Levi’s to tap into the emerging female denim customer market with latest campaign

NEW DELHI: Worth around Rs 30,000 crore, the Indian denim market is a growing industry. The fabric has not just found its place in the wardrobe of people across age groups and gender but has over the years transformed itself into a style statement. And with growing fashion awareness and a jump in disposable incomes, it is expected to grow even further. As per industry estimates, it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15 per cent by 2023 amounting to approximately Rs 54,000 crore. While the segment is still predominantly dominated by menswear, amounting to 84 per cent of the overall market, the women’s wear segment, currently at 10 per cent, shows great growth potential, poised to grow at the fastest at the CAGR of 14.5 per cent over the next 10 years to reach Rs 39,651 crore by 2021, and Rs 77,999 crore by 2026.

And with its eyes set on this growing user-base, one of the most prominent and popular denim brands in India, Levi’s India has decided to go bigger on its marketing strategies. The brand has today launched its annual campaign focusing on the far and wide possibilities that women can conquer if they decide to follow their dreams. 

Titled "When You Take A Step, We All Move,” the campaign celebrates the spirit of women and their collective journey of inspiring and championing each other through authentic self-expression. 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. As each woman finds confidence and comfort in expressing their fearless pursuits, it inspires people around her to join in and move with her.

Levi Strauss & Co marketing director – south Asia, middle east & north Africa Saikot Das said, “The campaign is an ode to the collective movement of women who are moving ahead with strength and shaping a massive cultural change. It’s great to have Deepika as part of the campaign as she embodies what it means to inspire generations to fearlessly chase their dreams and pursuits – a perfect fit to our campaign message ‘When you take a step, we all move’. Through our campaign, we believe we’ll be able to establish a strong connect with our consumers, influence and accelerate the women’s business, further strengthening our leadership in the market.’’

He added that the brand wants to create a domino effect with this campaign, which will motive more-and-more women to follow their passion. 

The TVC has been brought alive with the power of timeless music and is set to the redux tunes of the timeless classic Auva Auva Koi Yahan Nache — the popular dance number from the 1982 movie Disco Dancer composed by the legendary Bappi Lahiri. 

Das noted that they went through hundreds of songs before zeroing on the particular number. “We want people to be humming the song and every time they hum the song we want them to go back to the campaign and have the brand registered in their memories. The brand message should play subliminally in their heads; therefore the choice of the iconic song that completely marries with our visual story and the core idea.”

The high-decibel campaign will be launched across the country today. The three-month-long campaign will then be followed by leg two. Apart from the main film, the TVC will also be curated into multiple renditions to run across media platforms. The campaign will be nationally rolled out using a creative mix of marketing mediums including print, broadcast, and digital.

Das highlighted, “We have substantially increased our marketing budgets this year and it is after a long time that we have come up with such a massive campaign with such a popular star. With this campaign, our focus is on tapping into the emerging female consumer group even more because they are so critical contributors to the fashion industry. The whole objective is to attract new generations of women consumers with the relevant fashion brand sense. We've also got an interesting lineup of products whether it's the statement-making high-rise, or whether it's runaway returning bell bottoms. So we've got a whole area of exciting products lined up to complement the very strong message.”

The campaign will be running across channels of all genres including GECs, movies, music, etc and will have a strong digital presence too. 

“With digital marketing, we want to be more targeted in our approach. So, initially, we will be tapping into the top 12-15 cities and we will be putting all our energies behind the consumers there,” Das elaborated. 

As far as static media like print and OOH is concerned, the brand has little plans to explore them for the new campaign. “The whole communication is around visuals and the music, which can’t be presented via the static media. Therefore, our key focus is going to be on a high-decibel presence on TV and digital media.”