Imagine you are shopping outfits or gear for your next outdoor sport, and out of the sudden the floor in the shop disappeared and forces you to climb the walls. Well, since you are probably planning for a hiking trip or some other kind of outdoor sports, this ad stunt by The North Face could be a good warm up, right? So – challenge accepted.
The recent PR stunt conducted by South Korean ad agency Innored for outdoor apparels company The North Face has gained much attention in social media. The ad stunt which was posted on social video sharing website YouTube has gained more than 3.5 million views as for today (October 16) since it was posted on September 30. The video is in Korean language and comes with English subtitles.
The PR stunt which took place at one of The North Face’s outlets in South Korea left innocent customers shocked when the floor of the shop slowly started to disappear out of sudden while they were trying out jackets, leaving the customers to depend on their survival instincts.
The wall facing the entrance is equipped with rock-climbing holds, which mean the shoppers were left with two options – fall under the disappearing floor (which was risky seeing as they have no idea what was underneath) or climb up the wall. As expected, most shoppers chose the second option, which was to climb up the wall.
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Once the floor was fully gone, shoppers could see a giant white cushion with The North Face’s logo and its campaign motto – Never Stop Exploring, on it. A jacket attached to a wire was lowered slowly from the ceiling. Shoppers were then told that they have 30 seconds to climb up the wall and leap to snatch the hanging jacket.
Although many shoppers appeared confused, many accepted the challenge and began climbing up the wall. Shoppers who succeeded got to keep the jacket and those who failed will have to see the jacket disappearing back into the ceiling.
“Consumers are used to comfortable city lives and are losing their natural strengths. Based on this brand philosophy, The North Face Korea induces customers to face an unexpected challenge and encourages them to overcome the situation with their own strength in order to begin their journey to explore,” the company said in a press statement according to Campaign Asia-Pacific.
The video has generated much discussions, with much hope that the same stunt could be performed in other countries. Although this ad stunt as gone viral and received mostly positive feedbacks, some viewers do not seem to agree much with its tactic.
This is not the first time The North Face has come up with successful PR stunt. According to Complex, the company had done another viral PR stunt in France last year. The company placed ice sculptures in busy areas around Paris in order to promote their three new opening outlets in the city. Onlookers were encouraged to tweet the scene with the hashtag #missionparis and they were eligible to win prizes.
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