By 2017 Osprey had a world-renowned, decades old reputation for making the highest quality packs in the outdoor business, and was the number one brand by volume for pack sales at REI. What they didn’t have was an ecommerce site to directly connect to their consumers. In addition to obvious benefits of opening a D2C sales funnel, Osprey was excited to use the opportunity to create more brand awareness as they expanded their presence in the travel and trail hydration spaces.
I served as account and creative director on the project, collaborating with key internal Osprey interfaces. My team executed on a D2C GTM digital media and creative strategy based on three-year sales targets. Over a pre- and post-launch run, I orchestrated and integrated the media, creative and ecom teams with a focus on a successful launch in February of 2018. We also served the primary point of creative oversight and translation: communicating creative needs clearly and directing deliverables needed to execute a comprehensive digital media strategy spanning across multiple mediums to coincide with a successful launch through an innovative playbook.
Since the campaign launch, Osprey enjoyed strong click-through rates across both paid search and display ads, conversion rate increases nearly every week, and a 20 percent increase in site visits year-over-year. At the six-month mark, my teams worked closely with the Osprey team to evaluate the next areas of creative focus for the ecommerce program, and realign sales targets and media tactics based on actual performance.
On the media side, this was realized via optimized, conversion-driven ad spends, as well as recommendations for owned channels to help amplify the performance of the entire sales funnel—all while keeping brand integrity at the forefront and continuing to build a collaborative relationship that led to digital D2C success. Within one year of launch, the multi-discipline collaboration resulted in a thriving third channel for the rapidly growing brand.
In addition to the Digital Creative Playbook, one of the most innovative aspects of orchestrating the D2C project was acting in collaboration with industry veteran Josh Rhea to evaluate the digital creative and commerce ecosystem and make successful recommendations to Osprey on how to optimize their program without diluting their messaging or identity.
Working both with internal stakeholders from social, marketing and creative to outside development and data agencies, we evaluated high-level strategies and tactics. In areas that ranged from campaign messaging to click-path conversion, we worked weekly to help shape a successful ecosystem for fans of the brand to purchase directly from Osprey.
