Driving Adventure: A Pre-Cursor & Social Media Strategy for Stanley PMI's Adventure Series Tumblers

In the saturated world of outdoor consumer goods and new adventure brands launching what often seems as daily, Stanley PMI stands as a beacon of durability, reliability, and a mainstay. With a legacy dating back to 1913, Stanley PMI has continually evolved its product line to cater to the needs of modern adventurers. When tasked with conceptualizing the content marketing campaign for their new Adventure Series tumblers and cups, In 2017 We Are Unicorns embarked on a journey to collaborate on a compelling strategy that would ultimately lay the foundation for what would become a global craze almost as hysterical as the beanie baby craze.

THE ASK

Our journey began with an ask, to help tell a 360 degree color story on social media featuring the yet to be release Stanley Adventure Series. Stanley PMI sought to introduce their Adventure Series tumblers, mugs and cups, offering a vibrant array of colors to appeal to outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds. To capture the essence of adventure and exploration, our team realized the significance of leveraging social media platforms to establish “social proof” and to convey the brand's adventurous roots effectively and to reach audiences that went beyond their core customer.

THE STRATEGY

Drawing on their customer personas that leaned into very specific active lifestyle users, we built a comprehensive strategy to define the campaign's direction. We would essentially assign a different activty and user persona per each color way of the collection and would share those unique stories in social media, along with content that showed the aspirational intersections that we believed to be universal to the Stanley customer. Leveraging platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, we aimed to create an immersive experience that would ignite a sense of wanderlust and excitement among consumers using storytelling fundamentals and content capture strategy that ensured that we would be delivering content that would play well between social feeds and stories in order to satisfy the algorithms.

With the strategic framework in place, we set out to bring the Adventure Series to life by tapping into the spirit of Stanley’s roots and headed out it’s backdoor into the wilderness outside of the surrounding Seattle area and setup basecamp four our shoot’s in various locations such as Leavenworth, the Methow Valley, Index Washington and more locally at Gasworks Park a few miles from Stanley’s headquarters. Collaborating closely with Stanley PMI, we curated a diverse range of video & imagery showcasing the product’s in various outdoor settings. From mountain biking trails to lakeside settings, each shot was crafted to evoke a sense of adventure. Our principal shooter Brad Curran was a PNW native and he was a perfect fit to bring this to life.

SIX COLORWAYS, SIX SCENES

PUBLISHING PLAYBOOK

As the content creation phase drew to a close, we framed out a comprehensive playbook outlining the best practices for content publishing across social media platforms. From optimal posting times to engaging caption strategies, the playbook served as a roadmap for Stanley PMI's marketing team to effectively distribute the content and maximize audience engagement.

The launch of Stanley PMI's Adventure Series came to life as expected, garnering internal stoke, and while the social media campaign generated some decent traction and brand awareness, it was nothing like the 2023 explosion of the new Quencher and color ways. While our strategic approach to content creation and publishing played a role in successfully positioning Stanley PMI as a leading choice for adventurers seeking quality and style, it goes to show how viral trends can rear their heads when you least expect it, even 6 years later!

The viral TikTok that showed charred remains of a car on fire with a nearly brand new and intact Stanley Quencher left intact (with ice left inside the cup) helped contribute to the cult like following of cups. The viral trend showcased the power of TikTok, as we saw Stanley’s annual sales jumped from $75 million a year to $750 million a year in 2023.

Overall our collaboration with Stanley PMI shows the true power of strategic social media marketing in amplifying brand messaging and driving consumer engagement…..but also, the unpredictability and unexpectedness of viral trends are definitely something you can’t predict. What we do know and can count on is how critical it is to lay a foundation. By leveraging compelling visual content and a well-defined publishing strategy, we were able to create a memorable campaign that kept Stanley PMI top of mind, further solidifying Stanley PMI's position as a trailblazer.