• by Tanya Gazdik , September 3, 2010

Timberland is launching what the company calls its "biggest and most environmentally focused marketing campaign yet."

The Stratham, N.H.-based retailer is launching the global campaign with the theme "Nature Needs Heroes," in conjunction with its new Earthkeepers collection. Made with materials like recycled rubber and recycled PET (one and a half plastic bottles are used in each pair of Earthkeepers boots), the Earthkeepers product is one of the company's leading and fastest-growing product collections.

In addition to promoting the line, the campaign -- which will run through the end of the year -- also seeks to inspire people to consider what actions they might take to be "heroes" for the outdoors themselves. The company is launching an online "Earthkeepers movement" in hopes of motivating consumers to make environmentally focused behavior changes.

Creative employs outdoor imagery and lighthearted humor to help convey the serious message of environmental accountability -- the notion that even small acts of environmental action make a difference. The campaign includes one TV spot with a 60-second and a 30-second version that breaks Sept. 9, Jim Davey, Timberland's VP of global marketing, tells Marketing Daily. TV will air in Europe, Asia and North America during high-profile live sports and prime time and late-night programs.

Other elements include print, 3D displays in select Timberland retail stores worldwide, social media and an interactive microsite.

"We hope the variety of elements in this campaign might encourage all consumers, no matter where they see us, to be drawn in," Davey says. "We want to give consumers the opportunity to learn more about what Timberland is doing to help protect the outdoors, as well as support them in taking environmental action themselves -- whether that action is buying a pair of boots or planting a tree."

The campaign broke Sept. 2 with the launch of the "Nature Needs Heroes" microsite, designed by Holst Digital, and the reveal of the 3D store windows in the U.S. The store windows feature oversized 3D graphics which consumers can experience using complimentary 3D glasses (made with recycled materials) available in store.

On Facebook, consumers can create their own heroic moments with the new Timberland Earthkeepers "Virtual Forest" application. Users are invited to create their own forest (or join a friend's), which will result in Timberland planting live trees in Haiti to supplement its reforestation project there.