What does it mean to be environmentally friendly? Rather than pour money into new fabrics and “green” ad campaigns, e-commerce startup Out&Back is keeping it simple by focusing on the tried and true methods: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Out&Back seeks to educate consumers on the benefits of recycled gear – packs, jackets, tents, and more that have a lifespan well beyond their initial ownership. To help launch their campaign in retailers across the nation, they reached out to us for guidance on and implementation of branding strategies, digital assets, and pop-up installations with eye-catching and educational graphics.
To kick things off, Out&Back CEO Barruch Ben-Zekry briefed us on their need for several pop-up gear exchange installations for two major retail partners: Dick's Sporting Goods and Public Lands. We worked alongside the Out&Back, Dick's, and Public Lands teams to craft a strategy to inform and direct customers toward the gear exchange area and streamline the experience of buying and selling gear at each location. One of the key components of the campaign was educating consumers about the benefits of used gear, so we dialed in the focus on statistics and infographics that illustrate the waste problem in the outdoor industry.
After hosting collaborative meetings with the teams, tweaking the details of each mockup, and tailoring every set of assets to store floor plans, we turned around a robust catalog of designs. The final assets package included eye-catching A-frames placed in strategic points of the stores, engaging banners that clearly outline the steps of the trade-in process, and bold posters with powerful statistics that support Out&Back’s mission to catalyze a more sustainable world through gear recycling.
The design and consulting components were only the first steps – to complete the project, we still had to assemble the assets in time for the big marketing push from Dick’s and Public Lands. We fired up the printers and got our hands dirty, cutting, framing, and building the assets in our Denver warehouse before installing them at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Lakewood, Colorado. The launch events were a huge success – coverage from Forbes, Outside Online, and Denver Channel 7 helped boost attendance, and the Out&Back team spent two bell-to-bell days educating shoppers and recycling gear that had been sitting in closets. The foot traffic and feedback was so positive that Dick’s and Public Lands are expanding the program into 20+ stores nationwide in time for the holiday season.
“The Coyote team was a great partner as we built up assets and activations to deploy. The team was super flexible, quick, and did the work for the right price.”
— Barruch Ben-Zekry, CEO – Out&Back