The new campaign showcasing Wrangler Europe’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection continues the denim brand’s trend of digital engagement and interactivity.

Video: A scene from Wrangler Europe’s interactive campaign

The new Wrangler Europe Spring/Summer 2012 interactive website from Stinkdigital was directed by Arno Salters through Wrangler EMEA. Online visitors are taken on an interactive exploration through five different locations in the city of Portland in Oregon, USA, including a rooftop, a college library and the city’s waterfront.

The online interactive showcase, allows users to explore this season’s range by dragging the models who fall and almost teleport into a new location, seamlessly changing into something different from the collection. Users can also share their favourite scenes on Facebook and Twitter.

Managing Director and Founding Partner or Stink Digital, London and New York, Mark Pytlik says: “Wrangler briefed us with the story behind the collection and the accompanying “Get Your Edge Back” tagline, a reference in part to the fact that Selvedge denim features heavily. From there, it was on us to create the concept for an interactive film. We created lots of different executions around the central concept of “Get Your Edge Back”, but the one we liked the most was this, which was physical, immediate and a fairly literal interpretation of that line.”

Stinkdigital’s crew and director Arno Salters worked alongside Wrangler and their accompanying team on the content for the site, which was shot in Portland in one day. Images captured included models falling into mattresses. Back at their studio, they polished up transitions between the scenes before working on design lockups, interaction design and film integration. Overall it was a six month process from start to finish, with downtime in between.

The interactive element of this campaign is not unfamiliar territory for Wrangler Europe. Stinkdigital also produced “Mark Your Territory” for the denim brand’s Autumn/Winter 2011 collection which also invited viewers to interact with the models, propelling them into different scenes.

The campaign took its cue from Swedish interactive production company, Kokokaka, Gothenburg who in 2010, produced a mini-promo campaign for Wrangler’s Blue Bell Spring/Summer collection by Tony Ward. The clothing was presented by the model (Ward himself) who is ‘tied’ to the visitor’s mouse. Users were able to manipulate him by using the mouse to make him turn around and fall.

Fred & Farid, Paris created the notable “Stunt” print campaign for Wrangler’s Spring/Summer 2011 collection to give a contemporary twist to the brand’s cowboy image, but with minimal branding. The striking series of images of stunt people jumping through panes of glass and being set on fire were featured in the Lürzer’s Archive print magazine last year (Vol. 3/2011).

“Wrangler set a standard with some groundbreaking interactive work early on,” says Mark.

“In the three years we’ve worked together, we’ve always aimed to do work that’s similarly stylish, simple and immediate. We’re proud of all the pieces we’ve done, but this one feels like the most elegant realisation of that so far.”

On the use of digital in campaigns such as this, Mark says there are many good reasons.

“If you put enough care and thought and craft into a project, then the attention that you get back when people finally engage with it has the potential to far outweigh the original investment. Plus, done right, the combination of interactivity and film and digital craft has the potential to resonate with users in a much more profound way. Beyond that, a project like this provides a useful way to reach and engage with a large and otherwise disparate audience.”

Video: “Get Your Edge Back” for Wrangler Europe

Production Company: Stinkdigital
Director: Arno Salters
Director of Photography by Shawn Kim
Production: Michelle Faucheux
Music: Michael Fakesch of Funkstörung.
Executive Producer: Mark Pytlik
Creative technology: Marcel Kornblum

Visit the Wrangler Europe website for the full interactive experience.