Five Lessons From RP3's Ad Age Award-Winning Appalachian Trail Conservancy Campaign “Take a Hike”

Integrated marketing has become one of the most overused terms in advertising. Everyone says they're doing it. Few actually are. 

Today's marketing organizations make true integration incredibly difficult. Teams are fragmented. Budgets are split across channels. Brand management is spread across regions. Agencies are specialized. Yet consumers don't experience any of those silos—they simply experience the brand. 

That's why winning Ad Age's Small Agency Award for Integrated Campaign meant so much to us. It wasn't recognition for making great ads. It was recognition for building one idea that could live everywhere. 

Looking back at our work for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, here are five lessons we learned. 

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1. Bravery Is the Beginning of Integration 

Every truly integrated campaign starts with courage. 

It takes a brave client willing to bet on an unconventional idea. It takes strategists willing to uncover insights others overlook. It takes creatives willing to resist the obvious. And it takes everyone trusting one big idea enough to follow it wherever it leads. 

For ATC, that meant taking one of America's most beloved comedians—Kevin Nealon—and asking him to champion an idea that challenged how people think about hiking. It wasn't a celebrity endorsement. It was a cultural conversation. 

Without bravery, none of what followed would have happened. 

2. Think Beyond the Media Plan

The best integrated campaigns don't ask, "What channels are we buying?" They ask, "Where can this idea naturally show up?" 

Our campaign didn't stop with advertising. 

We reinvented the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's website around the campaign idea. 

We created a petition to officially redefine the phrase "Take a Hike" from an insult into an invitation to experience nature. 

We secured appearances for Kevin Nealon on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Ted Danson's podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, allowing the campaign to live in culture rather than just media. 

Of course there were television spots, social content, digital ads, and earned media—but each one felt like another expression of the same idea rather than another item on a media checklist. 

Integrated campaigns don't start with channels. 

They start with possibilities. 

3. Build One Big Idea—Not Twenty Small Ones 

One of the biggest mistakes brands make is believing every channel needs a different campaign. 

It doesn't. 

Consumers don't think in paid, owned, and earned media. They experience one brand. 

Every touchpoint we created—from the petition to the website, Kevin's interviews, social posts, video content, PR, and advertising—came from one central thought: 

"Take a Hike" deserves a better meaning. 

Because the idea was singular, every execution reinforced every other execution. That's integration. 

4. Stay the Course Longer Than You're Comfortable 

One of the greatest lessons I learned while working on Procter & Gamble brands still guides me today. 

Brand managers would often say:

"We're going to get sick of seeing this campaign long before consumers ever do." They were right. 

When you're creating the work, you see every ad, every edit, every social post, every presentation. Eventually you convince yourself it's time for something new. 

It usually isn't. 

Throughout the ATC campaign, we resisted the temptation to reinvent the message. Whether Kevin was appearing on Jimmy Kimmel, talking with Ted Danson, asking America to sign the petition, or starring in our advertising, the message never changed. 

If we've seen it 1,000 times, consumers have probably seen it once. 

Consistency is one of the most underrated creative disciplines. 

5. Wildly Original Ideas Want to Go Everywhere

‍The final lesson may be the most important. 

When an idea is truly Wildly Original, you don't have to force integration. It naturally expands. 

Our campaign started with one provocative thought about reclaiming the phrase "Take a Hike." From there, the work almost wrote its own expansion. 

It became a celebrity platform. 

It became late-night television. 

It became a podcast conversation. 

It became a petition. 

It transformed the website. 

It became social content people wanted to share. 

It became advertising. 

It became earned media. 

The best integrated ideas don't need to be stretched across channels.

They want to exist everywhere because the idea itself is bigger than any one execution.

‍The Real Definition of Integrated 

Winning an integrated campaign isn't about showing up in every channel. It's about creating one powerful idea that can show up anywhere. 

When strategy, creativity, PR, social, digital, advertising, and experience are all telling the same story, consumers don't see a campaign. 

They see a movement. 

That's what integration looks like. And that's what wins.

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