Gen-Z, Millennial Media Opps: Levi Strauss experiences high ROI from recent campaign (Score 74)

According to execs in its latest earnings call, Levi Strauss (LS) launched a multi-platform global marketing campaign, "Buy Better, Wear Longer," in April 2021 (see video above). The campaign teamed up with influencers such as Jaden Smith, Emma Chamberlain and Marcus Rashford. Reaction to the effort has reportedly "been overwhelming positive," having generated notable growth in the company's average daily social media brand consideration. To further elevate its brand, LS will continue increasing its ad spend.

Per iSpot, Levi's national TV spend picked up steam in May and hasn't yet slowed down. It has spent approximately $1.9m on national TV commercials YTD, less than a fifth of the approximately $10m it spent within the same 2020 timeframe. In 2020, the brand ended up spending approximately $19.3m on this channel, down 32% from the approximately $28.2m it spent in 2019. Levi's commercials of 2021 have targeted male sports enthusiasts watching programs such as NBA Basketball, Inside the NBA, To Be Announced, SportsCenter With Scott Van Pelt and The Bernie Mac Show.

Pathmatics reports that, so far this year, LS has allocated roughly $7.3m toward digital ads, down only % from the roughly $8m it allocated within the same 2020 timeframe. The company's estimated full-year 2020 spend of $17.5m reached 30% more than that of $12.2m in 2019. It has earned around 782.2m digital impressions YTD via desktop video (37%), Instagram (31%), desktop display (14%), Facebook (11%), Twitter (5%), mobile display (2%) and mobile video (1%) ads. Most of this year's desktop video ads have been placed site direct onto youtube.com (65%), hulu.com (29%) and twitch.tv (3%).

Despite these drops in spend, remember LS's leaders specifically mentioned the company's ad spend will rise this year. As you can tell, LS is primarily targeting Gen-Z and millennials right now through YouTube, Hulu, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter advertising. This may lead the company to expand into podcast ad usage in the future since podcasts are so popular among this relatively young audience. Its target demographic often has a male skew. Per Kantar data, as of Q1 2021, LS hasn't yet invested in print, radio, OOH or local broadcast yet this year. 

Agency & martech readers - To the best of our knowledge, no reviews have yet followed the company's 2020 leadership shifts; get on LS's radar for potential work if you haven't yet done so.