Minneapolis Agency New Normal linked up with photographer Jim Henderson for their latest campaign for client Thor Industries, the parent company for several major RV brands such as Airstream. The assignment was two-fold. They needed to create a library of images promoting the RV lifestyle for several of their brands and also create a promotional video to be used on their website.
The combination of Jim’s expertise in stills and motion made him the perfect fit for the job of visually articulating the brand’s campaign message. Thor wanted to showcase the adventures one might have while road camping and RVing using their products.
It was not so much about the vehicles themselves but more about how they connect family and friends by allowing them to share experiences together in all sorts of beautiful places.
They wanted to show a broad range of RVers – from young families to empty nesters, athletes and adventurers. In addition to the range of users, Jim needed to portray to a wide variety of geographic locations – from the ocean to mountains, deserts, and forests. Ultimately, to meet all of these geographic demands in four days, Jim and his team settled on Oregon.
I picked Oregon because it has an extremely diverse geography within a short amount of drive time between. Because we had to shoot two completely different locations each day, that was critical. My producer and I made an initial scouting trip to find all the locations and source the talent which was vital in the planning of the job.
Besides allowing them to pinpoint the shoot locations, the scouting trip allowed Jim and his producer to connect with real people they’d use down the road for talent. Jim knew the imagery needed to be as natural and authentic as possible, so using real people instead of actors helped achieve this realistic look. In addition to the real people they found while scouting, Jim also casted a few of his subjects through the IMD Modeling Agency in Medford.
Jim’s favorite part of this project was being immersed in incredible rock bluffs on the coast while shooting on Cape Kiwanda Beach in Pacific City.
The response to the images has been terrific. People seem to connect emotionally with the pictures, and many have reported a feeling of wanderlust, making them want to hit the road and start their own adventure!
See more of Jim’s work on his website.
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