RE-ESTABLISHING RELEVANCY TO AN EVOLVING CUSTOMER.
JanSport Brand Strategy, Marketing Campaign Development & Execution
JanSport was founded in 1967 in Seattle by Murray Pletz, his wife Janice “Jan” Lewis (for whom the company is named), and his cousin Skip Yowell. Since that time, JanSport became the de facto pack for kids everywhere from primary school through high school .
The challenge they came to us with was: How can we retain brand loyalty as those kids go on to college and into early adulthood? And do that without alienating our younger base?
San Francisco Mural Unveiling (Music: Painted Palms)
Rio de Janeiro LiveOutside Pre-Roll (Music: Dash, “Into the Sounds”)
Relevancy through authentic experiences.
To connect with Millennials, it was critical to be true to who JanSport is as a brand, while making it more relevant to an older audience. We had to be authentic. The answer was not “marketing” in the traditional sense.
We created a platform around real, authentic experiences. We connected the soul of the brand to the real-life experiences Millennials strive to be a part of– art, music, and a more urban lifestyle. Through Brand Lift studies, we’ve seen a tangible increase in brand perception lift. Which has translated directly into sales.
Transactions (Targeted Cities) +11%
Revenue (Targeted Cities) +14%
Purchase Intent (F25-34) +14%
The experience is content.
We spent a week traveling in an RV with The Stone Foxes as the band made its way from San Francisco to Austin for SXSW. We connected with street artists in Brooklyn, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney to help us bring the beauty of street art to the urban landscape.
We followed the artists as they painted huge murals on once empty building walls. We captured their process from concept to creation to celebration. Once completed, we put on a giant party featuring bands like Painted Palms, Rubblebucket and The Boogarins and invited the neighborhood, their friends, influencers and other nice people to join us. And we paid for all their beer.
Each year of this multi-year effort, we’ve captured over 100 hours of video, thousands of still images and lots of amazing stories. We then put this content together in the form of video, pre-roll, gifs, instagrams, and partnered with media companies like YouTube, Buzzfeed, Devour, deviantART and Reddit to keep that content coming throughout the year.
Images Captured /Yr 3,500+
Videos Created /Yr. 125+
Avg. Engagement / Yr. 1.2 M+
