Sponsor Profile
Levi’s Tries On Another Sponsorship Style
Iconic player becomes latest clothing company to increase sponsorship activity.
9/20/10: When it comes to sponsorship, Levi Strauss & Co. can best be described as a dabbler, especially over the past 10 years. The iconic apparel company had a partnership with Live Nation predecessor SFX Entertainment early in the last decade, an associate-level deal with NASCAR Sprint Cup team Hendrick Motorsports and driver Jimmie Johnson from 2004 to 2007 and, until last year, sponsorship of a BMX cycling team.
The company’s latest dip in the event marketing waters has come in the form of co-title of the Rolling Roadshow, a series of nine free outdoor movie screenings in August, and cosponsorship of the September 11-12 MusicFestNW in Portland, Ore. Both deals are on behalf of its flagship Levi’s line.
The Levi’s deals are the latest examples of sponsorship from apparel companies and brands, a category that has significantly increased its use of the medium over the past year. Recent examples include
American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. and the Big East Conference, and
Donna Karan Int’l Inc. and the MLB New York Yankees.
Levi’s is using sponsorship to connect with a young adult audience, play up its classic American styling and “effortless cool” positioning, and support its Go Forth campaign, a two-year marketing effort that promotes how a new generation of “real workers” is helping to make the world a better place.
The Levi’s We Are All Workers/Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Rolling Roadshow showcases films featuring the “most celebrated celluloid workers.”
The series screened the movies in outdoor settings where scenes from each film were shot or set. Films and locations included
Dirty Harry at Washington Square Park in San Francisco;
Jackie Brown at the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, Calif.; the
Rocky trilogy at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
“The We Are All Workers Rolling Roadshow gives us an opportunity to take an irreverent approach to the democracy of work and our Go Forth campaign as we blaze a trail across the country,” said Doug Sweeny, vice president of Levi’s brand marketing, in a statement.
Levi’s and tour producer Alamo Drafthouse—franchiser of Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, movie houses that show first-run and other films and also serve food, beer and wine—teamed with location-based social networking application provider Gowalla, Inc. on a Rolling Roadshow promotion.
The first 50 Gowalla users who checked in at a series of locations related to each film received VIP passes to the screening in that market. The list of locations was available by following Levi’s on Gowalla.
The Rolling Roadshow sponsorship also afforded exposure in ads promoting the free screenings, branding on the event’s projection truck and a banner located under the movie screen. Levi’s also ran a TV spot prior to each screening, said Tim League, founder and CEO of Alamo Drafthouse.
League developed the partnership with Christian Parkes, director of Levi’s brand marketing. The two collaborated two years ago when Parkes was U.S. brand manager of sportswear at Nike, Inc., said League, who worked with Parkes on a one-off Rolling Roadshow Halloween screening of
The Shining at Mt. Hood, Ore.’s Timberline Lodge, which appeared in the movie.
In addition to presence on site, including title of the main stage, Levi’s activated MusicFestNW by offering live online streaming of headliners The Decemberists and The National through video platform Stickam.
To access the stream, fans had to ‘like” Levi’s on the brand’s Facebook page.
Sources
Levi Strauss & Co., Tel: 415/501-6000
Alamo Drafthouse, Tel: 512/219-7800