Bears are the only animals that sleep all winter without having to shit. So the first bear shit marks the end of winter. That`s why we started a big competition around this marvelous feat of bear biology to promote our winter sale.

In partnership with the Swiss Nature Park Goldau, we began our campaign by leading people to a microsite where they could guess when Evi the bear would wake up and have her first poo. Whoever guessed the exact date and time would win a Helly Hansen voucher and a yearly pass to the Nature Park. The prizes would be awarded at the big weighing event.

On March 22nd Evi woke up and pooped. We invited all participants of the contest to the event. The size of the sale discount would be directly determined by the weight of Evi`s poo. 420 grams meant customers would receive a 42% discount.

Talking about shit is kind of difficult. Thats why we decided to have a very distinctive visual world with high-end post-production. A funny and cute key-visual of a shitting bear and a microsite designed with hand lettering, icons and nature photography.

We started our campaign by asking people when Evi the bear will wake and have her first shit. Poster, Digital Boards, Facebook Post and other media in whole Switzerland led to the microsite where people could guess the exact date when Evi will wake up.

The weighing event was the next level of the campaign, followed by the big Helly Hansen winter sale..

Helly Hansen had a 48% sales increase compared to the last winter sale and the Nature Park Goldau had three times more visitors than usual at this time of the year. The microsite had more than 20.000 visitors in the first two weeks of the promotion and more than 5.000 people took part in the competition, which is a fantastic result in a small country like Switzerland. The intense media interest in the campaign also resulted in a strong growth of the brand awareness for both clients.

The campaign engages with customers in multiple ways. In the first phase we asked the public to join a competition and guess when Evi the bear will wake up and shit. The response was massive.

Second phase started with the big shit weighing event at the Nature Park Goldau, which was a huge success and a fantastic opportunity to interact with the brand.

In the third phase we announced the big winter sale with discounts determined by the weight of the bears shit. Sales increased by 48% compared to the year before.

Campaign around the competition: Posters, banners, digital boards, billboards, postcards, in store ads and give-aways lead to the microsite www.baereschiss.ch. Social Media was used to keep the public updated. Intense PR work to generate buzz on TV, Radio, Print and Online. Big weighing event and intense sale promotion after the event.

Our target audience are nature-lovers and outdoor-fans. People of all ages, who spend a lot of time outdoors – even in the winter – whether for leisure, sports or work.

Our approach was to involve the audience in a surprising way. And to generate a competition, that will be redistributed and shared by people and media.

Helly Hansen Workwear is one of the largest outdoor gear brands in Europe. The brief was to start the winter sale in Switzerland with a big bang and to involve the audience in a playful way.

The aim was to create something new that triggers a lot of attention and tells a great story that people share.