Breathe it to Believe it
Creating a submersive brand of wonder in under 90 days.
The Ask
As seasoned snorkelers and scuba divers, the International Water Sports (IWS) team saw a lack of innovation in their favorite aquatic sports. They sought a device that would revolutionize the category and allow them to truly immerse themselves in the underwater world. After years of searching, their stakeholders discovered a new respiratory technology developed by a senior engineer who had spent 30 years perfecting the innovation. It provides water sports enthusiasts the ability to breathe underwater freely and easily – no certifications, recharges, or refills necessary.
The IWS team needed to launch this game-changing new product quickly. As in, they needed a cohesive brand – complete with a new name, strategy, identity, website, and more – in time to premiere at a major diving expo in three months. They asked for Gel and Provisor’s help developing a brand that would truly reflect the disruptive wonder of this new underwater innovation.
The Challenge
IWS needed to make a splash with this new product – and they needed to do it fast. In order to capture the attention of their target (snorkelers, scuba divers, and underwater sports enthusiasts) they needed to launch a fully developed brand at a major diving expo in November. The challenge: November was only 90 days away…
In order to make this brand as consumer-centric as possible, we had a lot to discover about the brand, the audience, and the category. We needed to understand our target consumer’s motivations, usage occasions, and unmet needs, and validate our brand strategy and identity with them. We had to find ways to do this quickly, without sacrificing sound strategy.
The Solution
We had to be strategic not just with our brand but with our project timeline. To streamline the work and ensure the branding’s cohesion, we had to be nimble and incorporate our learnings quickly in order to stay on schedule.
We explored new tools and innovations that would add depth, intrigue, and, above all, wonder to the brand. AI was integral to this project. Visually, AI allowed us to fully realize the visual wonder of Freebreathe’s elusive underwater world. Strategically, this approach gave us fast consumer insight at every step of the project through our online survey tool, guaranteeing that our creative choices would ultimately pay off with snorkelers and underwater sport enthusiasts.
An Underwater Evolution
In our brand strategy, we sought to bring to life the strong emotions expressed by the stakeholders and end users when talking about the Freebreathe innovation. Through a guided workshop, we identified the high-level emotions that aligned with the product’s unique points of difference. Three rose to the top: Freedom, Discovery, and Immersion. We created a positioning platform around these pillars, positioning Freedom at the forefront of the brand’s messaging. This influenced the brand name, Freebreathe, as well as the brand’s disruptive tagline: “Breathe it to believe it.”
Free to Explore
Since one of Freebreathe’s greatest points of difference is its ability to let you explore underwater for as long as you’d like, our logo resembles an infinity sign made of waves. It also communicates the safety of the brand and its easy-breathing point of difference through the two air pockets. We brought our strategy to life with a brand identity that is vibrant and immersive. The underwater world is the hero of the branding, showcasing the wonders of the ocean that Freebreathe unlocks. The bright turquoise color is a nod to the aquatic while also alluding to the fact that this is something new, exciting, and revolutionary in the underwater sports space.
Finding the Right Current
Through comprehensive (yet quick) consumer research, we confirmed Freebreathe’s target consumer’s demographics, psychographics, and usage occasion. Our target consumer, we learned, is predominantly male, caucasian, aged 25-44, with an education and a good career that pays well enough to allow them to take vacations. They are watersports enthusiasts who snorkel, swim, and/or scuba dive, and would expect to try Freebreathe while traveling on vacation or on the weekends. Once identified, we created
a custom research panel of Freebreathe target consumers with whom we tested brand strategy and identity elements (brand name, positioning, visual direction, etc.) throughout the project.
Breaking Free
Within the framing of the logo structure, the colorful Freebreathe graphics offer a window through which to immerse yourself in the wonders of the underwater world. Featured “Freebreathers” and underwater stars like turtles, dolphins, and fish often break free of their frames, embodying the freedom and exploration at the core of the brand strategy.
Breathe it to Believe it
We wanted the website to be interactive, paralleling the immersive Freebreathe experience. Using an easy copy flow, full bleed images, and interactive widgets, the brand’s website is designed to be explored and experienced rather than just read for information.
A New Perspective
The Freebreathe experience is all about freedom, exploration, and immersion – no matter if you’re experiencing it in the water or on your phone. We designed the brand’s social media content to have layers and levels that the graphic’s subject could interact with. Incorporating the framing device of the logo, the featured “Freebreathers,” fish, and the device itself swim through, glide past, or even break free of the branded elements.
An Immersive Experience
The major diving expo represented the project’s finish line from the very beginning. We not only helped Freebreathe cross it, we helped it make waves, bringing Freebreathe’s immersive underwater experience to life and to land with layered tank decals, branded sales sheets, and more.
Making Waves
Freebreathe wanted to make waves for its launch. It did that and more. We identified a target consumer, named the brand, developed a memorable and disruptive brand positioning platform, created a vibrant, immersive brand identity, validated its appeal with our target consumer, designed and developed a website, and brought everything to life for the big expo – all in less than 90 days. Freebreathe not only caught eyes at the expo, it truly resonated. The brand garnered over 200 inquiries from that one event alone, making it a true new wonder in the watersports category.
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