Technology Married to User Behavior: REI

The genesis of the REI was a handful of insights. The user insights: REI members LOVED to capture photos of their moments spent outdoors, and the loved sharing those photos and those moments with family and friends. The technology insights: People were capturing images with their mobile devices, and those mobile devices were capturing metadata about the time and location where those photos were being snapped as well as the images themselves. (This was in 2012, before Instagram or Snapchat had really taken off.)

Tapping into those insights, we created the REI 1440 Project.

The site was able to scrub metadata to determine when each photo was taken and position it accordingly on a 24-hour clock where every hour was broken into 60 distinct minutes. When the site launched it was, by design, completely empty. But within days it was filled with tens of thousands of amazing photos. Ultimately we were able to fill every minute of the day with user-generated photography.

The campaign was recognized such award shows as Cannes, One Show, D&AD, and Communication Arts. It was also a finalist for Adobe "Cutting Edge Project of the Year."

01_Screen Shot 2019-12-16 at 7.14.59 PM.png