How can workwear engineer higher performance?

The story.

TROJAN had previously been Arco’s straight-down-the-line, everyday workwear: a no nonsense, simple and affordable range for everyday trades. But, after a number of years of neglect, with it fading from Arco’s retail shelves in favour of third-party labels and the encroachment of ‘trade fashion’ brands, the question became less one of reinvesting marketing in TROJAN to boost visibility, and more one of repositioning and taking on the big names.

Going back to the workshop, Arco’s team reengineered TROJAN’s formula, weaving quality and extra features into every garment, all to create a range focused on not just the basics of comfort, but on enhancing both performance on the worksite and style off of it. The brand and marketing challenge was how to turn this reformulation into a point of differentiation in a crowded market of household names – standing out in a way that bypassed established and conventional positionings of ‘toughness’ or lifestyle fashion.

The thinking.

Our solution was to springboard off Arco’s expertise in clothing and equipment designed to perform safely in challenging environments – and so, position TROJAN as ‘performance workwear’ that draws together engineered fabric technology to enhance everything the tradesperson does. And so ‘Engineered to Perform’ was born.

This was a two-phase campaign. First, we needed to dive deep into the TROJAN DNA itself, exploring its engineered qualities in a way that put its benefits front and centre – and creating a link with customers, tapping into the pride in performance that’s in their own DNA.

Expressed in a high-concept CGI film, activated in-store at the point of purchase, and amplified across web, radio, OOH and on social media, this first phase relaunched TROJAN in a way no other workwear brand would imitate. But that was just the beginning.

The execution.

For phase two, we upped the drama, moving from the product itself to the people who wear it, with a dynamic live-action brand film capturing tradespeople performing extraordinary feats and stunts on the worksite – moments of mastery made possible by TROJAN.

The results.

Driving up the energy of the brand, and activated and amplified through the same multichannel approach to reinforce our positioning strategy, we launched TROJAN in a way that performed exceptionally through channels selected to reach the right audience across video on demand, radio and social platforms, and compel action. As such, with an initial target of 750,000 unit sales, over the course of the campaign, actual sales reached almost 830,000 units – as well as achieving a 35% margin, outperforming expectations by an uptick of 6%.

This tangible return on investment provided the proof behind our blend of concept and strategy to reposition TROJAN at the forefront of the trade’s purchase decisions. But, more importantly, it achieved a greater feat: reinvigorating the brand and opening up new levels of audience awareness for the long term, to help everyone in the trade engineer their own moments of greatness.