Kathmandu’s ‘Summer Never Sleeps’ campaign highlights summer as a time for spontaneity, inspiring people to venture somewhere new, dive into the unexpected and maximise every opportunity to live their best summer yet, even when the sun has gone down.
In September this year, Kathmandu, in partnership with Special New Zealand and Scoundrel, produced a creative campaign that followed a group of friends on their quirky summer adventure from night to day, and into night again.
The campaign is accompanied by the soundtrack of Jimmy, Renda-Se, composed by Tom Zé. The friends roast marshmallows, bike off trail, snoop a merman portrait painting, swim fully clothed, dance, march, and row through the night, all while sporting Kathmandu’s range of purpose-designed, technically advanced, outdoor gear.
The campaign rolled out across TV, digital, social, out of home and PR in New Zealand and Australia from Monday September 26 to Saturday November 19 2022.
Sarah Fischer Letts, head of content solutions at TotallyAwesome says that the light-hearted portrayal of summer nights and adventures with friends is what stood out for her throughout the campaign, stating that it increases the sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) for all audience members, including herself.
Fischer letts: “Who doesn’t dream of warm balmy nights and summer days...Summer is the season that is universally beloved and every year we are greeted with a lot of your stock standard advertising that showcases the stylised imagery of a ‘perfect’ summer, think beautiful people, FOMO inducing locations and stunning scenery. All very lovely, but a bit ho-hum. Along comes this quirky, modern-retro hybrid ad that is 100% ‘out there’ - literally!
“The play on words is perfectly ironic and speaks to Kathmandu’s broad ranging modern-day audience. The eccentric and eye-catching approach, that blends live action, graphic animation and a unique soundtrack in a 24hr whirlwind, makes the audience want to jump on board and experience all that the outdoors has to offer, in their Kathmandu kit no less!”
Lisa Fedyszyn, Special’s executive creative director, attributes the brand's success for ‘Summer never Sleeps’ to the adventurous.
Fedyszyn: “Kathmandu is an adventurous brand and one that stands out, not just in its category, but in everything it does. The Summer Never Sleeps campaign encourages and facilitates everyone to fit in as much as they can over summer because it's most rewarding when you make the most of being out there and staying out there."
Eva Barrett, Kathmandu’s chief customer officer, speaks of the brand's mission to get as many people out and about in the great outdoors as possible.
Barrett: “As the number 1 outdoor brand in Australia and New Zealand we play a meaningful role in summer and we’re on a mission to get as many people ‘out there’ in nature as possible. Why? Because we know how the outdoors makes us feel. The outdoors is transformative. When we spend time out there our stress goes down, our empathy goes up and we become more creative and feel happier… And that’s at any time, not just when the sun is up.”
Fischer Letts credits the positive response to the campaign to its innovative way of embracing fresh, nuanced perspectives.
Fischer Letts: “Audiences are jaded, they embrace innovation, we want fresh perspectives! We are wired to be intrinsically hopeful, and humour is a device to drive home that belief and when brands embrace humour it’s a winning combo.
“The Kathmandu ‘Summer Never Sleeps’ campaign does all this and more, it appeals to a youth audience, because they see representation, fun and adventure and for an older audience, they see inspiration, nostalgia, and a sense of ‘I’m still in this game and I still wanna play!” Kathmandu have nailed it in this one #letsgetoutthere.”
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