Levi's to hike spending on TV and digital, focus more on female consumers

Levi’s will significantly increase its advertising expenditure on TV and digital as the brand sees revenue increasing with its entry in the athleisure segment.

The brand has signed up movie star Deepika Padukone as its brand ambassador.

Saikot Das

Saikot Das, Marketing Director, South Asia, Middle East and North Africa, ‎Levi Strauss and Co., said, “We are increasing our overall ad spends in a big way this year. I don’t think 2020 as a baseline is a good comparison. However, if we look at 2018, our spending is going to be significantly more than that. And if macro-economic and business factors continue to support, we will pick up our investments in the second half, again.”

He said the company’s business currently is looking good and is coming back to the pre-Covid levels as footfalls are back. 

While the brand plans to move into a lot of prominent locations from a store point of view across the country this year, it has accelerated digital commerce as well. Tapping the opportunity in the athleisure space, it is most likely to launch the products in the category in the second half of the season (H2) for both men and women.

For this year, Das mentioned how winning the women consumer is the biggest priority for the brand. 

While it has a product line in place for the same, the company has also launched a ‘We All Move’ campaign, conceptualised by Spring Marketing Capital.

With the keen objective to attract the next generation of women consumers with relevant fashion-forward offerings, the brand is taking the next step in its journey.

The film:

Starring Deepika Padukone, the campaign aims at inspiring a culture of sisterhood united in celebrating their individuality through authentic self-expression. Centred on the message ‘When you take a step, we all move’, it celebrates the spirit of women and their collective journey of inspiring and championing each other through authentic self-expression. Brought alive through the power of music, the TVC is set to the tunes of the timeless classic ‘Auva Auva Koi Yahan Nache’. As part of the visual montage, the film features brand ambassador Deepika Padukone alongside diverse women from everyday walks of life: dreaming, believing, and taking the step with confidence to live their next big thing.

The TVC is cinematically designed to highlight this spread of energy as the bond that unites the sisterhood and inspires a cultural movement.

Referring to it as one of the highest decibel campaigns that it has launched in the past six-seven years, he said, “We are spending as we have never spent before on any campaigns ever and not even any of our closest competitors has spent.”

Das said the three-month long and integrated campaign will be led by TV and digital but pretty much all-inclusive. “Digital will encompass OTT, e-com, social media for better engagement and connection. We want to reach out to as many consumers as we can because the whole idea is to recruit consumers into the brand franchise and, therefore, the choice of TV to drive awareness (on GEC, music and movie channels). And we have planned to associate with a few shows as well. The campaign will be a pan-India launch,” he added.

As the brand is coming back with a campaign in a long time, the main objective predominantly is to drive awareness.

“In the second half of the year, we will come back with the second part of this campaign," he said.

Asked about the plans on spending on either print or OOH, he said, “We are a lifestyle brand and it is the video-based format that really allows the story to come alive for us. We will be there in print and OOH but most of our budgets will be in TV and digital only.”

The brand has been instrumental in utilising influencer marketing over the past few years. Welcoming ASCI’s latest draft guidelines for influencer advertising, Das said, “The whole idea of influencer marketing is to amplify and add another layer to our existing media plan. We will stick to the guidelines ASCI has shared and we don’t feel there will be any challenge for us.”

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