Clients: Specialized bikes | Shimano | Patagonia
OUR APPROACH
What's the hook?
After securing funding from Specialized and their Soil Searching Division, Patagonia Europe and Shimano, we began scheduling in interviews with key players from each area we'd decided to focus on.
While we all had our own ideas, when conducting a documentary such as this it's imperative that the interviews dictate the information presented, and not let our own opinions cloud what is essentially qualitative data.
We had a mix of well known, iconic riders, trail builders, government agency staff and conservationists to film, and all would have different opinions on the future of mountain biking trails. This is a highly charged, emotive topic, and assessing the cultural differences between groups, while giving all a fair platform was going to be important to not only build a compelling story, but give a fair representation.
John Ireland, Forestry and Land Scotland. John was one of our first interviewees and gave a strong case to FLS' approach in regards to mountain biking.
Steve Peat. Icon. Ambassador. World Champion. Sheffield legend beyond bikes. Peaty has been there from the start, he's seen it all and understands the importance of hard, technical trails for developing world class sporting skills.
Fanie Kok from Specialized played a pivotal role in bringing this to life. He is emblematic of the positive, thoughtful and progressive mountain biker.
Creative possibilites
Creative takes on presenting history, statistics and data was important int this film. We wanted to make a 34 minute documentary, loaded with nuance, interesting, engaging and understandable for those who were new to the topic. Pulling in illustrators and animators to compliment our in-house team was key to its success.
THE OUTCOME
Starting the conversations and raising awareness
For the first-of-its-kind documentary, the film was incredibly well received, as the data shows. As brands move into spaces that are new to them, such as advocacy, it is important to show that these projects go beyond altruism, and can satisfy even the most commercial of board members. The legacy brand value from these projects endures, and offers a new perspective to consumers about the values that brands have.
