14 | Brands that Build Bridges

between the physical and digital worlds.

Jim Mangan wasn’t intending to photograph the young man that came up to him in Colorado City in 2018. He was actually there to shoot the strange, half-finished homes in the fundamentalist Mormon enclave on the Arizona-Utah border. The local elders — fiercely resentful of any government or outside impositions — left them unfinished in order to avoid paying property tax in Utah. But this time it was not the buildings, but the young man that caught Jim’s eye.

They got to talking, and the young man, Jobi, told him what he and his friends got up to: dressing up as frontiersman, riding horses, and hunting out in the wild. Because they were seen as competition for young wives by the more senior men — most polygamists — this group of boys had been marginalized in the town, forming their own community and subculture.

Jim spent the next five years photographing Jobi and his friends, the photos resulting in his handsome new photo book The Crick. He was in Amsterdam a few weeks ago for the first solo show of the work, and I had him out on Hella for an interview. That will come out as soon as I finish the edit.

Boatcasting with artist Jim Mangan.

We spoke about changing narratives and his love for the wild, ancient settings Utah provided. He’s shot every one of his major photography series there, often returning to the same locations.

”Each time, those particular locations, they became a new canvas,” he told me as we cruised down the Herengracht. “They presented themselves as something entirely different than what I had presented before. I think you can go to a place over and over again, and go deeper and deeper into it. I think there’s something special about that.”

Immersion is a promising word. It suggests complete focus in an age where we find such a thing almost impossible. In Jim’s case, it offers an opportunity to not just truly understand a place, but understand it in exceedingly different ways the further you probe.

The young men of The Crick. © Jim Mangan

Most brands, of course, seem to understand it differently: Immersion not in the world, but in their world: either physical, virtual, or through augmented reality. You can’t make it to a store? Well, then, virtually try on their clothes, their glasses, their makeup.

Not that these tools can’t do more, of course. Snap was the first social platform to truly embrace augmented reality, and create tools that encouraged its users to make lenses for themselves, their friends, even local landmarks.

Since 2022, users have been able to build “custom landmarkers”, layering their own stories on to the landmarks, or shopfronts that mean something to them. But I haven’t seen brands do much with that compelling contextual tool.

There was a nice Yayoi Kusama x Louis Vuitton collaboration last year. Snap users were able to point their phones at landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, or Eiffel Tower, and see them covered in the signature colorful dots from the celebrated Japanese artist’s designs on Vuitton luggage and accessories.

But that felt more of a surprise and delight moment than an immersion. I think that’s why I thought this attempt by Yeti was so interesting.

It doesn’t use AR or VR, or take place in a Yeti store. Yet it felt immersive. Starting with a brief that likely asked for a bone-dry product play, the team told a story that created a sense of brand immersion in the physical world, even without us having to leave our chairs. Though you should do that, obviously.

👇🏼 A nice example

Map the Gaps by Yeti charts the blank spots of Google Maps with the help of their adventure sports brand ambassadors (toting the latest YETI cooler, of course). Smart idea. Why compete with others in the mosh pit of standard social media platforms when you can “hack” one of the digital tools roughly a billion people use every month? After identifying trails (in known, picturesque locations around the world) that had yet to be mapped, Yeti outfitted 13 of their ambassadors with GPS-enabled 360 degree cameras. From the rainforests of British Columbia in Canada, to deserts outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the hundreds of hours of GoPro footage were cut together and then uploaded to Google Maps. Customers could access the rich campaign web site via QR codes in their stores, or links provided by the social media campaign. The videos allow you to spend a few minutes walking along with an ambassador or two in parts of the world unknown to you. The business goal was to market the Hopper backpack (Yeti reported a 300% increase in sales of the item thanks to the campaign). The brand goal? Making the uncharted parts of our world more accessible. Whether you buy into that line I suppose depends on where you fall in the “view it vs. do it” debate. And yes, the Hopper cooler bit was corny (You can almost hear the ping of high five emojis ricocheting around Yeti’s marketing Slack.) But there is now also high quality footage of previously un-seeable trails that will beckon those inclined to lace them up for a hike. Yeti championing itself as the brand that brings you closer to the outdoors. Whether you bring a cooler or not, well, that’s entirely up to you.

🪼 Flotsam & Jetsam 🏊🏾
Random links from this week’s haul

📖 I went ahead and bought the book editor-par-excellence Adam Moss was talking about in the podcast I linked to last week. The Work of Art is — so far — a work of art. More than just for your coffee table.

🎧 I’ve spent the last few days inhaling this BBC Sounds podcast on Banksy. It’s told from the perspective of a superfan who discovers the wrinkles in the starched image of his hero.

📰 A native San Diegan tries out America’s largest surfing wave pool and a mall in New Jersey and finds unexpected hope.

Hey, what is this?
BRAND NEW STORY highlights smart strategies and good stories told by brands and humans. It’s penned by me, Andreas Tzortzis (or, simply, Dre) and draws on insights from my career at Red Bull, Apple, and in my own brand consultancy Hella. It appears every week or so because I write it, schedule it and hit send. I’m always on the look out for your ideas, so write me, and go ahead and forward it to folks who might find it interesting. Sign up and see the archive here.