Every piece of 66˚North content should connect to the brand codes of activity, necessity, Iceland, and the everyday. In so doing, the content will complement the clothing, visual identity, and brand positioning, creating a consistent, inspiring, and differentiated experience for the customer. Customers are not merely buying a jacket from 66˚North, they are buying into the Icelandic Art of Living: an extraordinary, everyday life connected to nature, meeting impossible challenges with optimism, joy, and humor. Every piece of content must help create this world for customers who may not be able to come to Iceland and experience it firsthand.
66˚North makes life and activity possible in environments where otherwise there would be none. When people read our content, they should be inspired and be able to imagine themselves participating in a set of aspirational adventures. This is easy when it comes to activity guides such as winter running, trail running, festivals, etc. Content about exploration or people living unique lives should contain relatable elements such as something being “just a walk” (see “everyday”) or provide context for how the story subject got started in what now seems like an extraordinary activity. Take the reader on a journey—the subject’s transition from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Stories about conservation or political action should always include clear direction about how to turn cause into action and activity. Even a simple landscape photo should include geographic context: the name of a place, and a general geolocation (e.g. “north east Iceland”), suggesting that it’s a real place that readers can—and should—take the opportunity to explore.
66˚North makes multipurpose clothes, is carbon neutral, and aims to send zero waste to landfill. We do not like overproduction. Similarly, brand content should be concise and straightforward; avoid superfluous phrases or color. Any content should also have an “angle.” Writers should ask themselves, why does this content need to exist? What does 66˚North uniquely bring to this story that others cannot?
The 66˚North brand draws much of its meaning and power from Iceland. As such, our content should emphasize that relationship. That might include the allusion to Icelandic paradoxes (see “paradoxes”), aspects of the Icelandic Art of Living (see “Icelandic Art of Living”) and speak in a voice that is recognizably Icelandic (see “voice and tone”). That may include elements of humor, joy, directness, or understatement; or components of the Icelandic language such as the proper use of characters and accents on product names or Icelandic greetings such as “hæ” in marketing emails.
Our vision for a better world involves people interacting with nature and activity every day (see “difference between every day and everyday” in “style guidelines”), to the point that their everyday lives seem extraordinary and aspirational to others. For 66˚North, everyday life isn’t mundane—it can be inspiring and remarkable. While our voice is plain-spoken and understated (see “voice and tone”), when we do occasionally brag about something it isn’t because we made the most difficult trek, climbed the highest mountain, or explored glacial caves. It’s because such an incredible, challenging, or difficult activity or visual stands in contrast to our explanation of it: as everyday life, just another day.
Beauty can be the texture of a lava rock against the backdrop of a moody sky. It can be rugged, surreal, and meaningful. Pretty is finer, dreamier, delicate. Be beautiful.
To people outside of Iceland, the country is a mystical, surreal, and unexpected place. “Showing” uses the unique details to paint a picture: “The frozen rain came in sideways and the wind was so strong I couldn’t open my car for fear of the doors blowing off.” Telling assumes the person was there and knows exactly what you’re talking about already: “The weather was bad. There was terrible rain and it was really windy.” The “telling” picture is less vivid, less differentiated—and far less interesting. It could be a description of Chicago or Glasgow, not specifically Iceland.