How the brand chased Beyoncé to boost its sales of women’s jeans

Kenny Mitchell, chief marketing officer at Levi Strauss & Co., knew his team needed to act fast after Beyoncé released the track list for her album “Cowboy Carter” in March. Of the 27 songs listed, one provided the jeans brand’s marketing department with a big opportunity: “Levii’s Jeans.”

While in Paris to celebrate his wife’s 50th birthday, Mitchell was communicating across time zones with his team at the company’s San Francisco headquarters to figure out how they could capitalize on the moment. When the songs were released that week, Levi’s decided to add an extra I to the brand name on Instagram, just like Beyoncé did with her music.

Still, Mitchell thought the brand could go further. “As soon as the album came out, it was obviously a moment where we said, ‘Hey, maybe we can start having some conversations about whether a deeper partnership makes sense,'” he said.

Soon after, Levi’s contacted Beyoncé and her team. The two groups had previously worked together on several campaigns and creative projects over the years. She wore her jeans when she was a member of Destiny’s Child in the early 2000s, making Levi’s one of the first brands to collaborate with the group, and has continued to incorporate the brand into her solo career.

What soon became apparent to Levi’s executives after the release of “Cowboy Carter” was that Beyoncé could be the key to achieving one of the company’s key strategies: convincing more women to buy the brand.

A third of Levi’s shoppers are women. The plan, executives say, is to increase that to 50%.

On the 30th, after a week of suspense on social media, Levi’s announced a global campaign with Beyoncé called “REIIMAGINE”, which will run until 2025. It will unfold in four chapters, relying heavily on the company’s history, which was founded in 1853, with a focus on women.

The first iteration is a commercial directed by filmmaker Marcell Rev that the company is promoting on its social media profiles, e-commerce sites and stores. It is a reimagining of the company’s popular “Laundrette” television advertisement, which featured singer Nick Kamen and aired in Britain in 1985.

The new ad closely adheres to the original format: Beyoncé enters a laundromat wearing Levi’s 501 pants, as well as a white T-shirt and a denim cowboy hat with the brand’s signature red label. As she moves dramatically to take off her jeans and put them in the washing machine, other customers turn toward her in awe. The Marvin Gaye song from the original ad is replaced with one by Beyoncé.

“Not only does it modernize, and it’s Beyoncé and all the divinity that comes with that,” said Levi’s CEO Michelle Gass, “but I think, more importantly, it really puts a feminine lens on this approach to the campaign, and that fits perfectly into one of our core strategies: winning with women.”

Levi’s first introduced a pair of jeans specifically designed for women in 1934. It was a time, particularly in the American West, when women had a new sense of independence. They needed something practical to wear for physical activities instead of just borrowing their husband’s or brother’s jeans, said Tracey Panek, Levi’s in-house historian.

In 1968, the brand expanded its offerings with Levi’s for Gals, an entire department specifically for women. In the second half of the 20th century, through well-publicized marketing campaigns and defining moments such as being the official supplier of Team USA at the 1984 Olympics, Levi’s cemented its place as a cultural institution.

A number of celebrities, including Beyoncé, would wear their jeans on red carpets and cultural events. In 2001, when she was still part of Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé wore the brand’s Superlow jeans on the red carpet at the MTV Video Music Awards and talked about them during an interview.

In the 2010s, however, Levi’s began to lose its coolness factor as it struggled to adjust to the “athleisure” trends and new denim cuts that young millennial consumers preferred. This was particularly true for female consumers.

“Skinny jeans were so popular for so long that it was almost like there was no room for anything else,” said Jill Guenza, who leads women’s design at Levi’s.

After conducting years of market research into what women wanted, the company revamped its women’s line in 2015. Designers made the stitching more distinctive and the back patch larger to emphasize the shape of female figures. “It felt like a pair of Levi’s again,” Guenza said.

Gass wants to continue building on that momentum. The company’s effort to diversify its assortment with more tops, jackets and accessories is a way of trying to attract more consumers. It is also testing smaller stores where the main focus is women’s fashion, from the mannequins at the front of the store to the advertisements and staff knowledge of the range.

And Levi’s plans to lean heavily on Beyoncé, who said in a statement about the collaboration that Levi’s jeans are “the ultimate American uniform.” She added that she hopes to continue exploring ways the partnership can empower women and honor their strength.

Levi’s expects that by the end of the year, with a boost from Beyoncé, its women’s business will bring in $2 billion in sales, Gass said. Over the past three months, this sector of the company has seen an 11% increase, with double-digit growth in sales of its pants and tops.

“What this partnership does is push us to be relevant,” Gass said. “I think this is the biggest [parceria] that we’ve already done.”