Client: Levi's® Project 501

Explanation/Role in Larger Campaign: For several years now, women have not considered Levi's® when they want to look sexy in their jeans. Levi's® believed a single episode sponsorship of Project Runway – Bravo TV's uber-popular fashion design show - was one way to reignite a dialogue with fashionable young women. Levi's® and Razorfish expanded the sponsorship into the interactive space with Project 501®. This community site put the Project Runway TV show into the hands of fashion design fans. It held an online fashion design contest and community forum for fans to rate, vote and comment on design entries. Ultimately, Levi's® produced and sold the winning design.

The interactive piece of the campaign successfully created buzz around the episode sponsorship, demonstrated Levi's® range of fashionable and relevant denim styles and finishes, and drove incremental women's product sales on Levi.com and in Levi's® stores.


 

Creative & Production Credits:

Senior Account Director: Rob Toledo
Creative Director: Sharon Greenwood
Associate Media Director: Amy Finholm
Project Manager: Eric LePire
Senior Art Director: Eric Powell
Art Director: Michael Showell
User Experience: Craig Schommer
Technology Director: Rob Shields
Senior Developer: Luke Veach
Copy Writer: Courtenay Hameister
Presentation Layer Developer: Mickey Slater
Illustration: Lloyd Bagtas
Account Manager: Nicholas Giron
Media Planner: Caitlin Kaplan
Search Manager: Haley Brothers

Execution:

Razorfish approached the media strategy from an integrated offline/online strategy. The media plan worked as follows:

Project 501® kickoff
During the Levi's® Project Runway episode, two :15 spots told women to go to Project501.com and join the community. We launched online banners simultaneously because we knew fans would go to BravoTV.com and other fashion sites/blogs to get the latest gossip/critiques about the episode.

Design submission and voting phase
Project 501® TV spots, napkins, wildpostings, online banners and emails to Levi's® proprietary database encouraged people to submit designs and tell their friends to join the community and vote. We pulsed all media on Wed/Thu (show aired on Wed evenings) for each subsequent Project Runway episode.

Winner announcement
We announced the winners and thanked the entire community via online banners and our email database. The site was kept live for a week after the community chose the winner so that the community could see, celebrate and/or deplore the winner, based on their opinion.

Social media outreach
We produced no-cost Facebook and mySpace profiles for Project 501®, including downloadable blog badges, and seeded fashion/Project Runway blogs to drive WOM interest in the challenge.

 

Results & ROI:

Website

  • 133,000+ unique visitors during five-week challenge period
  • 3,000+ design submissions
  • 18,000+ registered users; 66% of registrants were women, approx 34% women between 18-24 (core target)
  • 38% of registrants opted in to Levi's® email database
  • Users posted 924 blog badges on their blogs/social networking profiles, which received 30,000+ views and 15,000+ clicks

Media

  • 36% of registered users said they learned about the site via WOM/social networking/blogs, and TV spots drove another 31%. The integrated strategy really worked.

Business Impact

  • Visitors to Project 501.com ultimately purchased $52,000+ on Levi.com.
  • During the campaign, the average price point for women's jeans sales increased from $46 to $68, which means women were buying more fashionable and expensive Levi's product as a result of the campaign. 

Campaign Date: January - March 2008