to supplement its reforestation project there. Due to launch in late September, the application will also showcase a series of videos that chronicle the tree planting projects that Timberland has established in Gonaives, Haiti.
The campaign broke yesterday, September 2, when the Nature Needs Heroes microsite launched and store windows were unveiled in the U.S.