Levi's plays to mobile music fans in revamped campaign
Denim giant Levi Strauss & Co.?s iconic apparel brand Levi?s is incorporating independent musicians in its spring revamp of the Live in Levi?s campaign with a heavy presence in mobile.
The San Francisco-based retailer showcases a life in which every moment can be spent in the jeans and other Levi?s apparel in its Live in Levi's campaign. This spring, mobile-optimized videos are featured with indie musicians performing in Levi?s attire all over the mobile spectrum, along with similar mobile ads and posts on social media.
"Mobile is increasingly the first place people are turning for dynamic content and videos, so it is imperative to develop ads and videos for mobile," said Amy Leavitt, product marketing director at Briabe Mobile, Los Angeles. "It is where the audience is.
"Mobile ad spend is increasing exponentially year over year," she said. "It is becoming increasingly important for advertisers to explore creative ways to engage their audience via the mobile channel as Levi?s is doing with this campaign.
"Mobile video is obviously a great tool when it comes to promoting music because it provides a richer content experience and gives the viewer something that is easily consumable and very shareable. When you give content to your audience that is shareable, you enable them to help spread the word for you, which provides better opportunities for engagement with a larger audience and monetization opportunities for the brand."
The campaign's mobile site highlights indie band the Vaccines with quotes from band members, galleries of numerous musicians in Levi?s attire, videos of performances, images from prevalent Instagram accounts and social media conversation-starters with links to the hashtag #LiveinLevis.
Conspicuous sponsorship
The Vaccines is a London-based indie band that has already gone platinum since forming in 2010. Promoting the collaboration with the band gives Levi?s access to consumers who are fans of the music.
With campaigns such as this, brands need to be wary of the transparency of the sponsored advertisements and social media posts.
Although the footage and photos take an art-like approach, the brand must employ secondary advertising placement in this content or consumers will be aware of the manufactured material and disregard the campaign.
Haim, Local Natives, Shawn Yue, Kavka Shishido, Kilo Kish, Twin Shadow and Dualist Inquiry are several other artists involved in the Live in Levi?s campaign.
Each musician has his or her own page on the mobile site of Live in Levi?s where quotes from each specific band about style and Levi?s are featured as well as their own style gallery, videos of performances and interviews and more images from social media.
Also, every component on the mobile site has buttons to share on various social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
One of the videos showcases all of the musicians discussing music and style while wearing Levi?s attire. The piece is filmed documentary style in artistic and aesthetically pleasing settings.
Live in Levi's mobile ad on Huffington Post linking back to the homepage of the campaign
Shorter-edited versions of the footage can be found as pre-roll ads on YouTube and image ads on other mobile sites such as The Huffington Post.
Shorter-edited versions of the footage can be found as pre-roll ads on YouTube and image ads on other mobile sites such as The Huffington Post.
Interacting with consumers
This is the latest update to the campaign. Last summer, the brand reintroduced Live in Levi?s and combined its efforts with the use of iBeacon-enabled billboards, prompting customers with an offer and driving them into nearby stores (see more).
These mobile ads are meant to engage consumers and encourage conversation on social media to draw brand awareness. It is a ploy followed by many brands.
For instance, Coca-Cola?s latest campaign enables mobile users to interact with television ads for Coke Zero as a bottle pours the beverage first on the bigger screen before migrating to the screen in consumers? hands and then transforming into a coupon (see more).
"By creating ads and videos specific to the platform the audience is digesting them on, i.e. mobile, they are creating a better end-user experience, thus significantly increasingly the potential for success," Ms. Leavitt said. "Mobile is a personal platform, and by taking that into consideration, both the brand and the audience will benefit."
Final Take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer, New York