• by Paul Gough , September 3, 2002

Apparel retailer Eddie Bauer launched a multimillion integrated media campaign today that includes national radio, print and the Internet.

Eddie Bauer is an 82-year-old company with 600 stores, catalog business and website. It has lost ground in recent years as it tries to competes with urban outfitting-type retailers like Banana Republic and Abercrombie & Fitch. But the new campaign seeks to return Eddie Bauer to the rugged outdoorsy style where it made its name.

The campaign runs through December in national and regional newspapers, magazines like Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, on national radio spots featuring CBS radio personality Charles Osgood and on outdoor advertising. There’s also an extensive rich-media campaign developed by Avenue A and White Horse. The traditional campaign was developed by Interpublic’s Mullen Group of Wenham, MA.

“They’re going back to their outdoor roots,” says John Moore, VP/group media director at Mullen. Moore said the company believes that focus is where Bauer is strongest.

Each month will have a different product focus among the branding creative, Moore said. September’s focus is Seattle Suede, a washable suede jacket for men and women. The tag line is “Wash. Wear. Live. Repeat” and features rugged outdoors scenes: Mountains, plains, big sky.

The newspaper ads use color and include The Wall Street Journal and papers in 11 markets where Eddie Bauer is the strongest. The magazine and Wall Street Journal placements are part of Eddie Bauer’s strategy to attract leading consumers who may be able to influence others, Moore said. The outdoor advertising will be located near Eddie Bauer stores in the strong markets and be complemented by in-mall advertising.

The radio buys, assisted by production from Westwood One, will feature Charles Osgood describing the early 1800s journey of Lewis and Clark. The 30-second spots will air on major news/talk stations in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and elsewhere.

Eddie Bauer’s interactive campaign kicked off today with a series of intrusive rich-media advertising on the home pages of five big Websites: Ask Jeeves, Weather.com, About.com, Excite and iWon.com. The rich-media devices show an interactive story about Seattle Suede and has links to drive visitors to eddiebauer.com and to the traditional stores themselves. The rich-media campaign is frequency limited to once a day. There are also traditional online advertising elsewhere to follow up.

It’s the first time that Eddie Bauer has used rich media in its campaign, said Clark Kokich, president of Avenue A. It’s also highly integrated among the radio, outdoor and print with a uniformity of message and creative execution, he said.