Gap scraps TV ads for social media campaign

by Gareth Jones, revolutionmagazine.com 17-Aug-09, 09:08

LONDON - Gap, the fashion retailer famed for its TV ads, is scrapping them in favour of social media for a campaign to promote its new line of denim wear.

The high-street chain, which made its name by featuring stars including Audrey Hepburn, Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler in its TV ads, is shifting its focus to the web for its ‘Born to Fit’ campaign.

Instead of TV advertising, the initiative will see Gap put Facebook at the centre of an online campaign aimed at targeting consumers who are already using the web to talk about fashion.

The ‘Born to Fit’ campaign uses cinema, print and outdoor ads to drive consumers to a branded Facebook page where they can watch a video of Rada Shadick, Gap’s ‘fit engineer’ explaining how the new denim line, dubbed 1969 after the year Gap was founded, has been devised.

Internet users can also upload photos and videos featuring their own ‘born to’ statements before clicking through to gap.com to make a purchase.

The campaign, created by AKQA, features customised banner ads running across a selection of blogs. The banners say what each blog was ‘born to’ do. For example the ads on glam.com say ‘Born to set Trends’ and the ads on popsugar.com say ‘Born to strategise’.

Gap has also devised an iPhone app that allows consumers mix and match outfits and interact with friends on the brand’s Facebook page. In addition, the Stylemixer app targets consumers with special offers when in the vicinity of a Gap store.

Gap has been scaling back its marketing spend recently to focus on new product development after seeing same-store sales slump.

Comments

Ef Rodriguez - 20/08/2009

I think this is awesome. I'm sure they will be watching the metrics involved very closely, but I think it's a great idea. I just hope people participate. I probably will - I've been known to rock some Gap gear from time to time.