Ask: Create a campaign for Adrift on a low budget using guerilla tactics and non-traditional marketing channels.

Challenge: The skate community is anti establishment, rebellious, and resistant to marketing. Even if the brand is a skate shop, skaters don’t want to feel like they’re being told what to do.

Research: Explored YouTube, Reddit, and skate community blogs, and reviewed influencers and content creators to better understand the culture. Visited areas in downtown Toronto, especially the Financial District, where skaters are often pushed out. The area is filled with anti skate signs and barriers that make it clear skaters aren’t welcome. Connected with founder and former CEO Lyndsey Westfall to gain deeper insight into Adrift, its customers, and the skate scene.

Insight: Skaters are blocked from skating in public. Anti skate signs, metal guards on benches, planters, rails, and even wheelchair ramps all work to keep them away. The message is clear: skaters aren’t wanted.

Direction for the Creative Team: Use that resistance as inspiration. Turn the anti skate movement into an opportunity to celebrate freedom and self expression. Reclaim spaces that have been made unskateable, especially in the Financial District. Show the community that Adrift understands them, stands with them, and is willing to stir things up. The goal is to position Adrift as an anti establishment brand that fights for the freedom of skaters.

Keep the budget low but the impact high. Take risks, stand out, and never back down, even if it means paying a few fines along the way.

Get the skate community

To see Adrift as an anti-establishment brand

By challenging by-laws, and wealthy communities for the freedom of skaters

Art Director: Colleen Rae Aurelio
Art Director: Holden Vint
Copywriter: Lazar Fazlagic
Strategist: Lucas Bates