The Campaign

When Levi’s launched its global campaign “We Are Original” in China, we knew we needed Chinese Millennials to feel the power of being original for themselves. We leveraged the social media power in the hands of our target audience. Our idea: The Levi’s Campaign that Levi’s didn’t create. Instead of telling Chinese Millennials what it meant to be original, we handed over complete reign of ad creation and inspired them to create their very own version of Levi’s ‘We Are Original’ campaign. Truly original ads meant making every part of the ad original. From model to copy, even theme music, Levi’s ads were no longer ads, but authentic expressions of individuals’ originality!

Creative Execution

Harnessing Tencent’s QQ database, we selected Millennials’ favorite songs that best embodied Levis’ brand spirit. On the app, Millennials playing any of these songs unlocked Levi’s “original” images – backdrops to Levi’s campaign – in a media first! Even better - we gave Millennials the power to invent their original statement inspired by songs, to pair with their Levi’s image directly on QQ Music. Then, they shared! Every message became an individual story told through WeChat: an expressive image, original statement and song, to get their friends inspired. Offline: We even invited China’s youths to star in their own Levi’s poster, striking a pose to show their originality! Scanning a QR code on their phones made these shareable socially with their own message, just like on QQ music. Closing to purchase, interactive outdoor ads called for metro passengers and guided newly empowered young fans to Levi’s stores!

ENGAGEMENT: • Over 2.6million Levi’s ads were created by Millennials in just two weeks! • Plus, an additional 2.9million consumer engagements (likes, forwards, comments, shares) across the campaign. • A campaign for Millennials created by Millennials, click-through was 50% higher than display-ads! SALES: • The campaign boosted overall sales by 15%YOY. • The 14%YOY increase in Levi’s e-store traffic (20% increase from lower-tier cities) led to a huge 45%YOY increase in Levi’s e-sales!

Facing a huge brand perception problem amongst Chinese targets, Levi’s had to do something different. We took this campaign back to the brand’s core, not preaching “original”, but actually allowing our target audience to be original even in our communications. Giving consumers the chance to actually experience a brand’s essence is much more impactful than telling them. The beauty of this campaign? It was designed and run by Levi’s target audience through a media first! The wave of originality spread faster through peer groups than a regular ad campaign, and coming from Millennials themselves carried a much more trusted message.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Just like Millennials around the world, young Chinese loved social media. Selfies! Food pictures! Fashion posts! However, looking closer at Millennials’ social posts in China, they weren’t vanity or just for fun. Each post reflected who they were and what made them unique. This matched the essence of Levi’s brand exactly, yet these Millennials didn’t relate the Levi’s brand to themselves. Whilst Levi’s target market was the same globally, in China 45% of them expressed their individuality through music and 45% through fashion and style. Levi’s had a clear opportunity to engage and assert the originality of Levi’s brand rooted in style and music for China’s young generation. Our strategy? Inspire China’s Millennials to embrace their own originality, using Levi’s as the vehicle to do so. Since music was a time when our targets felt most inspired by originality, we partnered with top mobile music app, Tencent’s QQ music.