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Kenny Mitchell, director of marketing Levi Strauss & Co.he knew his team had to act quickly after Beyonce will publish the track list for his new album in March Cowboy Carter. Of the 27 songs on the list, one represented a big opportunity for the denim brand’s marketing department: Levi’s Jeans.
While in Paris to celebrate his wife’s 50th birthday, Mitchell checked in with his team at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco to see how they could make the most of the moment. When the songs were released that week, Levi’s had decided to add an additional “I” to the brand name on Instagram, as Beyoncé had done in her song.
However, Mitchell thought the brand could go further. “Once the album came out, it was obviously a moment where we said: Maybe we can start having conversations about a collaboration deeper makes sense,” Mitchell said.
Shortly after, Levi’s contacted Beyoncé and her team. Both parties had already worked together on several campaigns and creative projects over the years. She had worn their jeans when she was a member of Destiny’s Child in the early 2000s, making Levi’s one of the first brands to collaborate with the group, and she continued to incorporate the brand into her solo career.
What soon became apparent to Levi’s executives following the launch of Cowboy Carter was that Beyoncé could be the key to achieving one of the company’s main strategies: convince more women to buy your products.
A third of buyers are women. The plan, according to executives, is to increase that percentage to 50 percent.
Beyoncé, star of the Levi’s campaign
On Monday, after a week of hints on social media, Levi’s announced a global campaign with Beyoncé called “Reiimagine” which will run until 2025. It will be developed over four stages, drawing heavily on the history of the company, founded in 1853, and will focus on women.
The first iteration is an ad directed by cinematographer Marcell Rév, which the company is spreading across its social media profiles, e-commerce sites and stores. It is a twist on the company’s popular television advertisement titled Laundrette, starring singer Nick Kamen and broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1985.
The new ad faithfully follows the original format: Beyoncé walks into a laundromat wearing Levi’s 501 pants, a white t-shirt from the brand and a cowboy hat with the characteristic red Levi’s label. As she takes off her jeans to put them in the washing machine, other customers turn to her in amazement. The Marvin Gaye song from the original ad is replaced with one by Beyoncé.
“Not only does it modernize it, with Beyoncé and all the good that comes with it,” said Michelle Gass, CEO of Levi’s, “but, more importantly, it brings a female perspective to this campaign approachand that fits perfectly into one of our key strategies: winning with women.”
Women wore Levi’s for the first time in 1934
Levi’s launched for the first time denim pants designed specifically for women in 1934. It was a time, especially in the American West, when women had a new sense of independence. They needed something practical to wear for physical activity instead of borrowing their husbands’ and brothers’ pants, explains Tracey Panek, Levi’s in-house historian.
In 1968, the brand expanded its offer with Levi’s for Galsa whole specific department for them. In the second half of the 20th century, it established itself as a cultural institution thanks to highly publicized marketing campaigns and pivotal moments, such as being the official supplier to the US team in the 1984 Olympic Games.
Many celebrities, including Beyoncé, wore the brand’s pants on red carpets and cultural events. In 2001, while still a part of Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé wore the brand’s Superlow pants on the red carpet at the MTV Video Music Awards and talked about them during an interview.
However, In the 2010s, Levi’s started to stop being cool, as it struggled to adapt to “athleisure” trends and the new pants cuts that attracted young millennials. Especially among women.
“The pants skinny they were so popular for so long “It almost seemed like there was no room for anything else,” explains Jill Guenza, head of women’s clothing design at Levi’s.
After years of market research into what women wanted, the company revised its women’s products in 2015. The designers they made the stitching more distinctive and the back pocket bigger to emphasize the silhouette of women.
“They looked like a pair of Levi’s again,” Guenza said.
Levi’s hopes that by the end of the year, with the impetus of Beyoncé, its business aimed at women generates sales of 2 billion dollarsaccording to Gass. In the last three months, that sector of the company has seen an increase of 11 percent, with double-digit growth in sales of its pants and blouses.
“What this collaboration does,” Gass said, “is push us to be relevant. “I think it’s the biggest one we’ve ever done.”
Selected article from the New York Times
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