Gap made headlines this fall when it partnered with rising girl group Katseye for a fall campaign that not only managed to resonate with younger cohorts like Gen Z but additionally delivered a competitive edge in the so-called denim wars. Now, the retail brand is hoping to ride that momentum with “Give Your Gift,” its emotional holiday campaign that’s already showing promising results.
“Give Your Gift” centers around a 90-second spot set to a canopy of the Miley Cyrus song “The Climb” by 20-year-old Sienna Spiro, who’s supported by a multigenerational choir of people with ages starting from 8 to 72. Since its launch in November, the campaign has generated greater than 30 million views, said Global CMO Fabiola Torres.
The latest iteration of “Give Your Gift” is an extension of the retailer’s holiday campaign from last 12 months, which leveraged a solid of creators and rising talent in the music industry for an a cappella version of Janet Jackson’s “Together Again.” The campaign also rides on the heels of “Better in Denim,” its campaign with Katseye that achieved 8 billion media impressions and helped Gap forge a stronger reference to younger consumers and develop into the No. 6 adult denim brand in the U.S., up two spots from 2024.
Gap has continued to be intentional about its approach to Gen Z with its extension of “Give Your Gift,” explained Torres, though that doesn’t come at the expense of other generations, who’re well-represented in the campaign’s creative.
“We desired to shake it up this 12 months to do it in a different way — larger choir, newer song — as we’ve been really trending with Gen Z,” said Torres. “We’re just touching the surface, to be completely honest, since it has a number of potential.”
Marketing Dive spoke with Torres, who joined Gap last spring from PepsiCo, to learn more about the strategy behind the denim brand’s holiday campaign, including why it sought out a multigenerational solid, the way it approaches rising talent and the way the team plans to follow its Katseye success.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
MARKETING DIVE: What inspired the extension of the ‘Give Your Gift’ campaign?
FABIOLA TORRES: More than an extension, I need to call it a platform. We’ve been dancing rather a lot, and we said, OK, let’s take a pause and do what we did a 12 months ago, and that’s supporting emerging talent and taking a moment when the universe is [also] taking a moment.
I feel just being relatable in the moment where everybody desires to decelerate and be with their people — [“Give Your Gift” is] about being together … We thought that doing it again another way could possibly be more honorable and construct the platform. We’re very excited. The sentiment has been extremely positive, and particularly as we launched it earlier in the season, we hope we will pick up increasingly views for the remainder of the season.
Why have partnerships with emerging talent been so crucial to Gap’s marketing strategy?
That’s in the DNA of our brand. We’re a 56-year-old brand, and it’s at all times about mixing seasoned talent with latest songs or older songs with latest talent. It’s about providing a platform. Gap represents inclusivity, self-expression, and [the idea that] all of us can have a probability, and that’s where we start the work.
Other marketers have similarly been focused on a multigenerational solid for their holiday campaigns. Why was this essential for “Give Your Gift”?
We went very Gen Z with Katseye … We desired to ensure that we remind everyone that we’re a multigenerational brand as well, and we desired to be very intentional — it’s about the talent, your voice, it doesn’t matter how old you’re.
How would you describe the sentiment of Gap consumers heading into the holidays?
I feel it’s not only Gap consumers, it’s the world. When it involves these items, these moments in time and this season, it’s all about reflection, it’s about attempting to be positive, so as to add more positivity to the world, especially with the macro situation that we’ve been having this 12 months and the past 12 months. It’s at all times good to send a positive message.
I feel everyone desires to have something good of their lives and that’s a part of our briefs. If you hear the lyrics of “The Climb,” it’s about at all times convalescing, and climbing to where you will probably be next, and it felt perfect for us. Everybody wants some positivity, everybody wants your environment to be higher, and [at] Gap, we feel like we will take the driver’s seat as well and be a part of this.
The latest iteration of “Give Your Gift” follows Gap’s partnership with Katseye earlier this 12 months — a campaign that has proven to be particularly effective. What made it so successful?
There’s so many aspects. I feel we had a watch on them since they formed as a bunch … and it’s all about the opportunities that we were giving to them at the start, after which the opportunity they gave us as well to showcase a worldwide viewpoint.
The energy was magical. I’ve been on so many sets in my profession, and this particular one just felt right. It felt magic. When you discover that chemistry with talent, you have got to essentially make the most in a very good way and produce more content for the community. It was one among the biggest sets that Gap has done, if not the biggest one which has been done in the history of Gap.
How did the effort perform in comparison with the KPIs you set?
We knew that it was going to be the best one yet, especially in the last two years, but not at this level. Having 8 billion impressions … it helped our category as well — denim isn’t a straightforward one when you have got revenue and relevance together, and our CEO could be very adamant on that as well, to say, if you desire to drive relevance, you might want to bring revenue, we’re an organization. And this felt so right, and the community and consumers, especially Gen Z, were shopping all the way for the latest styles.
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