Underground
Results/Business Value
The London Underground – yes, the UK transportation system – commissioned this search to introduce what would be their branded designer apparel line. They invited my client, the leather division of the iconic American brand, Guess. Ultimately, the venture was not greenlighted..This beloved campaign lives on in my humbly anointed UHOF— Unpublished Hall of Fame. You be the judge of this strategy and creative.
Business Challenge
Introduce a designer label to an overcrowded, jaded youth market.
Target
17-24 years old
Customer Insight
Guess knew this market. So well, perhaps, that it took it a bit for granted . I offered that these consumers had to be reconsidered and appreciated for the complex individuals they are. Living diverse lives that shared a kind of common philosophy: ‘You will never really know me, my pain, my joys, my mysteries.” Which revealed a deep-seated mistrust of brands that feigned to know them – to sell to them. And one more thing emerged about them, rising above their skepticism: An unapologetic Love for Living Large. So, after listening, really listening between the lines, I asked the client: “What Business Are You Really In?” And I answered that Underground was really in the business of “Hearing you”– which could make Underground a platform for Their Truth. Not another brand pushing its own.
Brand Position/Strategy
Deep.. Acknowledging at the deepest level, this most vivid, outspoken, private, vulnerable, courageous, uncertain, cocky, romantic human being in progress.
Creative Solution
An “anti campaign.” Instead of fashion glam, this was.grrit. Instead of models, real people. Instead of copy to persuade, raw language from a “community diary” we would place in their local environments for them to write in on their own. Revealing whatever was on their minds.. The visuals here represent the diary, from cover to inside pages of entries with photos. So, instead of selling itself as the new shiny thing, this would be, literally, an underground publication – for them to say out loud what their hearts were screaming or whispering to say to the world. Notice in the design overlay on each photo, the subject’s particular train station along the Underground’s London routes. The dog would. be from the imagination of one of the youths we interviewed. Language is raw and uncensored, unedited except for length.
