O’Neill

For the past 30+ years, O’Neill has been a splintered brand existing as independently run licenses all over the world. Recently a Dutch holding company bought back all the licenses and decided to move forward as a single, global brand with a single, global message. O’Neill initially came to us to help determine their brand positioning within the surf and snow industry.

Together we determined that the convention and standard was all boobs and tubes, babes and bros living the SoCal summer lifestyle, and brands were basing their credibility on who had the coolest action shot in the latest core magazines.

We suggested that O’Neill take the higher ground of a company dedicated to creating the toys and tools that allow us to play with the forces of nature. And to base their credibility in Jack O’Neill, their cold water heritage, and their history of game-changing innovations.

We started by writing a manifesto for them.

After plastering it on the walls of their headquarters in the Netherlands, they asked us to create their brand DNA. We took the opportunity and ran. We put together a team and created their brand look, tone, and feel. We wrote their brand principles, redesigned their logo, created new brand marks for their clothing, suggested new products, dreamt up events, designed retail stores, and even drew up their retail hang tags. They flew me out to shape their female strategy and work with their product designers and in-house marketers. And of course we came up with advertising.

We wrapped the work with the tagline: First in, Last out. This surfer credo captured Jack’s passion for innovation, the outdoors, and the genesis of O’Neill - the company that introduced the first wetsuit, the first double-blind stitch seam, the first surf leash, etc.

Knowing that we had something that no one else had – the legacy and legend of Jack O’Neill – we decided we would launch with work that put Jack O’Neill back into O’Neill. Once we established the authenticity and heritage, we would move from the legacy to work that expressed the energy and love for surf and snow in innovative, creative ways that went beyond the typical surf and snow action porn.

We suggested O’Neill continue the attitude of First in, Last out into events and content. Everything from the O’Neill Midnight Classic – the first ever night surfing competition; to setting up barges in channels or huts on the slope so that people could rest and refuel without having to get out of the water or get off the mountain; to building a website based on the best ideas of Pandora, Wikipedia, Facebook, and Trip Advisor - Jack’s World. This would be an interactive database of all the breaks and slopes in the world, tagged with their most defining characteristics. Users would log on to research…the best left barrels with offshore winds in winter around the globe - and breaks with those characteristics would show up. But other breaks that shared different characteristics with these breaks that would also appear as satellite links , allowing people to travel between universes of surfing spots. At each of the break or slope profiles users would be able to upload or link their own personal info and content relating to that particular location: written posts, photos, and videos. Jack’s World would be the ultimate, global, living encyclopedia of breaks and slopes, featuring user-generated content and information our consumers really hungered for.

So after all the work and trans-Atlantic traveling, what happened?

Well….the CEO, a fashion alum from Esprit, wanted to build a mass, lifestyle brand. The CMO and creative director wanted to maintain a core brand. After 7 months of internal fighting, hiring, and firing…we took a step back and gently suggested that perhaps they had some issues they needed to work out. As of right now,we know they’re using the tagline, but are not running any advertising outside of action shots in core magazines and websites.

That and we never got the wetsuits they promised.

ACD/CW: Kristina Slade
ACD/AD: Rodrigo Butori
CWs: Robert Calabro, David Povill, Michael Richardson
AD: Stephen Chow, Beau Hanson, Matthew Titone
CD: Patrick O’Neill