Gap Launches its New Demin Line Through Social Media—Not TV
Remember those great Gap commercials with all the dancing and hip music? They used to start off the back to school season. Well the Gap is getting in the game and launching their new denim campaign online. Yup…Facebook is now going to be where the new launch happens. With sales that have definitely gone down and their new designer Patrick Robertson at the helm, the Gap is looking to recapture the days of olde—where part of their cache was the connection they had with the customers for hip, low cost quality clothing. Remember Sharon Stone wearing a Gap T-shirt with her couture skirt? Those were the days for them.
So here we are years later and they are launching a new denim line. The idea is to offer cost effective GREAT fitting denim at a value driven price point. These days, some of the best fitting jeans are priced at $250.00. I don’t think that there’s a jean wearing person out there who can argue with the fact that it can be really difficult to find the pair that gives you that great fit! It’s worth paying for, many would argue. So the Gap is aiming their new product launch at one of most common but important products out there—jeans. If they get this right, they may be back in the game. The idea with their online launch is to create a conversation with the fashionista’s on Facebook—connecting with customers in the hope that they will share the Gap’s passion and commitment to value in regards to the new denim 1969 jean they have developed and get their followers to spread the word.
I am posting an article that outlines their plan from a blog called Click Z. With scaled back ad spending for the Gap, this may just be their golden opportunity! Bravo to them! I am definitely going to check them out on Facebook! Let us know your thoughts and we will post them.
Best Nicole
The Gap, once admired for its TV commercials as much as its clothes, is banking on a new line of denim wear to help revive its sagging brand. But don’t expect to hear about it on television.
The new ad campaign from The Gap, titled “Born to Fit,” includes no TV commercials, instead placing a greater emphasis on Web advertising and social media — Facebook, specifically — than any effort in the retailer’s history. Offline, there are print, cinema and outdoor ads, but all will drive consumers to the initiative’s Facebook page. The effort launched on Thursday, August 13.
The idea is to reach consumers where they are already talking about fashion, said Julie Channing, senior account director with The Gap’s digital agency, AKQA.
“We were really looking to reach out to fashionistas and influence audiences and even skeptics of The Gap to start a conversation about how Gap has built this line of denim from the ground up,” she said. They wanted to “lend credibility to the story.”
The Facebook page acts as the centerpiece for the online campaign, where viewers can watch a video of Rada Shadick, Gap’s “fit engineer,” explaining the development of the new denim line, called “1969″ (named after the year The Gap was founded), and see which fit might work for them. Users can also upload photos and videos featuring their own “born to” statement and click through to Gap.com to make purchases.
The “Born to Fit” angle factors heavily in the campaign’s display ads, as well. AKQA crafted custom banner ads for several different blog partners saying what each was born to do. For example, the ads on Glam.com say “Born to Set Trends,” and the ads on PopSugar say “Born to Strategize.” Other blog partners include Mashable, Thrillist and Idolator. The customs ads ran on the first day of the campaign and will run again on Monday, August 17.
For the iPhone, AKQA created an app called the StyleMixer that lets users mix and match outfits and interact with friends on The Gap’s Facebook page. The app will also reveal undisclosed “surprises” when near a Gap store.
Channing said The Gap had set no numerical benchmarks to determine success in the campaign, but rather would look at “how much consumers interact with the brand” to gauge ROI.
The Gap, which has seen a steady decrease in same-store sales for the past two years, has scaled back ad spending recently in order to focus on product development. Gap president Marka Hansen told Fortune this latest campaign represents a “medium size” increase in its ad budget for the year.
