REI: #OptOutside
REI, an outdoor retailer, tasked Venables Bell & Partners to reinforce its brand mission and differentiate itself during the highly commercialized holiday season. They sought to increase brand affinity and inspire people to engage with the outdoors, rather than participate in Black Friday shopping.
Creative Idea
REI closed stores on Black Friday, paid employees, and urged everyone to #OptOutside.
REI closed all stores on Black Friday, paid employees to #OptOutside, and encouraged customers to join, brilliantly countering consumerist chaos with a powerful call to nature, reinforcing its brand purpose and sparking a movement.
The Black Friday Boycott That Built a Billion Dollar Brand
The internal spark and skepticism
The movement began in a February 2015 holiday planning session when an employee asked the unthinkable: "What if we just closed?" While CEO Jerry Stritzke initially feared the financial risk and shareholder backlash, he eventually became the face of the campaign, filming the launch video from his outdoor "office." To support the logistics, REI developed a custom #OptOutside microsite featuring a meme generator for user photos and a geo-mapping tool to help 1.4 million initial participants find local trails.
Billions of impressions on a budget
The campaign relied almost entirely on earned media rather than a traditional ad spend. It generated 2.7 billion media impressions in the first 24 hours, eventually reaching 6.7 billion total impressions. Despite the loss of its biggest shopping day, REI saw a 9.3% increase in annual revenue and a 23% spike in digital sales. The brand also experienced a 36% surge in new co-op memberships, proving that anti-consumerism could drive commercial growth.
A permanent shift in retail
What started as a risky experiment became a cultural phenomenon known as the REI Effect. By 2019, over 7,000 organizations - including the National Park Service and Subaru - joined the movement. On Black Friday, REI now implements a website blackout, preventing orders from being processed to ensure the focus remains on the outdoors. In 2022, the company officially transitioned #OptOutside from a marketing tactic to a permanent company policy, ensuring all 12,000+ employees are paid to take the day off every year.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
REI, an outdoor co-op, possessed a strong mission to connect people with nature and a unique employee-owned structure.
Category
The retail category typically maximizes sales and foot traffic on Black Friday, often leading to chaotic consumerism.
Customer
Consumers felt overwhelmed by Black Friday's commercial frenzy and yearned for more meaningful, authentic experiences outdoors.
Culture
A growing cultural sentiment questioned rampant consumerism and sought greater connection to nature and well-being.
Company
REI, an outdoor co-op, possessed a strong mission to connect people with nature and a unique employee-owned structure.
Category
The retail category typically maximizes sales and foot traffic on Black Friday, often leading to chaotic consumerism.
Strategy:
Challenge commercial norms by aligning brand purpose with a widespread desire for authentic, nature-based experiences.
Customer
Consumers felt overwhelmed by Black Friday's commercial frenzy and yearned for more meaningful, authentic experiences outdoors.
Culture
A growing cultural sentiment questioned rampant consumerism and sought greater connection to nature and well-being.
Strategy:
Challenge commercial norms by aligning brand purpose with a widespread desire for authentic, nature-based experiences.
Results
Social media mentions rose 7,000%. The campaign generated 2.7 billion PR impressions in 24 hours. Over 170 organizations followed REI's lead by closing their doors on Black Friday. Hundreds of parks opened their gates for free. On Black Friday, 1.4 million people chose to spend their day outdoors.
7,000%
increase in social media mentions
2.7 billion
PR impressions in 24 hours
1.4 million
people chose to spend Black Friday outdoors
Strategy Technique
Flip the Conventional Wisdom
The campaign directly opposed the retail industry's biggest sales day. By doing the opposite, REI powerfully demonstrated its core values and differentiated itself.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Reverse Expectations
REI defied retail norms by closing on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day. This unexpected move highlighted their commitment to getting people outdoors.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional in how it strategically transformed a bold business decision into a widely adopted cultural movement, leveraging diverse touchpoints to enable and amplify collective participation.
The campaign's success in generating 2.7 billion PR impressions and inspiring over 170 organizations to join demonstrates an extraordinary ability to leverage a simple act into a global news story and widespread movement.
The development and deployment of digital tools, such as the platform for trail maps and shareable content, provided practical utility and facilitated user engagement, enabling broad participation in the movement.
The campaign's magic came from the seamless integration of a bold, purpose-driven business decision (Ideamaking) with a masterful PR strategy and enabling digital and physical tools, creating a self-sustaining and impactful movement.
