We had to give people a taste of how great it is to have explored a new place, and claim credit for being there first. In outdoor adventure, an explorer would lay claim on a summit by planting a flag. And he would continue to do so on every other summit he has managed to conquer.We adopted this iconic action of planting flags as the idea for an integrated campaign. It became a fun and simple excuse to get people out of their comfort zone. All they needed was a mobile phone to plant “virtual red flags” at any location they want to stake a claim to. Only one person can claim one location, and the location claimed will be named by the conqueror. The race was on to see who would be the one to conquer China.

There were over two million unique visitors to the campaign website, and nearly 1.2 million people saw the live on-ground event in Beijing and Shanghai.Dealer store sales climbed 106% during these 18 days. Event coupon redemption was 150% above average.Over 651,000 red flags were planted during the campaign period.The champion planted over an amazing 4,000 red flags.It was a runaway success for The North Face.It didn’t take much to make people explore their world.All it took was a red flag.