Back in the day, there were extreme sports and team sports. Speak to the Boomer generation, and they’ll tell you that people didn’t just run for fun, and cycling was nothing more than a mode of transport.
Outdoor sports have filled a new niche; the gap between our sedentary, safe indoor lives and the unknown and unpredictability offered by the outdoors. I like to think the rise of outdoor activity has come from our human need to be close to nature; the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and 56.3 million of us live in cities. What’s more, research by Friends of the Earth revealed nearly 10 million people in England have very limited access to green spaces. It seems a natural response, right? To escape our islands of concrete and seek out the sounds and sights of our natural world to make us feel alive again — I’m talking about fresh air, a physical release and the mental clarity we can gain from that.
“Sure, their brand strategies are rock solid, but it’s their stories that bring their community together.”
But as the huge influence of outdoor sports brands reveal, there’s way more to it than that. Although 43% of British adults say what they love about these activities is that it gets them outdoors, there are of course loads of reasons that trail running, bikepacking and surfing take up a large amount of our leisure time. There’s the physical challenge, and the community and comradery that comes from doing it together. It was a literal lifeline for people in the pandemic – Strava’s Year in Sport 2020 revealed outdoor activity in the UK increased by a MASSIVE 82% as Covid-19 increased public appetite for outdoor activities across the whole of Europe.
Outdoor sports brands are powerful. Their products enable us to establish a connection with nature, benefit from physical activity, and find a community of like-minded individuals. Sure, their brand strategies are rock solid, but it’s their stories that bring their community together. They have developed their own creative routes for storytelling; through creative freedom, passion and dedication. From a deep understanding that comes from immersing yourself in a subculture and its community. This is why we see extreme sports brands in skate, cycling and surfing putting out content that flies, despite not always being on-trend or algorithm-friendly. These are businesses that are investing in passion, rather than searching for a commercial golden bullet.
Why do we need storytelling in sustainable business?
We’re at a critical point in sustainability communications, nearing peak greenwash, where brands know exactly what people want to see and hear, but many aren’t following through with authentic, meaningful actions – I’m looking at you British Cycling and Mercedes. While they waste time pouring money into greenwash, and get called out for it, purpose-led brands have the opportunity to build on their integrity, and take the long-view: tell stories that speak to the human in all of us. Stories that are invested in passion. I’ve always believed storytelling is the golden ticket to purpose-driven communications; because truly purpose-led brands have great stories to tell.
Stories are an ancient human practice — they transcend cultures and generations. Crafting narrative arcs, protagonists, characters and tension is all in a day’s work for novel writers, but I still see brands getting confused about what storytelling is, and how they can use it as part of a long-term strategy to build a meaningful relationship with their audience.
Let’s be clear, storytelling is more than your brand narrative. It’s more than telling your audience who you are, what you do, and why you matter. Storytelling for brands is an account, an anecdote or a tale that evokes an emotional response from your audience, taking them out their world into your own, if only for a minute or two. In sustainable business, it’s all too easy to present your audience with facts and figures in the name of raising awareness, and push alarming messages of distress to provoke action. Turn’s out, according to much cited research by cognitive psychologist Joseph Bruner, stories are 22 times more memorable than facts.
Done right, storytelling will make your brand memorable in your audience’s mind, build a community that shares your values, and reveal your human side. As our purpose-led businesses balance the planet, people and profit, how can we better engage people in our mission? How can we use storytelling to pull our audience into our world, rather than pushing campaign messages onto them?
I’ve dug into what three industry leaders in outdoor sports have done with their storytelling, to offer real-world examples from the outdoor industry on how you can speak to people and their passions—and ultimately engage them in your brand and its purpose for the long haul.
Finisterre
The narrative? A brand built on their shared love of the sea. Finisterre, the Cornish cold-water surfing brand founded back in 2003, is the British answer to Patagonia and one we should all be proud of. Respected purposeful business pioneers, its Founder, Tom Kay, set out on a mission to make quality outdoor clothing in the most responsible and transparent way possible. Its leadership in sustainable business often sees its name mentioned along with the likes of Ben & Jerry’s, Allbirds and other big changemakers. The quality and performance of the products, from wetsuits to apparel, do much of the heavy-lifting when it comes to Finisterre’s popularity; let’s remember that storytelling strategies are no replacement or cover up for a lack of integrity or purpose. But the brand love from their community has come from someplace other— the spirit of their storytelling.
Shared experiences of the sea and beyond
Each campaign launch of a new line comes coupled with a story of an adventure into typically Finisterre territory; the wild edges of the UK often battered by bracing, British weather. By capturing and manifesting the power of a shared experience outdoors in cold water and cold weather through stills and video, the brand isn’t just capturing the products in action to help them sell their range, but connecting people with the feeling of wildness and the freedom they love. Their storytelling effectively pulls on our social desires of community; a shared experience. Their stories capture the joy in coming together in adventure, whether that’s in leaping into freezing waters or warming hands by the fire, to communicate the pleasure of these moments in the outdoors. Their blogs published on The Broadcast dial up the authenticity further, accounts of real, lived experiences that turn up the emotion and tap into what their community desires most in a big way.
So here are my questions for you; how could you use the spirit of your brand to tell stories to strengthen that sense of community, of belonging? What social desires could your brand tap into, to further your purpose?
- Use evocative images to tap into the power of community and togetherness
- Focus on moments and feelings in your stories your audience will find relatable, we’re talking about the post-hike brews?
- Open up the floor; invite ambassadors or people in the community who share your values to share real-life accounts of their experiences
Albion
The narrative? Cycle clothing to help you stay outside for longer. With a big market of dedicated cyclists with sizable salaries to spend, we’re inundated with cycling brands repping the latest innovations in lycra. Breaking away from the flashy, matchy-matchy style for a more minimalist, subdued aesthetic, Albion is a British cycling brand creating high-performance cycling gear designed with our country’s notorious weather conditions in mind. Practical and responsible in equal measure, they use reputable factories offering technical textile excellence and fair pay to their employees in Britain, China and Italy. Taking it one step further, in 2021 they integrated recycled fabrics into their range of performance gear, action of their commitment to low-impact, long-lasting clothing and equipment.
Slow stories from the road
All good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end—it’s easy to forget that in the era of TikTok entertainment and cultural commentary. What Albion do really well is to avoid the temptation to fall into the harder, faster, better mindset and instead embrace meandering tales to get lost in. Their content tells of slower stories from the road, which when you boil them down are often nothing more than a bike ride in the rain. But it is, of course, so much more than that. It’s a journey where internal, physical challenges and external challenges from the elements experienced out there overlap, and are overcome by grit and determination. Loud, unnerving rattling of passing trucks, hammering rain; their films and log accounts don’t shy away from the detail. They use it generously to engage their followers and customers in the experience of the journey.
So what are the lessons here? Don’t be afraid to slow down, and use the finer details of audio and visuals to take people away from their current situation into your world, whether that’s a wet, rainy section of uphill tarmac or into your supply chain. People aren’t won over by a perfect product alone, they want to go on the journey—so take them with you.
- Leverage multimedia formats to take your audience on a multi-sensory journey
- Think about the narrative arc; beginning, middle and end
- It’s easy to think all about the visuals when it comes to brand storytelling, but audio is a powerful medium – how could your brand leverage audio?
The Faction Collective
The narrative? Skiers, filmmakers, artists, dreamers and doers united by a love for the mountains and the world’s finest tools of escape. A new addition to the B Corp family, Faction is a ski brand that lives by the very definition of its moniker — “a minority group working within and in opposition to the majority group”. Brought together by a love of the mountains, the brand co-creates ski equipment, technical outerwear and apparel with its collective. By sourcing the woodcores of its skis from sustainable sources, and manufacturing them in a 100% renewable energy-powered Austrian factory, Faction has made massive strides to achieve B Corp certification and pioneer environmental best practices in their industry.
Main characters of the mountains
What I love about this brand is how they use their talented collective to bring all the main character energy to their storytelling. If you’re not into freeskiing, you probably won’t know who Daniel Hanka is, you might know of Sarah Hoefflin for her Olympic medals, or of Candide Thovex for his epic, viral head-cam videos of him descending mountain terrain from top to bottom in one, effortless line. But these sponsored skiers (past and present) are big names in the skiing community, offering fans of the Faction brand real people to admire and follow. Faction’s sponsored skiers were around before today’s influencers, and the brand’s feature-length films and social channels are brought to life by the talents and skills of this collective. Big-budget film collaborations split into segments often capture the personal challenges, fears and ambitions of each athlete, set in epic mountain terrain. Whether tearing up the snow park or dropping into a backcountry line, each athlete has their own style and skills to capture on film, obviously all in their choice of Faction gear.
It’s not all about production value here. You might not have the budget for feature-length films, but you can show your audience that you share their passion, their beliefs and their values. Find authentic, passionate ambassadors who will tell their own stories to complement yours, and collaborate with them to align your values with your audiences.
- Find brand ambassadors and influencers to tell their own stories, not your brand’s story
- Tap into the fears and ambitions to help your audience connect with the people in your stories on a personal level
- Recycle your stories media to resonate in different formats, from a feature-length film to short video edits to a Spotify playlist
We’ve all got something to learn from these masters of adventurous storytelling, whether it’s not shying away from the fight and highlighting the challenges, tapping into human emotions, or sharing the finer details of the journey.
If you want to speak to me or the team about how you can plan for the long-term and focus on your brand’s storytelling strategy – you know where to find us.
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