Findlay Hats

Circle Of Life

“Findlay struck gold with the perfect Facebook Ad which resulted in over 14,000,000 video views and counting.”

the client

Findlay Hats is a Portland, Oregon based company that creates hats built for good times and are unlike anything else on the planet. With a lace that can be tied in a multitude of different styles, it also serves the function of being tied underneath your chin to keep your lid in place during extreme sports and environments.

objective

Our goal was to bring Findlay to the world stage through our campaign titled “Circle Of Life.” The goal is to deepen and expand the Findlay community in America and attract the Asian market by making a significant impression in Asia by including Toyko IN the campaign.

our role

Outlive Creative was contracted to lead creative / story development, pre-production, production, and post-production. Additionally, we worked with Nick Hammond Design who was in charge of designing new hat styles, banner ads, lookbook catalogue, and digital website assets.

responsibilities

Creative / Story Development

Concepts, script.

Pre-Production

Sourcing talent, location scouting , organizing crew, script writing, obtained film permits, develop shoot logistics.

Production

Shooting, directing, location sound, lighting, running interviews, recording voiceover narration.

Post-Production

Sourcing music, editing, color correction, sound design.

Photography

Lifestyle and product images used for branding, lookbook, and social media.

Graphic Design

Designed new hat styles, banner ads, lookbook, and digital website assets.

Project Management

Oversaw the production end of the project to ensure the visual content would be delivered on time and within budget.

TESTIMONY FROM THE FOUNDER OF FINDLAY HATS

WAS IT WORTH INVESTING IN OUTLIVE FOR YOUR VIDEO AND PHOTO NEEDS AND WHY? PLEASE SHARE THE DIFFERENCE IT MADE.

“It was worth investing in Outlive Creative because the videos they made for us are still important pieces of our marketing strategy to this day. Outlive has followed us from the early stages of the brand, so having yearly updates has been an amazing resource of content to pull from.”

WHAT ARE THE PROS OF VIDEO IN GENERAL?

“We live in a video dominated world, and having professional, high quality video content is vital to our brands success. It helps us reach new customers in our prospecting campaigns, while keeping current & old customers informed & entertained.”

WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH OUTLIVE VS. OTHER OPTIONS LIKE A BIG AGENCY OR ONE INDIVIDUAL FREELANCER?

“Outlive Creative is our go-to creators because they are the right size for the job. Small enough to care about each one of their clients personally, big enough to do the job right and bring a professional, top tier product.”

Do you see a return on investment with our photos & video? If so, can you share some numbers or percentage increases?

“Our return on investment with Outlive is still ongoing, because a well made video is timeless, and can be used to promote, inform & inspire people for years after the shoot itself has wrapped. “

Would your company be at the level you are at today without our photos & videos?

“Videos we have made with Outlive Creative and strategic placement & advertising has been a major piece of our brand’s growth over the years. We are grateful for everything they do and plan to continue to use them on all future projects. We wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone. “

story development

We created a handful of concepts in collaboration with Jin Ryu from Witness The Fitness. Together we came up with an extensive campaign pitch deck to present to the Findlay team. Our deck consisted of 3 fully outlined concepts with complete storyboards and an additional 6 ideas that we would choose 3 from to expand on. The 3 main concepts were approved at the meeting.

We knew there was going to be a lot of overlapping footage with the deliverables so we spent a TON of time in pre-production. Each film was carefully storyboarded with an extensive shot list. We had to be extra organized because there were 6 production days and we could be shooting for 3 different videos on 1 given day. The extra time spent planning the shoots was definitely key in making sure we didn’t miss any shots.

production days

The campaign would require 6 production days in Portland, Oregon and 1 day in Tokyo, Japan. The shoots consisted of capturing skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding, surfing, the entire hat making production process at their warehouse, and an interior scene with talent ordering hats off of the Findlay website. There was a lot of moving parts to say the least - especially with one of our shoots consisting of about 30 people, but we were able to pull it all off.

timeline

The concept development stage took about 5 weeks. This took a little longer than normal because we were creating concepts for 6 films. Production was shot over a timespan of 5 months. Since the content we needed to capture was almost all outdoors, we were battling with weather not working out plus aligning schedules with everyone made the process a little lengthier than usual. Post-production took around 2 months to complete.

deliverables

The campaign included a total of 6x video deliverables. The 3 main branding films were 60-90 seconds long and we supported those with 3x 15-45 second social media ads.

Design Elements

By creating patterns, color ways, promotional materials and marketing plans to unify the company in all facets we were able to stay true to the company’s Northwest roots while expanding to new markets and increasing the traction in familiar ones. 

Distribution

Findlay struck gold with the perfect Facebook Ad which resulted in over 14,000,000 video views and counting.

The exponential growth led to an account with Zumiez in a 35 store rollout to accompany the over 500% growth in revenue in just their second year in business. This, multiplied by the over 300% growth over their social channels, is a recipe for success that would blow any competitor out of the water.

The company grew from their living room, to their garage, to a 5,000 square foot warehouse where they now employ a 12 person crew.