Walls Are Meant For Climbing

WALLS ARE MEANT FOR CLIMBING

In response to a world filled with increasing divisiveness and pressure on businesses to “walk the talk”, The North Face launched a multi-year campaign to express the brand’s commitment to inclusivity, empathy, and community empowerment.

Global Brand Campaign Manager, 2018-2020

The North Face sparks conversation on inclusivity with ‘Walls Are Meant For Climbing’ fundraising campaign – The Drum

Walls are Meant for Climbing; hijacking the most powerful cultural conversation of 2017 — CLIO 2018 Silver Winner

TNF Donates $1 Million To Public Lands In Climbing Campaign — GearJunkie

The North Face & The Trust for Public Land — Engage for Good 2018 Halo Award for Best Experiential Marketing Campaign

BUSINESS GOAL:

Support the company’s business and product offering within climb by reaching a wider, more diverse, and younger demographic.

BRAND GOAL:

Break through the cultural noise with a bold values-driven campaign and use the power & platform of the brand to grow and diversify the sport of climbing.

GLOBAL CLIMBING DAY

135K PARTICIPANTS

159M GLOBAL IMPORESSIONS

$1.5M DONATED TO LOWING BARRIERS TO ENTRY IN CLIMBING

VICE Media Partnership: The Invisible Wall

As part of the expansion of The North Face’s WALLS campaign, a creative and paid media partnership with VICE led to the production of The Invisible Wall, a short film following a team of Mexican and American ultrarunners along the U.S.–Mexico border. The piece explores how running transcends politics and geography, revealing the power of sport to connect communities and deepen collective understanding of place and culture.

Community-driven storytelling

A community-driven content strategy was central to the campaign’s success. Lifting up diverse voices and creating emotionally driven narratives increased brand credibility and audience engagement. One of the hero films, Monserrat Metehuala & the Call of the Wall, surpassed 1.7M YouTube views.

Centered on impact

At the heart of the campaign was authentic impact. Together with many nonprofit partners, the WALLS campaign directed more than $1.5M toward lowering barriers to entry in climbing, including a partnership with the Trust for Public Land to build seven free public climbing walls in underserved communities. I led and managed these impact partnerships, working closely with organizations such as TPL, Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK), Paradox Sports, Brown Girls Climb, Climb Malawi, and others to bring this vision to life.