After the success of our first partnership with the brand for the Gucci x The Northface capsule drop, Gucci approached us at Highsnobiety to create content around their sustainable Off The Grid capsule collection. This time for global usage across all Gucci's O&O channels as well as Highsnobiety's owned outlets. We were tasked to continue our Eccentric Exploration territory (more on this below) and extend our highly fantastical and romanticised story-telling and visual language.

As Gucci’s most sustainable range, the idea was to contextualize it by championing the overlooked activity of gardening in a multifaceted campaign spearheaded by expert gardener Gerald Stratford.

Highsnobiety chose to work with Gerald for a few reasons:

Not only is he an advocate for maintaining positive mental health through gardening, but he’s helping sustain allotments around the UK and showing how vegetable growing can be a means to give back to your local community. Through our image set and film, he guided the cast on their own gardening foray (as well as all the on-looking crew!) and shared his top five gardening tips on Highsnobiety.com, inspiring and educating our global audience on the benefits of gardening. (edited)

We looked at the intersection of the outdoors and Gucci's brand values to devise a unique territory for the Italian luxury brand to take ownership of. This led us to Eccentric Exploration and the surrounding communities. For our first instalment that launched in January (The North Face x Gucci capsule), we targeted a POC representative Bird Watching collective. As a continuation of the same theme, but this time for Gucci's sustainable 'Off The Grid' collection, we scouted Gerald Stratford - an Oxfordshire (UK) based big vegetable grower and avid gardener. A legend in his own right who bears a lifetime of knowledge around his eccentric past-time. Our aim was to democratise gardening and showcase its positivity for mental health, the ecological side and taste benefits. Through our hero campaign film we created aspiration before diving into more educational pointers within our written feature and further 'How-to' films.

An incredibly fast-paced production was executed, from shooting on the 13th March to live assets being published on the 26th March. A bespoke editorial feature was designed for Highsnobiety whilst all assets published across our own channels and Gucci's globally.

We reached over 8 million impressions on Highsnobiety with 52700 engagement. Gucci decided to disclose information regarding the reach and engagement on their channels but overall was very successful.

Appealing to a global and more generalised audience than that typical of a luxury-fashion brand, various press and newspapers have picked up the story.

Channel 5 news (UK) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQJ5Yr3wFEI

The Sunday Times (UK) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/thats-a-turnip-for-the-books-giant-veg-grower-gerald-is-guccis-latest-model-w8mwh7jmh

LSN

The Daily Mail (UK) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9430171/Pensioner-72-went-viral-photos-vegetables-new-face-Guccis-latest-collection.html

LBB https://www.lbbonline.com/news/gerald-the-veg-king-shares-the-joys-of-giant-vegetables-for-guccis-in-the-garden-collection

Shots https://www.shots.net/news/view/gucci-gets-down-and-dirty-in-the-garden