Sheridan has teamed up with Fabric\TBWA to take over the beaches of Australia this summer via the release of ‘State of Drift’.
The distinctly Australian brand for luxurious living drifted a 249 square metre beach towel on Sydney Harbour.
The campaign encourages consumers to find their state of drift with thousands of Sheridan beach towels given away throughout November at beaches across the country.
The campaign is live nationally across social, digital, OOH, eDM and instore.
Gemma Rees, managing partner of Fabric\TBWA spoke about the agency’s desire to stand out and avoid going straight to market with a generic Christmas campaign.
Rees: “The beginning of summer and the build-up to Christmas is notoriously a cluttered, and noisy period with retailers — and an overwhelming time for consumers.
“We wanted to cut through the noise; instead of going to market with a Christmas campaign, we wanted to position Sheridan as a lifestyle brand for summer. Specifically, we wanted to create a platform that would help Sheridan create an ownable brand connection to Australian summer.
“Summer’s always a time to unwind (and do so joyfully), but this year it’s needed more than ever — as a whole, Australians are ready to let our hair down.
“We wanted this campaign to create a feeling that Sheridan could own. A feeling of relaxation, and a collective “exhalation”. A ‘State of Drift’.”
Fabric\TBWA creative partner, Keenan Motto, said: “We had a unique opportunity to position Sheridan as a brand at the forefront of Australian minds this summer.
“We created an impactful, visual activation, bringing to life a new form of summer leisure — drifting. We wanted to create an experience that is both mesmerising and relaxing to watch.”
Rees spoke candidly about the creative team harnessing the power of a visual spectacle throughout the development of the campaign.
She said: “The overarching intent of the campaign was to encourage people during the hype of summer to relax, to let go and to ‘exhale’ with Sheridan.
“We did this by creating a visual spectacle and artistic representation that not only embodied the Sheridan brand, but also the feeling we wanted to evoke.
“Our featured talent were professional dancers and models, who worked with a choreographer to develop a routine that was elegant and effortless, reflecting the feeling of relaxation we sought to convey.
“There were a lot of logistics at play to pull this off, not only because we had a huge floating barge on Sydney Harbour — and drones to capture the footage — we also needed to factor in the changeable weather conditions.
"We wanted to ensure we captured the essence of an Australian summer’s day (one without La Nina), and that production (including talent, crew and product) was safe and dry out on the water.
“We pulled together a trusted and collaborative team, including our production partner Collider, crew and talent with experience to execute our ambition.
“That trust was essential considering the majority of the team was directing and managing from separate boats surrounding the barge.”
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