At a conference dedicated to digital marketing, Canada Goose CMO Kevin Spreekmeester confessed he felt slightly out of place.
“My knowledge on digital is really minimal,” he said to open his session at day one of Dx3 in downtown Toronto.
Digital is a powerful tool when it comes to instantaneous feedback, but it is just one channel, he said. And when it came time to build the Canada Goose digital strategy, he said his starting point above all, was using digital to tell stories that stay true to the brand.
“We try to be authentic, everyone talks about being an authentic brand, but we have done it and I think quite effectively by staying true to our messaging.”
That often means saying no to many of the offers the brand gets, including the invitations from fashion weeks around the world. “We recognize we are a fashionable brand, but we are not a fashion brand. We have to be disciplined and say no.”
“Today we believe consumers want three things: they want honesty, truth and they want us to be real.”
Spreekmeester shared three different examples of how Canada Goose has adhered to these principles.
When Canada Goose first arrived in Scandanavia more than 10 years ago, consumers took to the brand immediately. But over time, he said, the company started to lose its way a bit. As a brand all about the outdoors and nature, it started showing up in stores it didn’t really belong in and on consumers who didn’t match the brand ethos. “We became a little bit too street,” he said.
The solution was to re-establish its connection as a true outdoor brand with the “Free Air Life” campaign that launched late last year — three short films that explore “the spirit of Friluftsliv”– a Norwegian word loosely meaning a connection with nature. Each of the richly cinematic shorts focused on a different person sharing the story of their love with and connection to the outdoors.
Digital was the starting point for distribution before it was extended to other media, said Spreekmeester. “The important thing was to capture the spirit of the brand.”
Similarly when Canada Goose was approached by filmmaker Greg Kohs about being part of a feature length documentary on champion dog sled racer, Lance Mackey, they saw a good fit for the brand. “We don’t’ have brand ambassadors, we have what we call Goose People,” said Spreekmeester. “We believe they live and breathe for something bigger than themselves.”
Mackey is a cancer survivor whose treatment left him unable to feel his extremities — a particular danger for any athlete who competes in extreme cold.
“[Kohs] said [Canada Goose is] going to be in it anyway, but if we create this together you can take these elements and use them across channels.”
By signing on to help get the film made, Canada Goose ended up with a wealth of extremely shareable content for digital distribution, but also produced print ads used during the Toronto International Film Festival.
Finally, Spreekmeester explained how even the brand’s connection with movie stars and Hollywood evolved authentically. “[Consumers] see us on film and TV and they think we have paid for placement, but we didn’t,” he said.
It happened because Canada Goose was the coat of choice with film crews looking to stay warm on overnight shoots. From there they became the warm-up coat for actors as they came off set. Stylists began to notice and started putting the coats in cold-weather movies like The Day After Tomorrow and Eight Below.
“We believe consumers are smart and we believe they understand real and authentic and product placement,” he said.
Marketing at Canada Goose is all about relationships and digital is really great at that, particularly one on one relationships through social, he said. But digital is just one channel Canada Goose uses to tell it’s stories.
“Digital is fantastic, but it is not the saviour,” he said, before closing with an invitation to attendees to help build the brand online.
“We are looking for a director of digital strategy,” he said.
Dx3 continues Thursday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre with a day full of speakers including Keith Wachtel, the NHL’s executive vice-president, global partnerships; Keith Hernandez, vice-president of global advertising at BuzzFeed and Jeff Cook, chief product officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op.
