Gap Has Launched the New ‘1969: L.A. and Beyond’ Campaign

Gap, which shook its fan community with the notorious logo change last year (eventually, the old one was brought back primarily thanks to big buzz across the web), is now launching its new campaign dubbed 1969: L.A. and Beyond, developed by Gap’s Global Creative Center in NY together with Ogilvy and Cool Hunting to provide its consumers with an opportunity to look behind the scenes of the creativity and introducing the brands designers, the 1969 design team, who create new models and denim fits. The new campaign, which has been launched today, on August 1, in the U.S., will be rolling out on the brand’s Facebook page and other online destinations such as Hulu, Daily Candy, Pandora and RollingStone to name a few and in the August issues of national magazines including Glamour, GQ, InStyle, People StyleWatch and Vogue.

Taking it from the studio to the real world, the campaign also shows how the denim comes to life in various cities by the people who wear it,” states the brand in the press release. To prove that Gap is not just another jeans brand, that it values creativity as much as comfort and quality of denim, the brand put together a team of professionals, who represent the spirit of action sports, fashion, creative rebellion and art—the group includes women’s merchant Masako Konishi, who “views fashion as more instinct than intellect, applying emotion as opposed to regulated rules to make her fashion choices,” men’s merchant Cale Margol, who “uses denim as a canvas to tell a modern and progressive story,” and wash specialist Rob Crews, who “started in the industry when he was just 16 years-old and fell in love with the creative process of taking raw denim into a washed state through different hand treatments” among others.

They are creating new approaches for the brand at the loft studio on West Pico Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles, and people from all around the world can get a sneak peek into how the new things are born within the studio, watching a series of more than 30 vignettes (the spots telling about the product and instructional videos) on Gap’s Facebook and YouTube pages, the major platform of the campaign, which is promoting Gap’s 1969 fall collection, which is at this phase built on the ‘jeanswear meets sportswear’ idea. According to AdAge, the brand’s ‘Pico de Gap’ truck will also hit the road in LA, NYC, Chicago and San Francisco, selling tacos for $1.69—those with Gap duds will get them for free,—and distributing hand-out coupons (the food and apparel mix idea  was also employed by Nike and adidas). The same source states that the marketing push can be extended to other markets including China, Australia, Russia, Greece and Japan.

When I first joined Gap, I was surprised by the unexpected, untold stories across the brand—particularly about our people and the real-life experiences and situations they’re inspired by,” said Seth Farbman, Gap’s Chief Marketing Officer. “Fall is our first step in sharing what’s different and inventive at Gap, and we’re starting with our 1969 studio. We want our customers to see who’s behind the product and how their individual personalities and lifestyles influence what we offer in our stores around the globe.”