Levi's

@directorofsocial

8.8K followers · usually 6.4K views a post

Views

377.1K

Likes

21.7K

Comments

106

Shares

273

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Levi'sseen in 11 videos →

Why it worked

The video's success stems from its clever "underdog" narrative, highlighting Levi's smart, low-fi marketing tactic that generated massive engagement by subtly trolling a larger entity. This approach resonated with viewers, making the brand seem relatable and witty, thus outperforming official sponsorships.

Summary

This video explains Levi's clever marketing strategy during the World Cup, where they subtly trolled FIFA by hiding their logo on a sponsored stadium. The strategy involved two key elements: leveraging their iconic brand status and using a low-fi, unpolished approach to create a relatable narrative that resonated with audiences, leading to massive engagement.

Structure

1Levi's trolls FIFA with classy marketing
228,000 people agree it's genius
3Reason 1: Levi's punched up by hiding logo
4Reason 2: Low-fi, unpolished response
5This strategy generated 30 million views
6Levi's playbook for reactive marketing

Original caption

Everyone loves an underdog 😤 This is such a smart brand play that’s already generating more buzz and reach than some of the official sponsors are getting for their multimillion dollar campaigns. The best part is that this isn’t @Levi’s first rodeo, and they pulled this straight out of their reactive marketing playbook. I’ll break that down in my next video, so stick with me for part 2. Who won this round? . . #marketing #socialmedia #advertising #brandstrategy #worldcup

More from @directorofsocial

Their other posts in the index, biggest breakout first.

Product placement

Levi's: ACTS - a brand that sells apparel, specifically jeans. Its logo appears on a stadium and is discussed in the context of a marketing strategy. Removing it would change the video's subject. FIFA: APPEARS - a sports organization, its logo appears on a scoreboard. Removing it would not change what happens in the video. McDonald's: APPEARS - a fast food chain, its logo appears on a scoreboard. Removing it would not change what happens in the video. Budweiser: APPEARS - a beer brand, its logo appears on a scoreboard. Removing it would not change what happens in the video. Hisense: APPEARS - an electronics brand, its logo appears on a scoreboard. Removing it would not change what happens in the video. WWD: APPEARS - a fashion industry publication, its logo appears on a website screenshot. Removing it would not change what happens in the video.

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On-screen text

Levi's World Cup Stadium Marketing Strategy

Transcript

Levi's just trolled FIFA so hard but they did it in the classiest way possible. And 28,000 people agree with me that this is genius marketing. There are two reasons why. Number one, Levi's punched up. So this is an iconic brand that's sponsoring this stadium being told that they have to hide their logo. And this is honestly not surprising when you understand how marketing around global sporting events like this works. For example, if you're not an official sponsor of the Super Bowl, you can't even phrase, you can't even use the phrase Super Bowl in any of your marketing. And that's why you often see big game being used instead. But it creates this Goliath versus Goliath positioning, which is absolutely gold for storytelling. And number two, that they kept their response incredibly very low-fi. This video was just six seconds long and they used the most hilariously perfect, the audio, the no one will notice, unpolished post like this is almost an anti-campaign. And so it gives people that vibe that this is just the Levi's employees making a statement and not the brand itself. So those two things together gives people something to rally around to the tune of over 30 million views in under 24 hours. It's so smart. They paired their post with a matching profile picture, which is actually doing. I'm not doing. I'm going to unpack their playbook in my next video, so follow along for more.