Home is here.
As we entered the back half of 2018, our marketing team met to discuss which themes we should explore this Holiday season. In an early conversation, “Gear for the Journey Home” was suggested, and we never looked back. Sure, we recognized “home” as a Holiday buzzword, used frequently in Christmas messaging. But how might we turn it on its head? What if we said home is not a place of where family sleeps or where meals are made? What would it look like to relearn home as a shapeshifter, taking form as feeling, people, and new ground?
Before our flight to Washington, where we filmed, the voiceover to our “Home” video was far from finalized. Sarah, my thought partner and co-producer in the campaign, and I shared a Google Doc collaged with metaphors, song lyrics, and personal memories. We were synced on vision, yet found ourselves unable to fully articulate what Home meant to us.
This process helped us discover home is a feeling.
Its warmth exceeds language.
In recognizing this, we called in the big shots (that’s you!) to assist putting thoughts to words. We asked three questions which promoted over 300 responses, many of which were shared on Instagram.
"Home is ______"
You answered our prompts, sent us emails, and created your own posts – you even wrote poetry.
We let creativity breathe and used your responses in drafting the final script to our video, your blend of backgrounds and experiences confirmed the fluidity we believed home to have.
While shooting on location, Sarah and I pressed deeper into the subject. Encouraged by your response, our crew shared s’mores, drinks, and thoughts on “home” around open fire. On the shoot, my dear friend Karen Wang shared her current perspective on home as she adapts to life with chronic illness. “I lived in isolation, pain, and suffered daily for most of the year. For so many months, I couldn’t see any light at the end of the dark, dark tunnel.”
Through tears, Wang continued, recounting stories from her thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail and how these joy-filled moments help prepare her for the worst of this year. You see, for Wang, Home exists in memory, people, and wilderness . “I’ve never felt so comfortable in my own skin than in the wilderness. Home is trail. Home is where I feel the most empowered, safe and most like myself.”
Home exists outside the perimeter of one location.
Home is people.
As we built out the campaign, we understood home didn’t just exist in memory, people, and feeling –– it also exists in the here and now. Megan Kantor of Cedar and Pines recently shared on our blog, “Home is a space where you can be vulnerable. Where you don’t feel the need to explain yourself to others. Where you’re known, understood, and loved.”
Home is here.
Home is the sunrise that invites, the craft of homemade cookies, and pushed comfort zones. It’s learning to scale granite and how to best welcome friends to camp. It’s where trust grows, and rest abides. It’s vulnerability met with unending support. At home, value is recognized first. At home, we salute to time and respect how it crafts us. It’s balancing discipline and freedom. It’s warmth. I find home in memory and the richness of rewinding experiences.
Welcome home, campers. Thanks for exploring with us this Holiday.
