As part of its 360-marketing effort, menswear etailer Frank & Oak is unveiling its first advertising campaign.
The creative, including videos, posters and magazine ads, features three individuals, who company co-founders Ethan Song and Hicham Ratnani feel embody the Frank & Oak brand ethos.
“The main focus is to communicate our brand values and positions, and to leverage these new channels to give us a more multi-dimensional way to build that relationship with customers,” said Song. This is a fresh approach for the company, he said, which has always focused solely on digital communications.
The campaign was created in-house. Its portraits and videos highlight the lives and thought processes of what the company dubbed “some of today’s most inspiring movers and shakers,” including world champion DJ A-Trak; environmentalist and social entrepreneur, Philippe Cousteau Jr.; and celebrated chef Danny Bowien.
“We’ve always worked with artists and entrepreneurs who are known, but also who are kind of under the radar,” said Song. “The idea is the people from this generation are not defined by one thing, we all have multiple dimensions.”
In the print ads and posters, the trio are well dressed and poignant, featured alongside the tagline: “For the Journey Ahead.”
The print ads will run in the November issues of Vice, Monocle, Details and Fast Company—major publications that Frank & Oak believe talk directly to its target audience. Poster versions of the ads will be plastered guerilla-style around New York and San Francisco—there are no plans for a Canadian dispatch.
“We are exploring a lot of new channels, but it is still very targeted with specific niche magazines and cities,” said Song. The postering, he said, will focus on “raw and interesting” neighbourhoods.
The Frank & Oak campaign also includes three videos, co-produced by Vice Media, which are to run on Vice.com and its related properties, as well as Frank & Oak’s homepage.
The first, featuring DJ A-Trak, launched Wednesday on Vice’s music site, Noisey. The Philippe Cousteau Jr. video will be unveiled Nov. 4 on Motherboard and Danny Bowien’s on Munchies Nov. 18.
The Montreal-based company launched nearly three years ago, offering custom men’s collections, sold exclusively to an online membership. Today, Frank & Oak has more than 1.6 million members and about 70% of its sales are in the United States, where it has made significant inroads in the California and the northeast.
Closer to home, Frank & Oak is preparing to open its second brick and mortar location, on Queen West in Toronto, on November 13.
“It was a natural fit for us to look at Toronto and it fits the culture of our brand,” said Song. “We have always wanted to create a brand that was accessible, but also very personal—for us it’s about how we use physical space to be a better advisor to our customers.”
