The North Face: The Coldest Dub

Client: The North Face

Despite a commanding lead in the outdoor category, The North Face faced a challenge: the brand’s ubiquity on the hight street was turning off a younger, style-driven audience who no longer felt like it was for them. This audience has disproportionate influence, so it was critical to win them back – but relevance would have to be earnt.

Reigniting the brand’s authentic heritage in Grime music, we put the brand’s name and products back at the heart of the audience’s culture. ‘The Coldest Dub’ remix challenge gave aspiring producers the chance to make a track with a famous Grime MC. Releasing a brand new acapella to the community freely on social media, we invited beat makers to share their heaviest dubs online - with every new entry acting as a fresh ad for the brand, shared by real people in the scene. The community immediately embraced the challenge, creating their own tracks and propelling the brand into people’s feeds via 100s of different accounts. Not only did the campaign get the audience talking about The North Face again, but with the official release of the single the brand has now become a permanent part of the culture.