Client: Eagle Expeditions

Role: Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Graphic Design, Copywriting

Eagle Expeditions aims to provide consumers with a personal adventurous outdoor experience, helping them break out of their mundane lifestyle. The organization is like no other outdoor logistics organization. They work directly with clients to orchestrate personal adventures, providing an intimate experience for small, close-knit groups. The staff plans, manages, executes and leads expeditions lasting two nights or longer. While every journey is developed to be exhilarating, they are also purposefully made to be learning opportunities by being challenging—with the intention for personal growth. Eagle Expeditions’ adventure guides have an education in psychology and human behavior allowing them to help clients learn a lot about themselves as they work to overcome internal and external threats during their trip.

Concept work does not come with the same set of constraints as real projects. Challenges such as scheduling, budget, personalities, and more will greatly impact the direction and outcome of the creative work. Some creatives may argue that to thrive, creativity should be given complete freedom. In reality, challenges and obstacles stimulate creative ideas and can lead to breakthrough solutions.

 

Collaborating as a team brings a tremendous benefit to the project. A team, creatives or non, are always better than an individual for solving creative problems. Collaborating with others allows for greater brainstorming. When there is an environment of collaboration, people tend to think of new and innovative ways to solve problems that they might not have considered otherwise.

As a service company, Eagle Expeditions has a unique marketing challenge. Consumers view services as a high-risk purchase because there is nothing tangible to grab ahold. Success for a service-oriented brand relies on strong consumer satisfaction. The higher the perceived value, the lower the risk—resulting in a higher probability of trial of the Eagle Expeditions services. Therefore, it’s essential the organization builds a strong emotional bond with consumers through a strong brand awareness campaign integrated throughout their marketing communications.

Eagle Expeditions inspires clients to dream big and request the wildest backcountry adventure imaginable through multiple strategies.

 

Emotional effective strategy connects with the organization’s consumers’ positive emotions, such as determination, courage, inspiration, motivation, and confidence. 

 

The cognitive message strategy in the ads’ call-to-action works to persuade the consumer into visiting the website or take another particular action.

Content seeding strategy in its social media contests is an excellent tool for connecting with consumers, directing traffic, and increasing the brand’s fan base. 

 

Adventure guides and clients are encouraged to use real-time marketing to share their experience by posting photos and videos—before, during, and afterwards. 

 

Post-expedition, the Eagle Expeditions marketing team uploads a new blog entry detailing the latest experience and encouraging audience engagement.

Eagle Expeditions will be positioned as a premium service adventure company providing logistical services to build and lead personalized, premium quality outdoor adventures for individuals wanting to escape their mundane lifestyle.

BRAND PERSONALITY 

The brand is passionate about providing consumers with a personalized, adventurous experience that encourages personal growth. Certain characteristics serve as the foundation for who they are as a brand and helps consumers relate to Eagle Expeditions on a personal level. 

• Adventurous 

• Authentic 

• Boundaryless 

• Courageous 

• Determined 

• Motivated 

• Spirited 

• Welcoming

Experience the best. Trust the best. 

When weekend warriors and outdoor enthusiasts want a truly personalized outdoor adventure with an adventure guide they know they can trust, they will purchase the services of Eagle Expeditions. On every trek, clients will partner with the organization to build their ideal adventure. One of their trustworthy Adventure Guides will lead them on their expedition. Ultimately, the brand promises every customer the ability to build their own adventure, led by a guide who they can trust their lives with.

While Eagle Expeditions’ Adventure Guides is what sets the brand apart from other adventure tour organizations, they are not the exact desired associations. Rather, the ability to create a personalized and challenging experience is where Eagle Expeditions truly sets itself apart from the competitors. The brand’s positioning influences the target market to associate the brand with several specific impressions. 

• Premium quality product 

• Personalized outdoor adventures 

• Exceptional customer service 

• Rewarding experiences

Eagle Expeditions is a brand that consumers will come to be known for personalized outdoor adventures that encourages personal growth. Ultimately, the brand will earn the image as the preferred outdoor adventure tour company by consistently planning, managing, executing, and leading clients on personalized, premium quality, yet challenging, outdoor experiences.

Personalized outdoor adventures. 

The organization’s mantra verbalizes what makes up the heart and soul of Eagle Expeditions. It is the mindset of the brand, orchestrating and leading clients on outdoor adventures that they build by partnering with one of their Adventure Guides. This mantra defines everything Eagle Expeditions does; including advertising campaigns, marketing strategy, brand extensions, activity development, and sales promotions.

Personalized adventures by experienced professionals you can trust. 

A well established unique selling point gives the brand an advantage over their competitors and will often be what their prospects use to evaluate the product. For many consumers, this is the first thing they encounter when discovering Eagle Expeditions. The organization’s unique selling point forms the basis for their marketing communication strategy.

The process of visually branding Eagle Expeditions started with establishing the color palette. As an outdoor recreation organization, the colors needed to reflect elements of the earth. The green in the logo mark signifies the grasslands and the forests. Whereas the dark blue in the wordmark represents the water and the light blue depicts the sky. The important factor in creating the logo was maintaining its high readability when utilized in various platforms, devices, as well as in different sizes.

 

The mark made of a large capital “E” signifies the massive challenges Eagle Expeditions’ clients desire to experience. The wordmark consists of two similar fonts with different weights, both of which indicate a strong, confident brand. The tagline makes it crystal clear to the audience that they will experience a unique adventure that no other organization is providing. 

 

An added component to the visual brand is a set of over 40 icons representing the different seasons, terrains, and activities.The graphical elements are employed in the campaign artwork to signify the different aspects of the adventure. The style of the icons are similar to wilderness patches featuring similar lineart within a circle.

Eagle Expeditions is employing a strong advertising campaign, with print ads running in strategically chosen magazines; Backpacker, Outside, Women’s Health, and American Airlines’ American Way. Even with the tremendous growth in internet and social media advertising, print ads are still incredibly beneficial in growing awareness. Key benefits of magazine advertisements include long-life, high market segmentation, direct-response techniques, longer attention to ads, and high color quality. Furthermore, magazines allow for targeted marketing with a broad readership.

 

The print campaign includes a publication insert the interested adventurists would fill out and mail in for a detailed personalized promotional document focusing on their areas of interest. Additionally, multiple print ads were developed at various sizes; full page, two-page spread, half page vertical, half page horizontal, and one cause marketing campaign—founded on key strategies.

Eagle Expeditions’ social media campaign serves as an essential component of the brand's IMC. In today’s digital society, a brand must incorporate social media into their promotional mix for its contribution to engaging consumers, developing loyal fans, gathering customer intelligence, and increasing brand exposure. Like the print campaign, the primary objective is to raise awareness. Eagle Expeditions utilizes four of the leading networks; Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. The brand further promotes itself on three niche sites whose focus is on outdoor adventures; Yonder, GoWild, and The Outbound Collective.

While out-of-home may be one of the oldest and most well-established forms of advertising, it still has tremendous potential in influencing a large number of consumers—ultimately, improving brand awareness. This style of advertising continues to blossom with mediums like digital displays in airports, roadside billboards, wallscapes on the side of buildings, and street furniture along public transit lines, among others. Markets were strategically chosen based on demographics, population size, as well as current and projected growth. 

 

Key markets include Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, and Seattle

Skill sets employed throughout the Eagle Expeditions conceptual project includes, graphic design, brand strategy, marketing strategy, and copywriting. Technical programs used to build the creative are all Adobe Creative Cloud products, InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop.