Levi's Top Global Marketing Exec Defects to Y&R West

Sweeny Becomes President of Agency's San Francisco and Irvine Offices

Doug Sweeny is departing his post as VP-global marketing at Levi Strauss & Co. to become president of WPP-owned agency Y&R's West Coast operations. Mr. Sweeny will oversee the network's San Francisco and Irvine offices in tandem with Y&R West's new chief creative officer, Joe Kayser.
 
The move marks a return for Mr. Sweeny to the agency world, and a reunion for him and Mr. Kayser, who were previously partners at Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day in San Francisco. There they ran the global business for Adidas. Previously, he was an account director working on Saturn at Publicis Groupe's Hal Riney in San Francisco. "We had a great partnership, and we worked well together and complemented each other really well," Mr. Sweeny said of working with Mr. Kayser. He attributes the opportunity to work with him again and improvements in Y&R's creative product as his reasons for making the jump from Levi's.


For the past four years, Mr. Sweeny helped lead global marketing for the retailer, where he was behind the global "Go Forth" campaign. He plans to wrap up at Levi's, which spends an estimated $100 million globally on advertising, within the next couple of weeks and start at Y&R in early June.

Mr. Sweeny replaces John Berg, who departed his post as Y&R West president in March. "The very first conversation Joe and I had about who would be a suitable partner for our West Coast business ... he mentioned Doug, and I had Doug at the top of my list as well," said Tom Sebok, president-CEO of Y&R North America.

The installation of new management in the office is part of a goal to elevate Y&R's presence on the West Coast. "Overall our agency needs a far greater degree of visibility than it has today," Mr. Sebok said. Clients handled by that office include Chevron, Mattel, Jenny Craig Disney, and Citrix.

More broadly, the agency network -- which has been suffering the loss of a slew of clients in the agency's New York office -- has been making management changes, like bringing in new CEO David Sable and New York Chief Creative Officer Jim Elliott from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

Levi's didn't immediately return a request for comment about Mr. Sweeny's departure. The marketer is going through changes of its own, including the launch of its first global ad campaign later this year, and a restructuring of its marketing operation that has brought on new new Global Chief Marketing Officer Rebecca Van Dyck.

It remains to be seen whether the arrival of Ms. Van Dyck and the departure of Ms. Sweeny will have any affect on Levi's agency relationships, which include Wieden & Kennedy and OMD leading global creative and media respectively.

LEVI'S PITCHES CURVES

Levi's introduced a new women's jeans line this week, Curve ID, via a campaign from Wieden + Kennedy that pitches the product with ads that declare, "All asses were not created equal."

The campaign, says the agency, is a rallying cry to women everywhere that, as the ad copy notes, "hotness really does come in all shapes and sizes." A gatefold ad that features three women in different cuts, Slight Curve, Demi Curve and Bold Curve, tells women that "we should be able to go into stores and find jeans that fit us instead of having to fit into the jeans."

The line was created as a result of research that included more than 60,000 body scans of women around the world and designed to fit three universal body types.

"Since we created our first women's jeans 75 years ago, no one has changed the formula for finding the perfect fit," said You Nguyen, svp, women's merchandising and design for Levi's. "Our revolutionary approach looks beyond waist size to address the true curves of a women's entire body."

Levi's global survey found that more than half of women, 54 percent, try on at least 10 pairs of jeans to find one pair they would buy; most women, 87 percent, wish they could find jeans that fit better than the ones they own; most women, 67 percent, believe that jeans are designed for women with "ideal" figures; and few women, 28 percent, believe that jeans are designed to fit their bodies.

The online, print and out-of-home ads began running this week in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

LEVI'S TOUR DE FORTH

LEVI PIONEER SESSIONS: JOHN LEGEND & THE ROOTS

Levi Jeans has partnered with some amazing artists to create Levi's Pioneer Sessions: 2010 Revival Recordings. Artists from all genres of music got together to record new versions of the songs that have inspired them throughout their lives. All the songs are available for free download on the Pioneer Sessions web site.

Check out some revivals like Nas covering Slick Rick's "Hey Young World," John Legend & The Roots doing Ernie Hines' "Our Generation," Bomba Estereo working a bilingual cover of "Pump Up The Jam," Jason Mraz doing Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit In The Sky" and MORE!

Check out some great photos and behind-the-scenes videos of the whole process on the Pioneer Sessions web site. What songs inspire you????

NAS X LEVI'S :: HEY YOUNG WORLD 2010

There’s always that one thing we have in our youth that informs us of who we want to be as an adult. Recently, Levis® FADER Fort artist, Nas, was given the chance to recreate “Hey Young World,” a Slick Rick jam that inspired Nas in his formative years, for the Levi’s® Pioneer Sessions. Read all about it here, where you can also download the track and watch behind the scenes footage of Nas in the studio.

LEVI'S SPONSORS '30 FOR 30' ON ESPN

NEW YORK ESPN has signed Levi's as the presenting sponsor of its documentary series 30 for 30, a slate of films that will serve as the centerpiece of the network's 30th anniversary celebration.

Per terms of the deal, Levi's will lead off each film with a branded 45-second "Director's Statement," in which the creative force behind the camera reflects on his motivation for making the movie viewers are about to see. For example, in the run-up to his entry, Jordan Rides the Bus, director Ron Shelton says he hopes to dispel some of the lingering misconceptions that surround Michael Jordan's quixotic attempt to make the Major Leagues in 1994.

A second Levi's Director's Statement will run at the end of each 30 for 30 film. The brand also has the option to take over a 60-second commercial pod leading into the third act.

The sponsorship extends through the first 15 films, with Levi's reserving the right of first refusal to continue with the latter half of the series.

The Levi's logo and tagline ("Go forth") will appear at the bottom right of the screen throughout the 45-second opening and closing clips. The deal also includes integration across several ESPN platforms, including presence on the 30 for 30 microsite.

Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore., launched Levi's "Go forth" effort in early summer, taking the wraps off a campaign that pays homage to the 136-year-old brand's trailblazing past while elevating its sex appeal. The company's annual U.S. measured media spend is around $80 million, per Nielsen data.

Contextually, Levi's ongoing look down both ends of the time line appears an apt fit for the 30 for 30 project, which also speaks in two different verb tenses. With contributions from the likes of Shelton (Bull Durham), Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), Steve James (Hoop Dreams), Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens) and Barry Levinson (Diner), the series is at once a distillation of ESPN's 30-year history and a mission statement for its future.

Also lending its support to the doc series is Honda, which will serve as associate sponsor of the first 15 films. As part of its package, the automaker will own an isolated pod in the second act, in which it will showcase its own documentary initiative, "Dream the Impossible."

Depending on the clip it chooses to preview on a given night, the Honda pod will command between 90 and 120 seconds of airtime. In one execution, culled from a longer piece titled "Failure: The Secret to Success," racer Danica Patrick recounts a crash that sent her to the hospital.

WALE: INDEPENDENTLY MAJOR

Last night in Atlanta, Georgia Thursday April 8, 2010 I went to check out WALE at Center Stage. Now I wasn't really a fan of WALE because I never heard his music except for the single's and informed by a lot of his passionate fans (most whom are from the D.C. area..lol).

I have always been a fan of live performance. It is the defining moment in an artist career. You can have great music, a cool image and amazing videos but without the live performance it is like pulling a card from the base of a card house. A live performance takes an artist from being an artist to propelling them into a "brand".

With that being said, the Roc Nation managed, Allido/Interscope signee WALE sold out the 1100 seat venue has laid the foundation for a long career.

WALE's brand alignment is very strong with endorsement and branding deals from LRG and Levi's, along with the help of Jay-Z helmed management company Roc Nation, and label executives Mark Ronson and Jimmy Iovine advising and guiding his career; Wale will be here for a vert long time. 

KUSTAA SAKSI: NIKE INSTALLATION

1948 is Nike’s creative playground-retail store in the old brick railway arches of Shoreditch, London. In addition to displaying and selling shoes, 1948 offers an entire art floor for events, installations and assorted fun.

The installation created by Finland-born illustrator/artist/designer Kustaa Saksi is all about the historical fun journey of the Nike running shoe. Typical for the currently Amsterdam-based Saksi, the sprawling scene has a pop-art, retro feel that fits Nike’s history as a brand. Saksi’s Volkswagen van and psychedelic colors illustrate the pre-swoosh era in an earnest and deliberately clunky way.

Saksi’s last name translates as “scissor,” or it could also be “Saxon,” depending on your preference. He is proficient in many media, including print, sculpture and now also more frequently 3D. Saksi has also designed massive building wraps, and even clothing and wallpaper. His book, Offpiste (2008), is a visual feast of his recent work. In addition to Nike, Saksi’s client list includes Comme des Garçons, Citroen, Diesel, Issey Miyake, Lacoste, Levi's, New York Times, Mercedes Benz, MTV, Playboy and Wallpaper.

SXSW: IT'S NO SUNDACE, BUT IT'S MAKING STRIDES

Brands Flood Festival, but Confab Has Yet to Hit the Over-Commercialized Saturation Point

If you were worried about South by Southwest becoming the next Sundance, think again. Record attendance and more sponsors and brand activations than ever would suggest the leading indie music and tech summit in Austin, Texas, reached its over-commercialized saturation point this year, with badges to get into the interactive portion alone up 40% to 10,000-plus attendees and 11 lead sponsors. But those at the festival think SXSW has a ways to go before it reaches the Paris Hilton/nightclub/guerrilla-marketing lows of Park City, Utah's annual movie and celeb summit.

Digital Privacy Among Top Issues Discussed at SXSWi Conference

Creativity's Teressa Iezzi Explains Why Foursquare Was a Winner and Why Facebook, Google is not a natural (or as I like to say "Organic") place for non-media consumer brands to congregate, so marketers such as Pepsi, General Motors' Chevrolet and Levi's focused more on improving the show's utility and navigation rather than pushing their products (though a fair share of product sampling and branded tents could be found, too). Far from complaining, fans were rewarding many of the sponsors with positive tweets, check-ins to branded accounts on Foursquare and Gowalla, and joining Facebook fan pages. The only brands that suffered were the ones whose marketing efforts seemed too blatant or forced.

Microsoft's Bing, for example, offered attendees free taxi rides within a certain radius of downtown Austin -- on the condition that riders must first download the Bing mobile app.

Such force-fed marketing flew in the face of what many attendees deemed to be the ultimate place for viral, self-selecting marketing and applications. After all, this was the same place where Foursquare launched just one year ago.

"The bar's pretty high for authenticity," said Tony Weisman, president of Digitas, Chicago, whose client Miller Lite was a lead sponsor and hosted a contest for independent web producers to have their own short films sponsored by the beer. "It's not overrun by brands yet; it's still principally about ideas, not about posing."

Having purpose

"You have to create an emotional connection back to the brand. It's a micro-audience that's going to be savvy and very finicky -- a super-consumer that's hard to win over," said Doug Aken, chief engagement officer of digital-marketing agency Mr Youth, who has worked with Pepsi on previous campaigns but was not involved with any SXSW efforts. "You would need to really do something unique to stand out -- it's not just creating noise for the sake of creating noise."

Yet as blogs continued to decry the death of SXSWi as an idea platform and the abundance of corporate sponsorship at what has become the country's leading technology summit, brands emerged largely unscathed.

GM's Chevrolet, for example, provided Volt-branded power strips for attendees to charge their laptops and phones, and also partnered with location-based social media app Gowalla to provide free rides in Chevy Equinox crossovers to the conference for attendees who checked in at the airport. Considered late to the social-media party two years after Ford found early success with its Fiesta efforts in 2008, Chevy was declared the festival's biggest marketing winner by blogs, Twitter users and local outlets like the Austin Statesman.

The Chevy Volt, which will have a soft launch in late 2010 before a full rollout in early 2011, is also actively trying to reach the under-34 set, an age group whose failure to embrace GM's other vehicles contributed to GM's bankruptcy. So Chevy activated its on-site vehicles with QR codes to drive users to a microsite, as well as a strong Twitter presence to engage viewers on site.

Pepsi also ramped up its second annual sponsorship of SXSW to activate branded experiences around SoBe Life Water, Mtn Dew and Pepsi. PepsiCo sponsored a Podcast Playground for podcasters to host quiet broadcasts and conduct interviews with key thinkers at the show, as well as a webcam appearance by LL Cool J to announce his new music-based social media project, Boomdizzle. SoBe hosted a "re-skinning" photo booth to promote the drink's new label, and Mtn Dew's Green Label Sound record label hosted several music showcases.

"As a lead partner, we want to be asking attendees, 'What's the issue? How can we make the event better?'" said Bonin Bough, Pepsi's director-social and digital media. "We want to add value and make ourselves more integrated into the experience, and in turn we get to learn early how to use these new technologies to transform retail purchase behavior."

LEVI'S UNDERSTANDS....

Currently Levi's has appointed former Kodak Marketing Manager Jaime Szulc as it's new Global Chief Marketing Officer. Though from the urban consumer's eye's Levi's is the go-to brand when you are walking through Bloomingdale's and Macy's. But in the boardroom the brand is in line behind other dominant denims such as True Religion, Seven For All Mankind and Joe's Jeans. Levi's took an 8% sales decrease in Q1 of 2009. They are looking to quickly reposition themselves as the leader of denim by including familiar faces in their campaigns such as London bread Estelle, and Co-Rookie of the Year Wale.

Mr. Szulc brings not only expertise outside the fashion industry but also strong business acumen to the CMO role. Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO at Kodak, said Mr. Szulc's return to the marketing suite makes perfect sense.

"Good marketers need to be good businesspeople, so if you've got a little bit of both, you can be dangerous," Mr. Hayzlett said. "He'll really bring some new insight into that company. He brought a real good energy [to Kodak] but also some real practical knowledge about consumer experience and value proposition. ... He's multilingual, multicultural and, having a marketing and business background, he's multifaceted."

Let's keep our ears and eyes to the streets, if we see Levi's making a huge impact by early 2010 we know that Mr. Szulc is doing his job. I believe he will have an easy transition because Levi's are here to stay so I guess job security won't be anything to worry about...lol