Department store Macy?s is partnering with photographer Tim Kemple of camp4collective in a series of YouTube videos, photographs and social media posts pertaining to adventure and sports to promote the retailer's sport and activewear lines.

The retailer is encouraging sports fans and adventurers to engage in the conversation and share posts of their own experiences with the hashtag #macysactive. It is a two-day experience labeled as an epic vacation, showcasing various content and footage of various sport activities such as cliff diving and windsurfing in Kauai, Hawaii.

"The importance of mobile video has increased significantly in helping brands to build awareness," said Michele Paolella, vice president of marketing at Blue Bite, New York. "Mobile video has become a great tool to make a more personal connection with your audience and has had an enormous impact on how consumers interact with brands, helping them to make a more informed purchasing decision."

"Also, it is extremely beneficial for brands to incorporate a social presence in their overall marketing strategy," she said. "Mobile and social media, especially for millennials, has become the preferred method of communicating and connecting with one another."

The Macy?s sport line is performance gear available for men, women and children. The line is comprised of workout gear, loungewear and activewear from brands such as Adidas, Nike, Under Armour, Calvin Klein Performance, Ideology and The North Face.

Swimming in social media
As spring starts to emerge, consumers are more interested in spring and summer activities and apparel, making this the time for retailers to start incorporating this into their marketing plans. That is what Macy?s is doing with the epic vacation campaign, attempting to engage consumers who are tired of the winter doldrums and drawn to warmer activities.

On April 8, Macy?s Instagram posted a image of oceanic scenery with the text ?48 hours one escape? to promote the social media event. The following day, a photograph by Mr. Kemple, shared on its Instagram page, featured a women diving off a cliff with a link to a Q&A on Macy?s blog, also optimized for mobile.

Macy's announced the epic vacation campaign via Instagram

To start off the YouTube series, a video entitled How to Have an Epic Week in Paradise showing clips of palm trees, windsurfing, people drinking out of coconuts, cliff diving, rock climbing, aquatic life and other tropic scenery. Mr. Kemple is behind all of the footage and photos in the campaign.

Mr. Kemple's and Macy's videos feature various outdoor sporting activities such as surfing in paradise

Other videos feature various activities ?in paradise? such as free diving, cliff diving, surfing, rock climbing, kite surfing and even taking selfies. Screen grabs of these videos are shared on social media with a link back to the video and the sports line page of Macy?s Web site. 

Spring into marketing
Macy?s is heavily involved in mobile marketing and is keen to incorporate the change of interests with the change of seasons. The mobile strategy for this past year?s annual holiday campaign, Believe, focused on the mobile Web with a comprehensive site enabling users to write letters to Santa, participate in a Guinness World Records challenge, download content and purchase related merchandise (see more).

Apparel retailers are not the only marketers taking advantage of the appeal of spring and summer to consumers. Recently, Home Depot used mobile to reach consumers? whose minds are turning to home improvement projects with native ads while simultaneously experimenting with the effectiveness of deep links (see more).

"The amount of time consumers spend interacting through social is increasing rapidly," Ms. Paolella said. "Why not leverage those channels to target consumers where you know they spend the majority of their time? 

"Creating hashtags and sharing posts through social media is an excellent way to help generate buzz and spark conversation. Macy?s strategy to build awareness for their active wear through mobile is an excellent idea to relate with their target audience on a more personal level, giving them the ability to engage in a two-way conversation."