Outdoor retailer REI believes that a life outside is a life well lived. Black Friday, America’s biggest shopping day, stood in stark contrast to this belief. Held the day after Thanksgiving, this holiday had come to represent shoppers leaving their families to go buy things, spending days lining up at stores, or even fighting one another amongst the aisles.

That’s why on Black Friday 2015, REI took an unprecedented stand. The co-op closed all 143 of their stores and invited the entire country to spend the day differently - by heading outside.

On the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, REI closed all 143 of their stores. Employees were paid to spend the day outdoors and all of America was invited to #OptOutside with REI.

Employees and members first heard the news from REI's CEO. Then an integrated campaign spread the #OptOutside movement across social, PR, TV, print, out of home and influencer outreach. Supporters were given a simple call to action: #OptOutside.

An online hub equipped the movement's growing ranks with everything they needed to spend Black Friday outdoors. A custom meme creator on the site allowed users to share images announcing their support to social followers, inspiring friends and family members to join the ever-growing number of people choosing to spend this Black Friday differently.

#OptOutside became a widespread cultural movement. 1.4 million people chose to spend Black Friday outside with REI. Over 170 organizations showed support for REI with some even closing their doors in solidarity. Hundreds of parks opened their gates for free.

The campaign earned 33 straight days of media coverage with 3,423 placements leading to 6.7 billion media impressions.

#OptOutside generated 1.2 billion social impressions, becoming a trending topic on Twitter for three separate days and Instagram for two separate days. #OptOutside was #11 of Brandwatch's top 15 Twitter trends of 2015. The hashtag entered the larger social vernacular - six months later, it was still being used thousands of times per day.

While #OptOutside was designed for long-term community engagement, not to drive short-term sales, REI revenues were up double digits year over year (bucking industry trends). Applications to work at REI were up 92% in Q4 2015.

Retailer REI exists to help people enjoy the outdoors. In 2015, the co-op did something unprecedented: shutting all 143 of their stores on the biggest shopping day of the year, and paying employees to spend the day outside. This remarkable stand was accompanied by an integrated campaign inviting the entire country to spend the day outside with us. When the dust had settled this movement had inspired 1.4 million people to spend Black Friday outside. The counterintuitive action of closing on Black Friday reminded consumers what REI stands for and why this retailer is unique.

Research confirmed that interest in the outdoors was up and the health benefits of spending more time outside was gaining traction. Tangentially, enthusiasm for Black Friday shopping was decreasing. This signaled that the time was right for REI to take a stand against the chaos of Black Friday. REI had the opportunity to leverage this moment to build and connect communities around the outdoors, helping people understand and share its unique purpose and values.

The people-first strategy meant using a cross-channel approach to unite employees, co-op members, outdoor enthusiasts, the outdoor industry and non-profit partners to generate a national conversation about the benefits of a life outdoors while crafting inspiring content to invite people to #OptOutside.

Using a hashtag as the campaign line and call to action, we were able to create a simple way for anyone to stand up and join.

Outdoor retailer REI believes that a life outside is a life well lived. Black Friday, America’s biggest shopping day, stood in stark contrast to this belief. Held the day after Thanksgiving, this holiday had come to represent shoppers leaving their families to go buy things, spending days lining up at stores, or even fighting one another amongst the aisles.

That’s why on Black Friday 2015, REI took an unprecedented stand. The co-op closed all 143 of their stores and invited the entire country to spend the day differently - by heading outside.