How Stubble&Co reached 1 million commuters

The Objective:

Forest has always encouraged people to make small sustainable changes to their daily habits, with opting for a bike rather than carbon-emitting modes of transport being our bread and butter. But this is London, which sadly is not known for its all-year-round sunshine and warm weather, a.k.a. prime cycling conditions…again, this is a mindset we’re keen to change.

So, when a Forest team member kept harping on about how great her Stubble&Co bag was for her commutes in the rain (she claims she’s a trendsetter because she was ahead of the curve of Stubble&Co bags becoming a commuting staple for the whole of London), we knew the stars aligned for the perfect wet-weather, get on your bike campaign - and fortunately, Stubble&Co agreed!

Forest wanted to execute an impactful campaign with the tone of fail to prepare, prepare to fail in terms of wearing appropriate wet-weather gear whilst cycling, and Stubble&Co were keen to generate strong brand awareness for their tough, durable and multi-functional bags, particularly amongst the commuting demographic.

The Campaign:

Did we mention this campaign went live in January 2023? Arguably the most miserable time of year to get out on a bike in the drizzle and wind, but that didn’t stop us from enticing Forest riders out to brave the elements with an exclusive giveaway from Stubble&Co.

The campaign headline was ‘Win a FREE Stubble&Co bag everyday in January’ - meaning we were basically extending Christmas Day for a whole extra month for 31 lucky riders.

By making the entry mechanism super simple, whereby each day a user took a Forest ride in January, they were automatically entered into the random prize draw, it meant Forest riders were being rewarded for their everyday behaviour, come rain or shine. This was particularly rewarding for our regular riders, such as those commuting, who would be entered multiple times throughout the month.

To communicate this special opportunity and to ensure we harnessed the engagement potential of a perfectly aligned target audience, an omni-channel approach utilising Journey Ads & Video Ads was curated. The giveaway messaging was pushed even farther and wider by a comprehensive comms plan across both CRM and socials too.

Stubble&Co’s dynamic, London-centric video assets, wonderfully exhibited their positioning as providing the perfect bag for every journey, which meant the relevancy and appeal to Forest’s London-based audience was spot on. Their Video Ads were integral to contextualising Stubble&Co’s products and values, which really targeted their objective of raising brand awareness.

We identified Journey Ads as the most effective channel to communicate the giveaway element, given that they’re the first touchpoint visible to all users. Picture this, you’re about to start a Forest ride and you get notified that by taking said impending ride, you’ll automatically be entered into a prize draw to win a Stubble&Co Roll Top bag, with a value of £120 - that’s certainly one way to bring the sunshine on a gloomy weekday morning!

This highlights how seamlessly Stubble&Co’s messaging integrated into a Forest rider's typical journey, and with 738,000 dual-branded impressions delivered via these Journey Ads, Stubble&Co was confirmed as the wet weather sponsor of Forest!

The Impact:

We’d be the first to admit that the prospect of launching Stubble&Co’s campaign in the depths of Winter, with results reliant on users riding our bikes, at first does not sound like the brightest of ideas. However, if you look beyond this, it’s a different story.

⅓ of Forest’s rides take place during commuting hours, and what do commuters need (especially in Winter)? Durable, practical and comfortable bags - so make way for what became the Stubble&Co x Forest partnership of dreams.

The undeniable overlap in audience and product suitability, led to one of our most notable partnerships to date. The bag giveaway campaign saw over 3,500 Forest users who hadn’t ridden in the 4-12 weeks prior to the activation, get on our bikes in ‘non-prime cycling conditions’, which really highlighted the value of Stubble&Co’s Call to Action.

‘How Stubble&Co reached 1 million commuters’ wasn’t just a title for clickbait either, their 738k Journey Ads, 31.5k Video Ads and 220k commuters reached via CRM and extensive social media campaign, confirms the reach of their messaging, and let’s just say we’ve seen a lot more Forest riders repping Stubble&Co bags since January 2023.  👀

If any more evidence was required to emphasise how well-suited Stubble&Co and Forest are, we were very pleased to launch a second campaign together in June 2024, in honour of their latest yellow bag colourway being launched!

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