Elevating The North Face’s Back to Campus Campaign

Each year, The North Face launches its major back-to-school initiative, the “Back to Campus” campaign. Having partnered on this campaign for multiple years, WITHIN was tasked with using past creative learnings to develop fresh content that avoided fatigue and performed across more platforms — including Meta, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, Google, Amazon, and CTV.

Building on creative insights from previous Back to Campus campaigns, WITHIN developed paid-first assets centered around short-form video, GIFs, and messaging that highlighted brand differentiators. These assets were optimized for cross-platform performance, ensuring a consistent tone and style. Midway through the campaign, WITHIN used real-time performance data to refine messaging — shifting toward more product-focused copy. New formats, like Pinterest quizzes, were introduced and outperformed top-spending creatives, becoming a core element of The North Face’s broader media strategy.

WITHIN helped The North Face boost awareness and consideration with a refreshed creative approach that drove stronger year-over-year (YoY) performance and reached more new users. Pinterest and Snapchat delivered lower Product Detail View Cost Per Acquisitions (PDV CPAs), and the campaign’s social-first strategy proved effective in producing high-performing, relevant creative across platforms.