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Stas May
is trying to recapture the zeitgeist the way the clothing chain did in its ’90s heyday, this time with a marketing push featuring a new single by a cutting-edge rap producer.
The ad campaign, which will debut on TV during Sunday’s Grammy Awards, includes a song created by Metro Boomin, the hit-making artist reshaping the sound of pop music. Gap plans to release the song, a contemporary take on the Thompson Twins’s ’80s smash “Hold Me Now,” on music-streaming services this week. The song will play in the television ad. Metro Boomin is the campaign’s music director and appears in the ad, alongside SZA, the R&B artist nominated for five Grammys, as well as young stars of music, film, TV, YouTube and social media from around the world.
Watch a clip from the new Gap ad
Metro Boomin says it was important to be part of a campaign that connects with consumers in a modern way. Also, “it was a different challenge for me to do something new and create music for a campaign,” he adds.
In recent years, apparel retailers have worked to attract consumers increasingly favoring travel or dining out over shopping. At the same time, brands have sought creative ways to engage customers. Gap joins a number of fashion brands enlisting hot hip-hop and R&B acts to make original material in hopes of boosting brand awareness and enticing shoppers. The collaborations also signal that musicians and fans are less troubled than previous generations by the notion of selling out.
Rap star Drake debuted a song at a Louis Vuitton men’s runway show in Paris last year that was released the following day on streaming services including Apple Music and Tidal. Calvin Klein tapped artists including
Solange
and A$AP Rocky to star in a multimedia campaign that included videos for its jeans and underwear lines. Also last year, Calvin Klein worked with alternative music group the xx on a video for one of its songs, in which the performers wore clothes from Calvin Klein’s higher-end collections.
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Victor Boyko/Getty Images
“As marketers we have to realize that where people consume brand content has changed,” says
Craig Brommers,
Gap’s chief marketing officer. “The exciting thing about the campaign is that we’ll be able to reach people through a variety of mediums. We have to go where the customer is going.”
The combination of a star and the promise of new music can stir buzz. However, a risk is that consumers may be interested in a brand’s entertainment and social media—but not motivated to buy its products.
“It’s not proven that social engagement leads to sales,” says
Michael Jais,
chief executive and founder of technology and data analytics firm Launchmetrics. “A limited percentage” of people who engage with a brand on social media go on to purchase its products, he says.
“Consumers don’t trust ads, and are savvy enough to know that an ‘endorsement’ probably means that a celebrity got paid,” says
Jonah Berger,
a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. At the same time, they are paying less attention to traditional media channels. Original content and storytelling are “less likely to be seen as an explicit persuasion attempt so they trust it more,” says Mr. Berger, who is the author of “Contagious: Why Things Catch On.”
The strategy also can backfire, he warns: “A terrible song can damage brand equity more than it helps.”
In the 1990s, Gap became popular with its mix of sleek basics like T-shirts, sweaters and turtlenecks, preppy oxford shirts, jeans and logo-emblazoned sportswear. The mass-casual retailer had spirited TV ads to match: a campaign with people swing-dancing in khaki pants was a hit.
Robert Passikoff,
president and founder of Brand Keys, puts out an annual index of apparel brands that consumers say they visit repeatedly. From the late 1990s to 2002, Gap was at the top or near the top of the list, Mr. Passikoff says, “but that hasn’t been the case for a long time.”
After the early 2000s, Gap lost its way, opening too many stores and failing to keep up with fashion trends and changing consumer tastes. The U.S. arrival of fast-fashion rivals like
and Zara, and specialists in basics like Uniqlo, stole Gap’s market share. J. Crew eclipsed Gap as fashion’s mainstream darling. In addition, the overall apparel industry took a drubbing as sales and mall visits tumbled.
Gap
’s
parent company, San Francisco-based Gap Inc., named company veteran
Art Peck
CEO in 2014. Before Mr. Peck’s appointment, same-store sales had fallen every quarter of fiscal 2014. The declines followed increases for several periods beginning with the first fiscal quarter of 2012, largely after Gap seized on the colored-jeans trend. Quarterly same-store sales had largely been waning before then for more than three years.
Photo:
Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg
In September, the company said it planned to close about 200 Banana Republic and Gap stores over the next three years, while opening more Old Navy and Athleta sports-clothing stores. Gap got rid of its creative director and did away with the position altogether in early 2015. Last February, the company finally saw its first quarterly increase in sales at stores open at least a year since Mr. Peck officially took over. This month, the company reported that same-store sales rose at its Gap and Old Navy stores during the holiday season.
According to Kantar Media, Gap Inc. spent about $122.1 million on advertising, excluding social media, for all its brands from January 2017 through September, the most recent figures available.
The Gap brand rose to ninth place among 19 apparel brands in Brand Keys’ customer loyalty engagement index for 2017, up from 14th place in 2016.
Write to Ray A. Smith at ray.smith@wsj.com
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