CONCRETE GREEN WITH LOYLE CARNER

Short List
TitleCONCRETE GREEN WITH LOYLE CARNER
BrandTIMBERLAND UK
Product/ServiceEUROSPRINT TREKKER
Category D01. Use of Brand or Product Integration into a Programme or Platform
Entrant PHD London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation PHD London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement PHD London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production DRUM London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company SKY MEDIA London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company 2 VIACOM INTERNATIONAL MEDIA NETWORKS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company 3 TIMBERLAND UK LTD Slough, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company 4 TALON London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company 5 DICE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Hannah Savage PHD UK Strategy Director
Anna Hewitt PHD UK Media Manager
Debbie Yuen PHD UK Media Group Manager
Stephen Taylor PHD UK Social Media Manager
Sarah Cabey DRUM Business Director
Kelly Suckling DRUM Partnerships Director
Phil Harris PHD UK Partnerships Director
Andy Holland DRUM Executive Head of Production, Talent and Partnerships RUMPUS
Paula Haydock RUMPUS Producer
Emma Hunt MTV UK Partnerships Manher

Why is this work relevant for Media?

Concrete Green with Loyle Carner wasn’t just a vanity TV show that earned Timberland points with a youth audience. We chose a brand-funded TV show because it did what great media should do - tell the right story in the right medium to the right people. However, the show was much more than that because it was the centre of every other element of Timberland’s media and comms activity across OOH, social and point-of-sale – a brave move in the most critical sales period of the year.

Background

Timberland was born to serve hard-working, down-to-earth, outdoorsy people with rugged form and function. The brand has a rich heritage of long-term commitment to using recycled, organic, and renewable materials in their product (one of the reasons its logo features a tree). Timberland's iconic yellow boot rose to fame in the '90s when it was embraced by American hip-hop gods like Tupac, Biggie Smalls, and Wu-Tang Clan. The brand enjoying another pop-culture resurgence in the 00's on the feet of Rhianna and Jay Z, whose love of the brand stood the test of time. With their core consumers getting older and brands such as Dr. Martens starting to steal their lunch, Timberland UK set out to create a new brand icon in 2019 – its new Eurosprint Trekker boot. The brief? To bring to life the brand’s sustainable roots AND re-capture its connection to Hip-Hop culture.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

To get on the feet of a new generation, we needed a new icon that appealed to a young target audience and represented Timberland through a distinctly British lens. Enter Loyle Carner, a London-based BRIT Award and Mercury Prize-nominated hip-hop artist who came to our attention when he started writing about his passion for urban greening – the regeneration of run-down city areas through garden landscape design. He was a perfect candidate to bridge the gap between Timberland’s hip-hop heritage and their green credentials. We recruited Loyle as brand ambassador for Timberland’s campaign, partnering with National City Parks London, a charity whose ambition is to turn 50% of London green by the end of 2021. As part of the initiative, Timberland committed funding to regenerate two derelict areas in Loyle’s home borough of Croydon. The story of these two projects would also form the basis of our media campaign.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our strategy focussed on two key elements: 1. Balancing Loyle’s credibility as both a musician and sustainability figurehead 2. Delivering tangible action through urban greening initiatives that made London greener. Rather than just making Loyle the advertising face of a campaign and risk looking like ‘green-washing’, we looked to something that could tell the story in more depth. Long-form content. Or more specifically, mainstream broadcast TV content. Advertiser Funded Programme – in the right environment – offered the perfect solution, giving us access to the story-telling-power of TV, lending credibility with our audience, on a channel that could guarantee significant reach. With Timberland on board, we made a long-form AFP the heart of our campaign – using our other media channels to amplify its story – weaving Carner’s Urban Greening story into the fabric of our young target audience’s lives from awareness, all the way through to point of sale.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

In partnership with MTV, we created a two-part TV series called Timberland presents: Concrete Green with Loyle Carner. The show told the story of the rapper’s journey to leave a legacy in his local area by creating a new multi-use, green community space. The show was broadcast in primetime and available on-demand in the 2 weeks leading up to the key Black Friday sales period. As part of the partnership, Viacom UK matched all paid-for media spend with media across its on and offline media portfolio. The show wasn’t just a piece of ‘nice to have’ branded content. Carner’s story became the centre of Timberland’s Q4 campaign, and was supported across a number of media, including geo-targeted OOH for the Eurosprint Trekker, which used hand-picked sites based on ticket sales data from Carner’s gigs. The campaign also extended into retail with promo videos, green displays and seed giveaways at POS.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign got audiences talking, reaching 49m people and delivering an additional £7.4m of earned media coverage from a £345k spend. And it delivered results. Stores reported triple-digit percentage growth and Eurosprint Trekker (the featured product) saw 100% sell-through in resellers, prompting several re-orders from its biggest resellers, including Schuh. Overall, sales of the Eurosprint Trekker rose +258% Of those who saw the show; • 80% said it gave a good impression of Timberland • and 76% of people said that the programme positively changed their brand opinion and purchase consideration of Timberland