A bespoke digital experience, co-created with Maggie Rogers, for The North Face.

To celebrate the launch of the Ventrix™ Jacket and its heat release technology, The North Face, Spotify and musician/singer-songwriter/producer Maggie Rogers collaborated to create "The Release Project," an immersive digital experience that allowed Rogers' unreleased track, "Split Stones" to be unveiled to the public for the first time, layer-by-layer, through movement.

We designed this experience to bring to life the concept of movement unlocking content, giving the reward of a first listen to fans that took part. This one-of-a-kind digital experience mimicked the Ventrix product promise - changing based on how much or how little a user moved. The more work a user put in, the more layers of the song unlocked - all in real time. For those who successfully completed the experience, they were allowed an exclusive first listen to Maggie Rogers’ new track "Split Stones" before it was officially released to the public.

How it worked: Spotify listeners were prompted to engage with The North Face Ventrix™ ad on their mobile device. Using a mobile device’s gyroscope and accelerometer, we tracked the movement of the listener. The more the user moved, the more of Maggie Roger's track was released. So if a user is just walking, only the bass line is audible. With more movement, more layers of the song are played, until ultimately the full length track is unlocked and available to download.

​Working closely with The North Face and Spotify teams, we created a visual atmosphere for the campaign that integrated elements from both brands. The heat releasing technology of the jacket is mirrored throughout the experience by layering rich content with motion, color, texture and sound.

“I took the first sound samples for ‘Split Stones’ on a month-long backpacking trip in Oregon during the summer of 2013; I’ve been collecting samples and piecing the song together in bedroom studios and trails ever since. I’m super excited about combining the two things I love-technology and the environment-to create a way that people can hear the song, but also feel a little bit a part of the action and process that inspired it.”

— Maggie Rogers

​Results:

112,000+ Interactive Sessions / 25.7% Completion

2.2M streams of “Split Stones", 2,700+ streams on the Release Project playlist, hitting over 10,000 minutes of listening

Press:

53,123,119 impressions resulting from 37 media placements

Key outlets include UPROXX, FADER, Highsnobiety and Digital Trends