Case Study: Patagonia’s Shell, Yeah! Digital Campaign

Driving product awareness around Patagonia’s new recycled shell collection

In October of 2019 the European Patagonia marketing team approached us to help them with their biggest product campaign of the year. Shell Yeah, as it was known, was focused around all of Patagonia’s shells: so waterproof jackets, ski jackets, alpine shells – basically anything that used water-resistant fabric. 

Patagonia had been working on redeveloping the entire line for some time so that it now incorporates 100% recycled content. Over recent years the brand has been able to refine and improve the way they use recycled materials, meaning there no longer needs to be a reduction in quality or compromise on performance when switching to recycled materials. Plastic bottles are melted down and spun into yarn, post-consumer recycled nylon is chemically altered to make it as good as the original fabric. They find a home for tonnes of useful materials, preventing them from becoming waste.

Patagonia’s Shell, Yeah! trailer was used in social ads to create awareness around the campaign

Putting Shell, Yeah! in front of the right audience

The objective of the Shell, Yeah! campaign was to make potential consumers aware of the new environmental credentials of the Patagonia Shell Yeah line and encourage them to consider a recycled content jacket for their next outdoor adventure. 

We were given the task of promoting the campaign digitally off the back of our previous experience running pan-European multi-platform campaigns for Patagonia over a number of years, such as the Micro Puff and R1 campaigns. Shell Yeah was a big product push for the brand and needed to reach the largest possible relevant audiences, without compromising on the environmental integrity of the brand. The campaign was multifaceted with a number of objectives; it not only needed to educate audiences and contribute to brand awareness, but it also needed to be a successful e-commerce campaign as well.

Creating awareness

Using assets provided by the brand we created various types of ads to help reach these objectives. Starting with social channels such as Facebook and Instagram we used video and canvas (instant experience) ads to create top of the funnel awareness within a multitude of audiences. Interests in sustainable materials and the environment, core sports and pre-existing connections with the brand were all used to build key audiences. The advert creative was delivered in 2 clear phases. The first phase of adverts were tailored to an Alpine focused audience and highlighted the product used in these environments, with the second phase focusing on a snow and winter sport audience. 

Due to the size and importance of the campaign, there was also scope to utilise additional platforms to promote the new line of Patagonia recycled shells. We used both YouTube and Google Display ads to make sure the reach of the campaign went beyond just social media and was shown to people with relevant interests, via video pre-rolls and on key websites that aligned with the brand. Outdoor blogs and retailers were focus sites for these top-of-the-funnel awareness ads.

Examples of different types of social ads used in the Shell, Yeah! campaign

A collaboration with GORE-TEX

Another branch to this campaign was a budget contribution from GORE-TEX, the guys behind the technology used to create the waterproof but breathable membrane on the Patagonia Shell’s fabric. The team at GORE-TEX wanted to contribute to the promotion of the campaign, so we used Gore branded assets in a portion of the creative used across Facebook, Instagram and Google Display ads. These ads utilised product imagery to focus on the commercial and product aspect of the campaign. 

These bottom-of-the-funnel assets were also used as part of an additional eCommerce focus for the campaign. We utilised the engagement garnered through brand awareness ads to then deliver conversion optimised ads to boost product sales. These used audiences created off the initial awareness phase of the campaign and re-engaged consumers who had shown an interest in the campaign further up the funnel. Once again, the e-com portion of the campaign was divided into two phases: alpine and snow.

Results

Our aim for this campaign was to drive product awareness around the Shell, Yeah! collection, primarily focusing on the recycled aspect of the product. This needed to work alongside a collaboration with GORE-TEX whilst also supporting the e-com side of the campaign by ensuring an uplift of product sales.

Across all elements of this campaign including social ads, Google Display and Youtube, the Shell Yeah campaign achieved 66,377,321 impressions across Europe. The eCommerce portion of the campaign achieved fantastic results with a return on ad spend (ROAS) well above the KPI we were working towards. 

The feedback from Patagonia was overwhelmingly positive and they were extremely happy with the results we got.

Do you want to achieve these kinds of results in your next campaign using advanced audience targeting and carefully curated social media advertising funnels? Get in touch to discuss your next project.