Brand

VANS

Agency

OGILVY

Creative Team

Creative Director

Dwayne Koh

Associate Creative Director

Ma Lin

Art Director

YeeSin

Senior Copywriter

Wang LaLa

Description

When VF first entered China, they engaged Ogilvy to work on 3 core brands under the Company - Lee Jeans, North Face and Vans. While at Ogilvy I lead the creative charge on these brands. Working on Vans was a haven sent, as it brought me back to my skating roots and connected me again with the days of Dogtown, Z-boys, Public Domain and Future Primitive.

The campaigns we created were not only to introduce Vans to the Chinese market but to help it expand beyond the skating scene. As a brand we were always very careful with what we said and did as we wanted to be true to our roots while going mass. I believe the success of the Vans brand today in China was directly related to how we launched the brand back in 2009.

   
Project
Vans China Election

In 2009, Vans first entered the Chinese market in a big way, by planning to open a new store a day. The challenge was that the Chinese youth had heard of Vans but knew nothing about its independent, rebellious roots. To create awareness of its two iconic products, the Slip-on and the Era, we gave the Chinese youth something that wasn’t possible — a democratic election. We pitched the two shoes against each other as election candidates, each campaigned for online support with videos of their heritage.

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This first campaign for Vans in China, was to focus on products and educate the public and new fans of Vans the difference between each product and reiterate its heritage not just as a skateboarding brand but a brand formed in 1966 with its roots in Cailfonia. The ideas was to set the stage with product and then get into the next campaigns with iconic stories of culture related to Vans.

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Project
This is Vans

These later series of campaigns follow up with the initial launch, and get more into Van's lifestyle and it's atitude. Showing the audience what it represents in culture with the introdution of the House of Vans, Warped Tour and the Vans Vault series.

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