To bring “Choose Your Own Adventure” to life, we worked closely with our creative partners to develop content that told the REI multisport story. Individual hiking, biking, and paddle boarding experiences were presented through engaging 90-second video vignettes that followed campers throughout their day in the outdoors. These vignettes had no voiceover and minimal branding, which allowed viewers to mentally place themselves in the story and live the experience vicariously.

The “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories were targeted to premium, long-form digital content that was relevant to our target. Ad-serving technology allowed us to deliver the story in short snippets over the course of the content to keep viewers interested and involved. Each story launched with a 30-second in pre-roll, followed by 4 separate 15-seconds that showed the enjoyment of the outdoor activity of your choice from morning to night.

The REI “Choose Your Own Adventure” campaign helped drive awareness and consideration among our target. The full story was watched 4MM+ times over 8 weeks with 50.8MM total videos viewed. Post-campaign branding studies showed ad awareness lifts of 22% and a 75% lift in purchase intent. These were strong results given higher baseline awareness levels compared to past REI campaigns. Additionally, view-through rates increased as the sequence progressed, showing that the target was interested in the content and wanted to see more as the story went on.