Bose | US Ski and Snowboard Team

Challenge

With limited budgets and crunched timelines (each year), we are asked extend the global headphones campaign thematic into the US Ski and Snowboard partnership. Our goal is to influence a younger, snowsport enthusiast, to move Bose headphones to the top of their consideration list. Then nurture them on platforms relevant to their lifestyles - social and mobile.

Insights

Through research and observations, we found this cohort leads a hypermobile life and can sniff out inauthentic marketing better than most. Hell, I’m one of them. Music and being aggressive on the slopes was a common theme among our audience and athlete partners. Again, ‘hi’. It’s vital to the on mountain experience and fuels life in between runs. Furthermore, with a primarily female partner athlete lineup, we could use their influence to attract a younger and previously unspoken to audience by Bose - young women.

Instagram comments on Mikaela Schiffrin’s posts revealed Moms who wanted their daughters to grow up like her. Women around the world looked to Chloe Kim, Devin Logan, and Kelly Clark as symbols of pursuing a life they wanted for themselves and their children - success in male dominated world of sports. As a father of a young daughter, I want the same thing for her. To be successful and have inspiring role models to look up to.

We tapped into the mindsets of childlike playfulness, being a fierce competitor, and essentialism. Headphones became the key to unlock your fullest potential. They are just as essential on the mountain as boots, skis, board, goggles, and can give you the catalytic experience needed to unleash whatever emotion you need. So, as the snow fell, Bose and our partners drove viewers to a series of content and product explorations that helped riders and skiers hit the slopes with the soundtrack that fueled their best runs.

However you feel, really feel.

In an Olympic year for several of our athletes, our business strategy was the same, but our creative strategy need to move from shared values to delivering the impact of Bose. Not a new belief. An Elevated one. There’s an intersection between previous iterations of Better Never Quits featuring USSA athletes and the Bose value of Challenging the Norm. Getting up and trying again is not enough. New technologies, approaches, and routines are essential to success and reaching your fullest potential.

This progress should make us experience more. Feel more. Propel us further to achieve more. Music enhances those moments, the small ones that are done in solitude to the times that are on the biggest stage. Bose, as a brand, impacts these moments with innovation and the products to make you feel more.

Better Never Quits

In what is probably one of my favorite projects, we followed Olympic Gold Medalist, Joss Christensen around Boston for a couple of days in the lead up to the Fenway Big Air event. We wanted to know what it took for a Gold Medalist to stay at the peak of his game. Joss was the big hype that year and was aiming to get back to the Olympics, but a series of injuries hindered his come back. The story was visually compelling and emotionally captive.