Nikin launches branding campaign with guerrilla action
To kick off the «TreeChic» branding campaign, Nikin launched a guerrilla marketing campaign. Werbewoche.ch spoke with Nicholas Hänny and Christian Bircher right on the spot, on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse.
A guerrilla marketing campaign took place on Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse on Saturday: Trees, dressed in T-shirts and sweat jackets, attracted the attention of passers-by. Under the hashtag "Treechic", interested parties were asked to post a selfie with the trees on the social media platform Instagram.
The sustainable Swiss clothing brand Nikin is behind the campaign. It plants a tree for every product sold - and now also for every selfie taken with the trees. "Our aim is to inspire as many people as possible to do something for nature. As we plant trees and our logo also features a tree, we decided to place these giant trees in a highly frequented location," explains Nicholas Hänny, co-founder and CEO of Nikin.
Nicholas Hänny explained to Advertising Week-editor Beat Hürlimann explains in a video interview that the Swiss clothing brand Nikin plants a tree for every product sold. The TreeChic campaign aims to emphasize Nikin's brand value, which is based on closeness to nature and sustainability. A special element of the campaign is the tree used by Nikin as an ambassador.
First figures on the guerrilla campaign
Four influencers were involved in the "Treechic" campaign, including Der Praktikant, Szene_isch_Zueri, Fabio Zingg and Peter Bolliger. According to the information provided, this enabled 200,000 additional people to be reached. According to Hänny, it is estimated that over 1,000 photos were taken during the guerrilla campaign. This is based on a calculation of seven hours and the assumption that one photo was taken every minute. In addition, the landing page received 2,000 visitors on Saturday and recorded 300 QR code scans. The proportion of webshop visitors from the city of Zurich increased from an average of 20 percent to 25 percent. During the guerrilla marketing campaign period between 10:00 and 17:00, there was an increase of 20 percent more visitors to the online store compared to a normal Saturday.
The first Swiss tree planting canton ranking
The campaign, which has already been running for a week with posters and online advertising, reached its first climax with the guerrilla action in Zurich. The continuation includes posters, online advertising and tree planting in Bern on December 4. Further advertising measures are also planned, with the tree acting as an ambassador. A ranking list of all Swiss cities and cantons will be used to show which city or region has planted how many trees with Nikin. The ranking list is available here.
Why a poster?
But how is it that a digital brand like Nikin relies on physical posters? Hänny explained that they have mainly advertised online so far. But in order to reach even more people, the combination of physical and online elements is crucial. The guerrilla campaign was created in collaboration with Christian Bircher, who had the idea of physically depicting the closeness to nature. Hänny emphasized the effectiveness of the poster in combination with online measures.
Christian Bircher, the originator of the idea, explains in an interview that the tree in the Nikin logo suggested the idea of planting a tree for every item of clothing sold. The challenge was to make the tree look authentic. It was implemented by Budapest-based Artoidstudio.com, who specialize in props and set design. According to Bircher, the collaboration with Nikin was very positive, as they were open to different suggestions and he had a lot of freedom in the realization.
Finally, Bircher gave an insight into the making of the trees, which were a mixture of templates he created using AI and Photoshop and the expertise of Artoidstudio.com.
