We put M.J. Bale’s 100% Merino wool travel suit through the ultimate product trial and ‘torture test’ to prove that it meets the demands of Australian business travellers, who journey longer and farther than anyone else.

Travelling more than 20,000km through nine countries over five days non-stop, an unsuspecting model was dressed in a suit in Sydney for a fashion shoot that took place in London. In between was a gruelling journey across Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Rome, Naples, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Harwich on planes, trains, tuk-tuks, bikes and even an overnight ferry across the North Sea to the UK. All without sleep and without changing the one, 100% Merino wool travel suit he donned in Sydney.

Model Tom Bull was a broken man but the suit was impeccable, proving that you can crush the man, but you can’t crush the suit.

A small production crew and model Tom Bull travelled from Sydney through nine countries non-stop for five days to the final shoot in London, without sleep or hotel rooms.

The journey was captured live on social channels via Instagram and Facebook Live. Along the journey, Tom Bull did a daily live report and Q&A via Facebook Live, proving it was happening in real time, not staged. Thousands tuned in to follow. The most memorable moments became shareable video content, across media and our own social channels.

The journey across nine countries happened in real time across Facebook; Facebook Live; Instagram; 38 M.J. Bale retail stores; M.J. Bale’s EDMs; and in PR.

TIMELINE:

Planning: February

Filming and live social: 15-19 March

Journalist trials: 15-23 March

PR launch: 23 March.

SCALE:

The campaign has so far achieved a reach of over 26 million people through earned media and social.

In first two weeks, an uplift of 20% across suiting range online and across M.J. Bale’s 38 stores.

Social engagement increased 5.2% to 17.1%, up a massive 230%.

Video completion rate increased by 32%, from 29% to 39%.

Content also drove talkability, share rate increasing by 79%.

The campaign brought increased exposure to new customers with 75% of reach with non-fans versus our benchmark of 47%.

PR reach: 25m – every eyeball in Australia versus 10m target.

Social media reach: 1.19m.

Organic reach: up 10%.

We influenced consumers to ask more about 100% Merino wool suits, opening up discussions in social and influencer media about the importance of microns in the wool for durability purposes.

Consumers previously saw little differentiation between different makes of suits. As a result of the ‘Uncrushable’ campaign, a large proportion of customers are now either insisting on 100% Merino wool or asking questions about it.