US OPEN OF SURFING
The Vans US Open of Surfing is one of the largest action sports festivals and surf events in the world, held annually in Huntington Beach, California. This premier event features top-tier surfing competitions, including the World Surf League (WSL) Challenger Series, alongside skateboarding and BMX showcases. With crowds during the week that total in the millions, it combines high-energy sports with a vibrant beach festival atmosphere to showcase the multi-faceted pillars of the Vans brand in all it’s glory, and of course, topped off in fun Van Doren style.
THE IDEA
GETTIN’ ________
SINCE ‘66!
The challenge was, for the first time in Vans US Open of Surfing history, to integrate a custom campaign utilizing the event artwork and color palette that told some of the amazing things that Vans has been authentically doing since its start in 1966. Gettin’ _______ Since ‘66 gave us the opportunity to successfully tell a variety of brand statements supporting the various brand pillars in a creative and fun way throughout the event space. This included, not only artwork and marketing promotions for the event, but also on-site activations, geo-located event photo filters on SnapChat, custom screen printing station to create one-of-a-kind products, a large branded retail store on the sand, creative activity centers, and much more.
EVENT ART
We partnered with local Los Angeles-based artist, Robbie Simon, known for his vivid colors and stark geometric compositions, reminiscent of a modern twist on the bright hues of the 1960s to bring a new flavor to the contest, but also tie back to it’s deep heritage in surfing culture..
PROMO VIDEOS
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
We not only wanted to tell the attendees how Vans fulfilled these various brand statements through it’s action sports, music and creative pillars, we also wanted to give them the opportunity to express their own. We successfully achieved this through a low-tech way of letting our consumers customize their own messaging by flipping through an alphabet of handwritten letters to fill in their own blank to share on their own social channels.
Collaborators: Chase Nann, Ryan Stephens, Tony Bertolino.