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Regatta

Regatta overhauls brand identity and marketing to 'stop adventure being owned by extreme activities'

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

June 12, 2014 | 4 min read

Leisure clothing brand Regatta Great Outdoors has re-branded its entire range and created a ‘brand story’ as it aims to communicate with its wide ranging consumer base.

From October a £1m multi-channel campaign will roll out nationwide which taps into the emotion of ‘everyday adventures’ and will coincide with new branding and a digital refresh.

Joanne Hawkins, marketing director at Regatta, told The Drum that the catalyst for the re-brand was the company’s logo which was the ‘weakest’ part of the brand’s offering.

“It was the shiest bit of Regatta’s voice and we wanted to address that," she said. "We had a lower case, fiddly font logo… and we realised that we never going to be particularly proud of that on product and other collateral unless we did something about it. So we set on a journey that has taken us 18 months to get us to what we think is the right brand logo.”

The ‘For Every Adventure’ campaign celebrates the diversity of the Regatta customer, which Hawkins said ranges from people walking their dogs to those who climb “big European and UK mountains each weekend”.

London brand agency SEA developed a complete set of brand guidelines and spearheaded the production and direction of Regatta’s brand film and spirit book, which will be used to communicate the essence of the re-brand and animate Regatta’s brand story.

The film sees 14 different scenarios of consumer stories telling how Regatta fits into their life and will be communicated across Regatta’s digital channels.

Hawkins revealed that she hoped the new branding would help change the way in which Regatta speaks to its consumers.

“We know we have a broad brush of people but we just didn’t think we talked to them in a way that showed that we loved the brand maybe as they did. We tended to hang our hat on practical messages rather than emotional messages.

“Also our product range has got broader and wider over time and there were pockets of people that we probably weren’t getting that across to. We’ve got great stuff for commuting to work, we’ve got much more stylish looking product with outdoor features and benefits so we wanted to let that audience know about us as well.”

Alongside the autumn campaign, a summer experiential will take the form of #itsmyadventure – a photobooth experience linked to social media which is touring around UK festivals such as Kendal Calling and Worthing Birdman.

The #itsmyadventure campaign encourages people to share their own adventures on social media which is then picked up by a digital cross platform aggregator to create a mosaic of images and messages.

It is hoped that by touring festivals which typically have a younger audience, Regatta can tap into a new customer base.

“What we tend to find with the Regatta demographic is that people with young families love us because they can afford to buy our product,” commented Hawkins.

“But we’ve got products in the range now that are much more stylish than they used to be and one of the reasons for going to things like Kendal calling is because we think there are people out there who perhaps don’t know about us yet, but will be pretty keen to wear us when they see this gear.”

Regatta’s rebrand can be seen across all products from AW14.

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