We could have hired celebrity moms to push product. Instead, we searched for something unexpected. Putting Sharpie Extreme to the test. If the claim was that it was fade-resistant in the most extreme weather conditions, we needed to prove it.

We partnered with Masha Gordon, a mother-of-two who was gunning to break the world record for Explorers Grand Slam – climbing the highest peak on every continent and skiing to both Poles. Masha was our perfect storm; a daring mom, fresh face for media, and about to climb Mt. Denali, where extreme weather conditions would allow us to showcase product performance.

We had her children write inspirational messages on her gear in Sharpie Extreme so regardless of the conditions she would face, their messages would never fade. When she felt as though she was ready to give up, it was her children’s messages written in Sharpie Extreme that kept her going.

Masha’s entire journey was captured on film. Footage of her children writing on her gear before she left, her trek through Denali’s Death Valley, evenings in her tent waiting for dangerous white-outs to subside, and of course, when she reached the summit. Consumers were right in the action and able to see the extreme conditions she faced in real time across both Masha and Sharpie’s various social channels. She became the face of Sharpie’s social channels and inspiration for other online influencers.

We had approximately 30 days between the beginning and end of Masha’s journey to create two short-form videos that told her story. We fed the videos and exclusive interviews to national lifestyle and outdoor adventure media. Masha conveyed, that while she relied on a lot of gear for survival, it was ultimately the fade-resistant messages written by her children in Sharpie Extreme that carried her up the mountain.

Tier 1: Over the course of the entire campaign:

Sharpie Extreme was covered nearly 1,500 times by media outlets across the county.

The team secured 230+ million impressions in key lifestyle and outdoor adventure publications.

92% of all media coverage included functional product messaging.

Tier 2: Generated more than 129K unique video views, an all-time high

Results in 3X as many views as the brand usually receives on average.

Tier 3: Sales increased by 12.3% during the campaign period in 2016 (April through December) when compared with the previous year.