BENCHMADE HERITAGE CAMPAIGN
Benchmade has a history like many companies. It all started with a DIY style at the handsof a visionary: undocumented stories, elusive details, fabled and outlandish moments- all being somewhat hard to know actual truth vs. the legend. Subjekt was tasked with developing a campaign, that while integrating product, educates and celebrates Benchmade’s history, to drive brand loyalty with existing consumers.
SERVICES
Brand Strategy
Concept Development
Creative Direction
Project Management
Art Direction & Design
Production
Post Production
Before we’d be able to tell the stories, we had the learn the true history for ourselves. We began by conducting interviews with long-time employees including the president and CEO (the founder’s son), uncovering stories new and old. We also combed their archives, filled with images and artifacts of marketing collateral… flyers, trade show VHS tapes, you name it. This led us into defining our foundation for our campaign as a chronological format, focused on the creation of episodical stories aligning time periods with products and unique moments from the history.
Next we dove into the “Vault”; Benchmade has archived one of every knife they’ve made, and saved them since day one. Also found were one-of-a-kind prototypes, original knives from the beginning, an archive of catalogs, additional promo items, and everything in-between. We photographed everything we could get our hands, as we continued refining the copy and designs for our campaigns.
Our creative direction brought in the brand colors and fonts, mixed with clean studio photography for the consistent high quality look the brand is known for. We allowed archival elements and texture detailing provide a touch of heritage to speak to the rich history this project encompassed.
Our stories unfolded into a 10 parts series, led by a teaser commercial. Each episode focused on a significant period in the brand’s history, and encapsulated the stories and products of the time. We used mixed media, heavy motion graphics and animation and a mix of static and video content to best visualize the story in digestible snippets. To further unpack the moments, we supported the visuals with elaborate and candidly articulated captions, filled with extended details.
A socially led-campaign, these assets were rolled out across brand platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn, each paired with curated headlines targeted for the specific audience.
