Macpac senior brand and campaign marketing manager Maria Glass unpacks the adventure brand's recent rebrand.
Macpac was born in the mountains of Aotearoa/New Zealand – our gear is designed and tested by some of New Zealand’s best alpinists.
We launched an evolved brand campaign to the retail team and the extended leadership team at our retail conference, held in March 2023 in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park – very apt, as our logo is inspired by the silhouette of Mt Cook (New Zealand's highest mountain.
The process started around a year before the production of any brand assets and in response to our growing commercial ambition across New Zealand and Australia.
It involved the introduction of a brand mission, vision and manifesto (internal facing), the re-development of our brand strategy (including our brand platform ‘weather anything’) and refreshed style guide (to ensure consistency of brand).
There was lot of rigour that went into the development of this work – customer research, internal working groups and surveys – which ultimately set the building blocks for the brand campaign to follow.
We worked with multi-award winning Melbourne creative agency The Monkeys on the brand strategy, style guide and campaign – and our inhouse graphic design team rolled out the style guide and elements of the campaign across owned and paid channels.
The TVC was directed by Damien Shatford from Sweetshop.
It created a positive change in the pride the work created, and how the brand shone. Not only this, the broader team at head office (aka Basecamp) and our retail team were fully engaged and welcoming of the campaign.
One of the first challenges we faced at the very onset was striking the right balance between paying homage to our technical heritage and aspirational quality while also grounding our brand in something universal, that could appeal to all outdoor enthusiasts.
Our brand positioning, core elements and personality were all very much shaped as a means of answering into this question – with ‘quality outdoor gear’ very much at the centre and serving as a primary connecting thread.
Another challenge we faced was the sell-in of the brand campaign concept to key internal stakeholders, which was explicitly informed by our brand platform, ‘weather anything’. Our new campaign shows a trio of unfazed hikers dangling from the edge of a cliff - with the help of a Macpac jacket. This deadpan comedic style and distinctive humour isn’t usually seen in the outdoor apparel category.
It was also a departure from where the brand had been, and understandably there was nervousness amongst the team. We had to stand firm in the belief that this literal ‘cliff hanger’ would deliver cut-through and convey what Macpac stood for as a brand.
And we’re pleased we did - this product demonstration, showcased both reliability and provenance (of New Zealand) in an entertaining ad campaign.
The campaign was immediately met with positive reaction from the Australian and New Zealand public, as well as industry and mainstream media. It went on to win a Bronze Lion for Film at Cannes International Festival of Creativity 2023.
The integrated media campaign launched on March 19 this year across Australia and New Zealand on: TV, outdoor, social, online and in-store. Rebel, also in the Super Retail Group family, displayed the hero campaign image in select store windows across Australia. Rebel and BCF stock Macpac product in select stores.
Tuggeranong was the first new store to showcase the confident stacked Macpac logo (from the new style guide),and following this the ‘hiking trio’ started to make an appearance in-store; most recently in the new Bondi store which opened on 7 October.
The store also showed off our distinctive ‘papaya’ hero orange brand colour in pops across the store, and instore messaging reinforcing Macpac’s positioning as ‘New Zealand’s original, technical outdoor brand giving you the confidence and spirit to take on anything’.