Being revered as a cultural institution has its drawbacks. Especially when you're an apparel company with its eye on new generations of shoppers, and teens think of your duds
as the stuff their dads wore.
In the late '90s, as baggy, oversized jeans became the rage with kids, Levi Strauss & Co. was losing market share to designer labels such as Tommy Hilfiger and Diesel. To
counter its brand's stodgy image, the company signed on as the title sponsor of "Levi's Fuse '99," a summer concert tour featuring the bands Goo Goo Dolls, Sugar Ray and Fastball.
Hoping to appeal to kids' well-documented interest in social causes, Levi's simultaneously positioned the tour as an awareness-generator for PAX, a nonprofit group dedicated to
stopping gun violence. The Columbine shootings were still top-of-mind among teens, and Levi's wanted to help foster dialog about the issue. Ketchum was hired to manage the media
relations and strategic philanthropy components of the program.
Central to the tour was Levi's "Denim Wall," a monolithic swath of emotionally charged fabric, reminiscent of the legendary AIDS quilt. Concertgoers in each tour city were
encouraged to sign the wall in support of PAX's "Youth Petition to End Gun Violence." Teens who didn't make it to the concert could also log onto http://www.levi.com and sign the wall virtually. Levi's donated a dollar to PAX for every signature.
Levi's deemed its 1999 gig a success, and in the summer of 2000, resurrected the concept with a 23-city tour featuring double platinum R&B artist, D'Angelo. A magazine
audit (Billboard, Time, Spin) revealed the artist to be an "original" act that jived with Levi's heritage as "the original jeans."
To kick off the D'Angelo tour, Levi's staged a June 2000 event at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, during which the company presented the school with a $10,000 grant in
support of its "Students for Peace" club, which galvanizes teen activism against gun violence. The event, attended by 1,500 students, provided a good photo op as D'Angelo became
the first to sign the second incarnation of The Denim Wall. On-site media attendance, combined with follow-up photos and b-roll footage, resulted in initial coverage in key venues
such as MTV News, The L.A. Times, RollingStone.com and Seventeen.com.
During both the '99 and '00 tours, teen spokespeople lent major credibility to the Levi's brand and to the PAX cause, but in different ways. In the first year, teen
spokespeople were secured through a promotion that gave nine music-lovers the chance to "become a roadie for a week."
"We built a whole contest around it, which got great radio play," says Brad Jamison, a Ketchum account supervisor. "But in year two, we thought it would be more impactful and
an easier sell to the media if we had spokespeople who had, themselves, been affected by gun violence."
Hence, spokespeople for year two included David Winkler and Ben Gelt, co-chairs of PAX Students (the nonprofit's teen activist arm), and Devon Adams, a sophomore at Columbine
High School during the fatal April 1999 shootings. After receiving media training, the three students traveled to all 23 tour cities, where they juggled interviews and rallied
support for PAX at each concert.
It's in the Jeans
In the end, the "Levi's Presents D'Angelo" tour received 42 million impressions in youth-focused outlets such as Rolling Stone, Billboard and MTV, as well as in college campus
newspapers. Subsequent analysis showed that the company's commitment to PAX and the youth violence issue resonated in 93 percent of news coverage.
Surveys of concert-goers in five major cities (attendees were surveyed both on site and then a week later by phone) showed that unaided awareness of Levi's sponsorship was high
among those who attended the event. More than two-thirds of attendees recalled Levi's as the event sponsor, and 57 percent claimed to see Levi's in a new light, labeling the brand
as "hip," "cool" and "sexy."
Most important, follow-up research showed that Levi's sponsorship of the D'Angelo tour had a positive impact on purchase intent. In a survey of both concert-goers and non-
attendees, those who'd experienced the show were more than twice as likely to buy Levi's (28 percent) than those who did not attend the concert (12 percent).
Of course, fashion is fickle, and so, therefore, are PR strategies. Levi Strauss discontinued the tour concept in 2001 in search of new ways to target teens.
Give PAX a Chance
A PAX booth at each concert amassed Denim Wall signatures in support of the group's Youth Petition Against Gun Violence and encouraged teens to launch new PAX chapters in their
respective markets. During the tour's first year, PAX collected roughly 50,000 petition signatures on site at concerts and about 60,000 online. In year two, the NY-based
organization (http://www.paxusa.org) collected the same number of live signatures, but saw a 50 percent drop in online signatures, after Levi's
de-emphasized on online tour promotion.
PAX plans to present its petition to Congress once it garners a million signatures, but it's got a way to go before it hits the mark.
Tour Facts & Figures
PR Budget for 2000 D'Angelo Tour: $220,000 (for media relations in 23
markets)
Key Players at Ketchum: Christy Salcido, VP/group manager, Los Angeles;
Brad Jamison, account supervisor, New York; Jared Dougherty, AE, New York
Key Players at Levi Strauss: Kendra Gourvitz, Danny Kraus
Key Players at PAX: Dan Gross and Talmage Cooley (co-founders) and Rebecca
Hankin.
Levi Strauss donations to PAX: $400,000 in cash and in-kind donations
(e.g., PR and marketing support) over two years.
(Ketchum LA: Christy Salcido, 310/444-1300; Levi Strauss: Kendra Gourvitz, Danny Kraus, 415/501-6000)