Where we started

Finnish snowmobile icon Lynx were launching the brand for the North American market for the first time – an underdog taking on the established players in the powersport category. Having recently successfully repositioned and relaunched the brand in Europe, the Keel team were tasked with sending some shockwaves through the US and Canadian slopes. But this wasn’t going to be a serene Sunday Morning ride. With a tight sales window to work in, a limited media budget and a hyper-sensitive confidentiality framework in place, we would have to think ‘rogue’.

The journey

So how did we convince our target audience of hardcore North American riders (who can smell BS from two mountains away) to buy into our promise of a fresh new riding experience, forged in Finland? With a rich, multi-channel, multi-format content campaign proving Lynx’s rebel spirit was engineered into every sled. Proving The difference is real.

With a pre-season sales window meaning sleds weren’t due to hit the snow for months, we found new ways to put our audience at the heart of the ride – on their smartphones, on their laptops and in their social feeds, capturing every aspect of the very first Lynx rides on North American snow. We brought to life the experience of riding a Lynx, using wearable tech to capture every beat of the riders’ hearts racing, every shout, every jump as they cut through the backcountry.

We brought in a new kind of brand ambassador: riders who embodied the brand spirit – tougher, wilder and more likely to push the machines to the absolute limit. They became the faces of the campaign and the standard bearers as we built our North American crew. In all, we created more than 270 cross-channel launch assets that proved a Lynx was the sled for any rider who embraces their wild side.

Where are we now

The North American launch smashed all pre-launch sales targets within six weeks of going live and supercharged Instagram follower growth across the globe: generating increases of 48% in Europe, 24% in the USA and 18% in Canada. Our badass ambassadors finished up the campaign with over 300k followers and their videos amassed more than 19.3 million views.

And according to the LYNX client: “You know what makes you guys so damn good? You get the brand, you love it, and you make it so damn sexy!” We’ll take that all day.