Kathmandu
Brand messaging | UX writing | Content strategy | Content marketing
Brand messaging
Kathmandu has incorporated sustainability into its products for over 30 years, and yet had no dedicated hub for customers to explore this rich area of the business.
I created a Sustainability Hub for the business to serve this purpose and in turn meet team KPIs for brand tracking as it related to sustainability.
My role in this project included:
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Overall sustainability content audit
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Editing of existing content
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Writing new content
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Establishing and analysing existing site maps as they related to sustainability
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Redefined the organisation's communication of its initiatives into three areas: Environment, Materials, and People.
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Based on this new messaging framework, I brought up all content in the sitemap hierarchy and ranked messaging based on where/how it should be discovered
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Worked with designers on all aspects of the new 'Sustainability hub'
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Wireframing
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Usability testing
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Build out the hub on Magento CMS, incorporating new functionalities such as automatic (muted) play of videos, flush imagery, automatic scrolling of banner imagery while maintaining brand copy.
Brand messaging
In 2019 Kathmandu Holdings Ltd. acquired the Ripcurl brand, creating an umbrella group of outdoor adventure brands, including Kathmandu, Ripcurl and Oboz.
Working with an external design agency as well as working closely with the CMO of Kathmandu, I led and developed all of the copy for the Kathmandu Holdings Investor Centre. This involved identifying and differentiating each brand, ensuring they were positioned as standalone brands, while maintaining an overarching story for the group as a whole.
Brand messaging
To help bring back textile manufacturing to the shores of its home country in New Zealand, Kathmandu invested in wool and manufacturing processes sourced near the city of Christchurch.
I led the project for the content and visual design to communicate this new range of NZ Made products, working closely with creatives to ensure the story of this product was told with the passion that drove its inception.
Longform content
I had a KPI to increase Average Time On Page for the brand’s blog by 15% in a year and decrease Bounce Rates by 15% in the same time period.
Method:
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Changed blog layout for easier readability and to emphasise Kathmandu's vast bank of stunning imagery
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Added ‘Read more’ content tiles below all articles to reduce bounce rates
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Added product carousels to core performing articles and incorporated this into BAU for all content creation so as to increase conversion rates
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Embedded videos where applicable and supportive of content
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Refocused content towards utilising existing resources (interviews with environmental and travel ambassadors, sponsorship winners, surveys etc.) and a pivot towards promoting the value of the outdoors to individual and community health. A general move away from just 'How to's...' to engaging long-form content that promoted Kathmandu and a membership with it as a source for engaging content that inspired and equipped adventurers.
Within my first quarter alone, Average Time On Page increased by 41% in Australia and 52% in New Zealand. Bounce rates decreased by 13.5% in Australia and 11% in New Zealand - eclipsing expectations for the year.
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Kayaking one of the world's longest navigable rivers
When Marc Nieuwenhuys dipped his paddle into the Murray River for the first time on his 2,400km journey, there was no moment of revelation or peace.
“It took a couple of weeks for anything to happen in that way really,” Marc chuckles. “There was such a big build-up, I had been so busy and the preparation for my trip had been so epic. When I had made that instant decision to paddle the length of the river, my life took on enormous changes at once.”
With broad shoulders and a warm and inviting way of talking, Marc seems like a man rarely bothered. But looks can be deceiving.
In the NSW town of Bringenbrong in late August of 2019, even though the crisp alpine air was filling Marc’s lungs, he was on a heavy dose of antidepressants right up until he pushed his kayak out from the banks of the Murray River. Until this point, he had been battling severe depression for years.
The leading cause of death in Australia for those aged between 15 and 44 is suicide, and 75% of suicides are men. In New Zealand, 68% of suicides in 2019 were men, and the number of suicides in the country reached its highest point that year. Those that seem the strongest are often those who are in the most need of a life-saving conversation.
Prior to his life-changing journey, Marc had always enjoyed getting outdoors, but for an ironic reason that sometimes fed his illness.
“I enjoyed getting away. I enjoyed it because it isolated me but in a way that depression feeds on and enjoys. The decision to paddle solo for the length of the Murray wasn’t something I planned. I just saw a sign on the river one day that said there were 2,186km until where the river meets the sea. It just clicked. I was looking for something to change. So I told my mates that I was going to paddle it.”
Why do we reach for physical feats when our minds are in pain? Marc admits that he had no idea what it would be like to paddle a distance equivalent to that between Melbourne and Sydney more than three times over. On a still day, you might travel about two metres per stroke of the paddle. That means Mark dipped his paddle into the Murray at least 1.2 million times along his journey.
“I think being physical removes the ability of your brain to think about a lot of stuff. When you’re suffering, you’re not getting vital things like endorphins and adrenaline, so getting outdoors is a huge thing. I think it’s a combination of being challenged plus the fact that you are in control. Putting a challenge in front of you…putting it in front of me, well, that meant I took the decision to make it happen. It was a step forward for me to take control of things for once.”
Connecting with water, land and life
As if the challenge Marc set himself wasn’t gargantuan in and of itself, he added one more for kicks. He made it a rule that he could never leave sight of the river throughout his journey. No quick visits to the shops, no cheat days in a hotel. He wanted to connect first with the river so that he could connect in other ways.
“I took it a little too seriously. One night I needed some firewood but stopped myself from collecting a particularly nice looking branch of wood because by doing so I would have lost sight of the river.”
This connection with the river was vital for Marc’s survival, and it was a connection that grew as he paddled.
“The river was giving me something, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Once I got on it, a whole lot of things changed. Every morning I would get butterflies of excitement knowing I was about to get back onto the water. Maybe it was about getting an understanding of this volume of water that is doing so much in Australia. It’s not just a river, it’s an incredible beast. I had some serious conditions to contend with but the river never changed. It was always doing its thing.
“The most amazing thing I thought was wow, this has always been here, the river has always been doing this and it is free. By the time I got to the end of my journey, I felt sad that we aren’t just letting it be a river. I avoided the politics of how we manage the river, as it is so complicated, but seeing giant walls stopping the seawater from coming upstream felt like it wasn’t functioning as it’s supposed to. I hope one day we let the river be a river.”
Marc admits that his connection to the river was required before he could let other connections form.
“Connecting with people has been life-changing, but I wouldn’t have gotten that connection if I hadn’t had that connection with the river first. When you are away from the concrete, paddling 107 days and living out of a kayak, well, you just appreciate how complicated we have made our lives. We’re still battling for the same things we did 200 years ago. Food, water, shelter. But we have now made it so much more complicated.”
According to men’s health organisation Movember, 70% of men say their friends can rely on them for support, but only 48% say that they rely on their friends and are too hesitant to reach out for help. After talking to countless people along the river, and experiencing a clear desire from everyone for deeper connections, Marc has a theory about why we fail to reach out.
“I have an idea about the stigma around mental health. I think I created it, or at least my depression created it because it doesn’t want you to talk about it because then you start recovering. All I received along my journey was kindness, love and support. I stumbled across a group of over 20 young men enjoying a buck’s party one night by the river. They invited me over and I just started talking about the importance of opening up...and they did! Right in the middle of their buck’s party. We have this thin wall that we have put up to stop ourselves, but the moment you start the conversation it all pours out.”
A new way of life
In the first chapter of the book Marc is currently writing about his experience, he perfectly describes what it feels like to allow depression to creep its way in. Anyone who has experienced depression will relate to the cushioning, comfortable feeling it provides, for a while.
The black hole opens up and swallows you whole.
It's comforting, black, sadness pillows, slowly cushioning you down to the bottom.
That familiar bottom.
It's safe there.
And that's where I stay. All day.
“I have become an extremely conscious thinker,” Marc tells me. “I think about everything I do. It’s exhausting, but it has changed my life. I’m really conscious of what’s happening around me and how my brain may at times want to lean towards old ways of allowing depression in, so I have to be one step ahead of it. Being a conscious thinker. When I began my journey I was on a double max dose of antidepressants. I take nothing now.”
Finished with his first epic adventure, Marc and his wife Natalie are on the biggest adventure yet, and one that doesn’t have a clear finish line.
Quitting his job, Marc now works on the refurbishment of a houseboat he and Natalie bought with the intention of using it to travel up the Murray to speak with communities, research and learn about what affects them in particular, and connect communities with relevant health services.
“In the end, I just want to be a guy who you can have a beer with and talk. Talk about anything but, more than anything, connect.”
Beyond this, Marc is also working with partners in the development of a major project to connect people with mental health services more easily – a project that could potentially revolutionise how services are accessed across the nation.
Listening to him talk, it is clear that the split-second decision all those months ago to get in a kayak and just paddle has not only changed Marc’s life but those he meets every day. And as he and Natalie strive every day to make simple connections that light up flames within previously dark places, the river continues to flow towards the sea.
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