Trial on the trail

Brainstorming the “Mapping the Gaps” concept was one thing, but Yeti’s in-house creative and marketing teams had to marry the idea with the existing Google technology, which turned out to be more seamless than they expected.

As a trial run, employees gathered footage of an unmarked path on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, where the company is based. They then fed it into Google’s open API.

“Once we were able to successfully upload it to Google Street View, we knew we were on,” Dery said.

This came after internal discussions about leaning into tech at all, when one of the main selling points for being outdoors is unplugging from screens and devices. “We decided leveraging technology to help more people get out in the wild is a good thing,” Dery said.

In their shoes

To generate the content, Dery’s team gave wide latitude to its ambassadors, including pro snowboarder Robin Van Gyn, who mapped the densely forested Vancouver Island, and decorated mountaineer Conrad Anker, who took a trip through Beehive Basin in Big Sky, Montana.

Each hiker was armed with a Hopper cooler, enough provisions for a daylong trek and 360-degree GoPro cameras to capture the scope of their hikes and the surrounding nature. 

Viewers can tag along with the ambassadors via Yeti’s site experience to get a sneak peek of the trails. They can also tackle any trek themselves through the Google coordinates.

And for those who want to contribute their own adventures, Yeti has written how-to instructions on its site and media channels.

“We hope the general public will upload their own trails, and this starts a movement of having great trails living on Google forever, Dery said.

The brand is promoting “Mapping the Gaps” through print ads, in-store signage, digital media and its owned social platforms.