Hi-Tec: Walk on Water
Hi-Tec sought to elevate its brand relevance and demonstrate its footwear technology's innovative capabilities to an adventurous, boundary-pushing target audience. The objective was to generate significant buzz and position Hi-Tec as a brand that empowers extraordinary, seemingly impossible achievements.
Creative Idea
Hi-Tec invented "Liquid Mountaineering," a new sport where special shoes enabled running on water.
Hi-Tec invented "Liquid Mountaineering," an extreme sport where specially designed shoes enabled three friends to seemingly run on water, creating a compelling myth that inspired audiences to believe in pushing personal boundaries and defying the impossible.
The Secret Bridge to Four Million Views
The Sewing Machine Technique
To sell the illusion of Liquid Mountaineering, the creative team at CCCP and director Willem Gerritsen invented a fictional physics theory called the sewing machine - a high-frequency skimming motion supposedly required to stay atop the water. The "athletes" - Ulf Gartner, Sebastian Vanderwerf, and Miguel Delfortrie - performed this frantic sprint across a submerged wooden platform hidden just an inch below the surface in Portugal's Peneda-Gerês National Park. The rig was engineered to be flexible, allowing it to move with the runners' steps to prevent the "clumping" sound of feet hitting wood and to ensure natural water displacement.
A Masterclass in Stealth
The campaign operated on a "stealth" model, with Hi-Tec initially denying any involvement. They claimed they were merely sponsors of a group of pioneers who had approached them. This commitment to the bit was so effective that it sparked a global debate, eventually landing on ESPN, Fox News, and the BBC. The video amassed over 4 million views in its first month - a staggering figure for 2010 - and prompted MythBusters to dedicate an entire segment to debunking the "sport."
From Dad Brand to Viral Icon
The project was born from a remarkably sparse three-word brief: "Make us famous." By avoiding overt branding and focusing on the "authentic" documentary feel, Hi-Tec successfully pivoted from a budget hiking brand to a "fun, spirited" label for a younger generation. The impact was so profound that real Liquid Mountaineering Clubs began forming in cities like Seattle, where fans attempted to recreate the feat, unaware that the "invisible carpet" was actually a carefully placed underwater bridge.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Hi-Tec possessed advanced water-repellent footwear technology, enabling the illusion of running on water and supporting extreme outdoor activities.
Category
Outdoor footwear categories typically focused on durability, comfort, or specific terrain, rarely venturing into defying physical limitations.
Customer
The audience desired inspiration to push personal limits and believe in achieving the seemingly impossible, seeking brands that enabled extraordinary feats.
Culture
A cultural fascination with extreme sports, viral content, and stories of human ingenuity overcoming perceived physical or conventional boundaries.
Company
Hi-Tec possessed advanced water-repellent footwear technology, enabling the illusion of running on water and supporting extreme outdoor activities.
Category
Outdoor footwear categories typically focused on durability, comfort, or specific terrain, rarely venturing into defying physical limitations.
Strategy:
Inspire belief in defying perceived limitations by creating an aspirational, impossible challenge.
Customer
The audience desired inspiration to push personal limits and believe in achieving the seemingly impossible, seeking brands that enabled extraordinary feats.
Culture
A cultural fascination with extreme sports, viral content, and stories of human ingenuity overcoming perceived physical or conventional boundaries.
Strategy:
Inspire belief in defying perceived limitations by creating an aspirational, impossible challenge.
Strategy Technique
Build a Brand Myth
The campaign created an entirely new, seemingly impossible sport - Liquid Mountaineering - positioning Hi-Tec shoes as the essential equipment. This built a compelling, aspirational legend around the brand's innovative capabilities and spirit of defying limits.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Tell a story: Against all odds
The campaign tells a compelling story of three friends inventing an impossible sport, Liquid Mountaineering, overcoming numerous failures to run on water. This narrative highlights their perseverance and belief, making Hi-Tec shoes central to their triumph against all odds.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional in its ability to create a highly believable and aspirational illusion of a new extreme sport, deftly blending compelling human performance with expert cinematography to sell a bold product promise.
The campaign excels in capturing the water-running illusion with dynamic tracking shots, slow-motion, and varied angles, making the improbable feat appear strikingly real and exhilarating.
The convincing performances and genuine enthusiasm of the 'liquid mountaineers' and 'experts' are crucial in selling the audacious premise and inspiring belief in the new sport.
The campaign is expertly directed, orchestrating a seamless blend of documentary-style interviews, high-octane action sequences, and a compelling narrative arc about human potential and product capability.
The clever strategic design of the campaign centers on the Hi-Tec shoes as the enabling technology, effectively showcasing their (implied) unique water-repellent properties as the key to unlocking an extreme, previously impossible sport.
The magic of this campaign arises from the seamless synergy between compelling storytelling, convincing performances, and dynamic cinematography, all working in concert to make the impossible feat of running on water appear real and to implicitly highlight the product's role.
