KENDAL MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL
After the success of our summer festival campaign for Passenger, they reached out to us to design their activation in the Basecamp of Kendal Mountain Festival.
As we start to work with more outdoor brands we saw this as the perfect opportunity to send our MD Rik up to Kendal in our company campervan to see how such a collection of awesome brands are showing up in the activation space.
Read on for more detail on his adventures and learnings;
Last week I packed the company campervan and headed off to the Lake District for my first visit to Kendal Mountain Festival. As we start working with more outdoor brands, I thought it was the perfect time to experience this event firsthand.
The five-hour drive north flew by with the new Eris Drew DJ Kicks album cranked up loud and (of course) a pit stop at Gloucester Services to grab supplies from some of the brands we work with (or want to!).
Staying out of town on a working farm gave me a proper taste of the countryside, thermals were essential! Getting the bus into town on Thursday, I found my bearings and did my own mini hike up to Kendal Castle (some atmospheric ruins with a great view).
After the evening opening event I headed to the Creative Assembly session ran by Manchester based creative agency Outside of the Ordinary, which was spot on. This was an evening event put on by this Manchester based creative agency; a curation of short talks and discussions for the designers, marketeers, brand managers and strategists of the outdoor industry.
Main highlight for me was Louis from Rapha who sang from our hymn sheet on the importance of creating an experience for people to remember the brand, instead of just turning up with a load of product to sell.
On Friday, it was brilliant to see Passengers activation come to life amongst so many other awesome outdoor brands in the events Basecamp area. Our friends at Tenzing were everywhere as well, from run clubs to events at the Town Hall to appearing in Dometic coolboxes and across many other stands.
Berghaus exemplified experiential perfectly in Basecamp with a small but mighty stand with their EXTREMBOX and a compact retail area. A brilliant example of creating an experiential product to prove how effective it really is. (Too cold for me to try it, though!)
Other Highlights;
Great to meet the team at SUMS. The Patagonia repair trailer was a thing of beauty and definitely going to appear in some moodboards soon! I’ve never been a fan of batak gimmicks, but the Helly Hansen version changed my mind with its clever wall integration.
The Fjallraven stand as a small bothy was inspired and the kind of thing we love doing at Positive Experience; creating real world spaces in an expo stand.
Final Thoughts;
Altogether, a great few days. Encouraging to see leading brands using their position to support a fantastic event while reaching different audiences and creating initiatives that truly support community and build long-lasting partnerships.
