Siaya couches its new campaign in surrealism

Who: Outdoor apparel brand Siaya, with Havas Montreal.

What: A visually arresting new campaign, “Weird things happen when you spend too much time indoors.” (See two executions below.)

When & Where: The out-of-home campaign is running in Montreal through December.

Why: It’s about creating awareness for the brand, which is a relatively new entrant in the outdoor apparel/bags sector.

How: Siaya is competing in a sector dominated by high-profile brands like Arc’teryx, The North Face, Mammut, etc. so the campaign is deliberately bold in an effort to attract attention, said Havas Montréal creative director, Carle Coppens.

The company was started by Jiri Rychetsky, who dressed the Czech ski team for the Salt Lake City Olympics. This is the designer’s first foray into the consumer market.

The idea of becoming “part of the furniture” feels particularly appropriate for a year in which we’ve all been tethered to our couch, said Coppens, but the campaign is taking the idea to bold new extremes.

It uses surreal and colourful images created by a South Korean artist named Eunsun Choi showing how people cooped up at home have melded with their furniture.

And we quote: “[T]he outdoor apparel market is dominated by giants; therefore, to be successful in this context you need to be bolder. We are a small brand that wants to do things differently.” —Jiri Rychetsky, president, Siaya

Chris Powell