In your hands
Long-standing client Garmin came to Make Studio to communicate the versatility of the new Fenix GPS watch within the outdoor market. Their focus was on promoting the product’s wide range of features: from simple data such as altitude, GPS coordinates and temperature, to the more advanced functions including heart rate monitoring, breadcrumb and navigation tracking. The campaign’s aims were focused on achieving market growth of the existing Garmin customer base.
The aim with this was to reinforce the company position as the premium go-to choice within each of the brand’s vertical sectors. The Garmin marketing team were looking for a campaign centred firmly in audience connection. To successfully engage with the significant, diverse customer audience, we needed to create an authentic voice under the brand’s In The Moment umbrella brand message. The campaign was based around creating a compelling product influencer film and supporting assets.
See how we brought brand ambassadors together for The Mountain.
Sports tracking on another level
Garmin have a long and successful history in the outdoor sports technology market. They are a household name and the stand- out leader within the professional and semi-professional personal sports tracking market. The Fenix is their versatile personal fitness-tracking device, ideal for extreme outdoor sports performance monitoring. Crafted from premium-grade materials, the watch is made for rugged adventure, yet styled to work as an everyday wearable. The Fenix can be used across a range of disciplines including running, hiking, mountaineering and extreme alpine exploration.
Connecting on an emotional level
We worked closely with the Garmin Product Management team to better understand their customers, looking at their specific disciplines, motivations and environments. We knew we needed to create a captivating campaign that promoted the product features whilst appealing across the market, from absolute amateurs to semi- professionals, and covering a wide range of activities.
To create a truly emotionally connected campaign we took an authentic approach, capturing in-the-moment imagery and creating a series of interview films and a single, collage-style film.
Make began by identifying brand ambassadors for each of the activities. We engaged sporting affiliates who were respected professionals in their field, natural on-screen storytellers who were able to describe their passion for their discipline and how the Garmin Fenix supported their individual journey.
Using honest narratives from these genuine advocates, and with a focus on emotional intelligence, we created a story that layered technical information and motion graphics, on top of a beautifully filmed story, to showcase the technical features of the watch.
Honest layered narratives
The individual stories – sensitively and honestly filmed – follow professionals, each selected as leading influencers in their field, and include: Christof Schellhammer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Ferdinand Thies, Simone Moro, and Sebastien Camus.
The final film execution The Mountain brings together a group of micro stories based around various Garmin ambassadors, each of whom excel in their own field. The film utilises footage from five interviews and brings in additional characters representing different activities across the range of the mountain.
The story begins at the base of the mountain, with an emotive soundtrack, and follows the two mountaineers featured as the main campaign focus.
Their stories are interwoven with those of a lone hiker and an endurance mountain runner, captured at different altitudes and points across the mountain. The film is overlaid with motion graphic representations of the characters’ personal tracking data, illustrating the live information the device is recording and displaying, and showing how the product enables them to achieve more.
We created high quality product visualisations through CGI renders ahead of the final production of the Fenix, and these images were utilised throughout the films and across other marketing collateral. In support of The Mountain launch, we also led a print advertising campaign and delivered point of sale material all under the evocative campaign statement ‘for what you’re about to achieve’
Before and after images of photography and CGI helping bring the product to market ahead of production.
Driving global sales
The launch of The Fenix was a huge international success. Through a targeted approach The Mountain campaign created global reach to a wide market of sporting enthusiasts. Collectively the films received over 120,000 YouTube views, and counting, and as a direct result of the campaign Garmin reported a significant sales increase of 15.5% in international sales.
Furthermore, the campaign inspired messaging that is now used across Garmin’s advertising, and marked the beginning of the company’s influencer marketing approach, which remains at the heart of their strategy today.
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