Overview

Timberland is a brand for adventurers and nature lovers. Timberland’s tree logo highlights its core belief: a greener future is a better future. While a lot of brands are only just jumping on the eco-consciousness trend, Timberland has been focused on sustainability for decades and it’s currently on a mission to plant 50 million trees by 2025. 

The brand purpose had to be translated in a meaningful, purposeful, and engaging 360° campaign leveraging on all communication touch points, with the goal of gaining relevance with the next generation of consumers.

The Challenge

In an era where climate change has become one of the world’s most important issues, the sustainability and consciousness trend has been a key theme driving many brands’ messaging. Indeed, there has been an over-saturation of outdoor and nature related elements in ADV campaigns.

In this scenario, the challenge for Timberland was to stand out as the brand that steps up, takes responsibility and inspires a movement that could actually make a difference in people’s everyday lives.

The Insight

Consumers aren’t just making decisions based on product selection or price; they’re now assessing what a brand says, what it does, what it stands for.

A 2019 Nielsen study found that 81% of respondents “felt strongly that companies should help improve the environment”. The report said further that Millennials, Gen Z and Gen X are the most supportive, but their older counterparts aren’t far behind. Consumers are looking for brands that have a purpose and want to help the world.

The Idea

Nature Needs Heroes is Timberland’s call for change, a movement made of multi-disciplinary change-makers. We involved 12 individuals recognized as “heroes” within their communities because of their commitment to the environment: artists, photographers, urban eco planners, and landscape architects, with a simple but strong message: “Small actions can make a big impact”. 

The creativity brought the FW19 collection to life through the heroes, shooting the main campaign in Berlin, juxtaposing the city and the outdoors.Real people were asked to join forces in a “greening movement” that relies on everyone’s small actions to trigger a revolution on a higher scale. The FW19 Nature Needs Heroes concept built a platform for people to get inspired and take action towards a more conscious lifestyle.

This campaign was the start of a process to change Timberland’s perception amongst new consumers. Spring Studios has continued working with Timberland throughout SS20, FW20 and SS21 seasons with the objective to strengthen the message and encourage more people to join the movement.

The Results

Fashion Transparency Index 2020

Continued efforts to make Timberland a truly meaningful brand finally proved fruitful. Timberland was recognized by the fashion community as one of top 10 most transparent companies in the world.

Paid Media

NNH Campaign generated 742.2 million impressions worldwide.

In Store Experience

Total traffic created by NNH campaign windows for 2-3 months was 2.38 million visitors.

E-Commerce Traffic

9.1 million unique visitors during the campaign.

Events

Urban greening and other NNH events generated 33,400 visitors, 18,000 pledges, leading to 148 million impressions worldwide. The “Concrete Green” documentary with Loyle Carner, produced in collaboration with MTV was watched by 5M people.

Press

Global PR coverage generated by the launch of NNH campaign was 39.2 M impressions, from global media outlets like Forbes, WWD, Highsnobiety, Glossy, FastCo, Retail Gazette, along with numerous regional media outlets from the NORA, EMEA and APAC regions.

Global PR coverage result generated by the campaign and other activities (green product coverage, tree planting…) is 1.1 billion impressions.