Outdoor equipment marketer REI launched it first-ever television commercials yesterday, with two spots airing in selected markets.
The ads, created by BBDO Atlanta, are set to run in eight markets: Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Denver; Portland, OR; San Francisco; Washington DC; and the company's home city, Seattle. Additionally, the 30-second spots are also being shown on several national cable channels including Discovery, National Geographic, TLC, Planet Green, Travel Channel and ESP. Online, the spots are being featured on Hulu.com and REI’s You Tube brand channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/reifindout.
The two spots emphasize the outdoors, with one featuring a group of hikers bonding during a rainstorm and the other showing hikers finding that a peanut butter sandwich eaten on top of a mountaintop beats any five-star restaurant.
Filmed in British Columbia, the ads do not feature a direct response mechanism, although they do tie into the integrated "Find Out" campaign REI is running across various media, including radio, TV, direct mail, in-store and online.
