Brand awareness for Lee has always been high in Europe, but with a low understanding of what it actually stands for, which is mainly due to a low advertising presence. It is perceived as being older and with no real brand identity. The communication challenge was therefore to rejuvenate the brand and reinforce Lee’s core values, namely innovative, reliable and youthful, but in a tone that was unpretentious, outgoing, honest and fun.We would establish this consistent brand platform by focusing on a European core target of ‘early adopters’ (young adults 16-24yrs). Our communication would also have to be big enough to reach both current and potential consumers.In order to create a bond with the youth audience the campaign would need to generate a buzz and capitalise on its viral potential. The creative is very different from the ironic imagery & typical 'youth culture' advertising associated with most jeans companies. It captures the essence of what Lee is about - it offers you the freedom to go anywhere, do anything and generally feel good about yourself. The creative work and subsequent TV campaign communicated the fact that if bottoms could choose jeans, they would opt for Lee! Our recommendation was to run a fully-integrated European MTV TV & Online campaign across a 3 month period:TV was selected because of its strong branding values and audio-visual benefits.

An online presence was recommended for its ability to reach our core target and for its creative scope.MTV is one of the most influential European brands dedicated to the youth market, with whom it communicates in a tone and language that they understand and identify with–integrity is paramount for Lee. Furthermore, the creative synergies with some MTV programming were undeniable (eg. ‘Jackass, now a cult show).Media creativity was key here, so instead of a sponsorship route (sometimes too inflexible), we created our own communication vehicle in the form of an online competition.

Our recommendation included four key elements: -1) MTV spot campaign- a mix of copy lengths for maximum impact (60”, 10”, 5”);we ran the 10” spots during first week as a teaser- 60”/10” introduced in second week for impact and to continue to build awareness, planned as ‘top & tail’ in most relevant programming.- finally, we ended the campaign with a series of 5” executions as a cheeky reminder- All ads had the Lee website address, with links to the MTV competition page2) Lee/ MTV online competition and interactive game- housed on all MTV European & local websites, this featured a competition to win a beach holiday for two, plus two fun interactive sections:- the first: where you could run video clips of ‘the 10 most famous bottom moments in music’.- the second: an interactive game to steer an animated bottom across a road, avoiding traffic, to find a pair of Lee jeans - a fun comparison with the TV ad. The game could also be e-mailed to friends, adding a viral element.3) MTV online newsletter: to promote the competition4) Pop-Up vignettes: on the MTV homepages, driving traffic to the competitionThe online competition received over 70,000 entrants across Europe – one of the highest ever responses MTV have ever had to an online competition. Furthermore the Lee site also saw more than a 500% increase in the number of visits it received. Using these amazing statistics as a guide, we are confident that the effect on national sales will also be as positive (sales data not available until June‘02). We wanted to make sure that both the media vehicle chosen, and the way in which it was used, would clearly deliver the Lee brand values and maximise the creative synergies with the “Bottoms” campaign. The ‘cheeky’ way in which we used the media, TV and Online, meant that we could reach our audience in an entertaining way, with the medium becoming the message.

Mediaedge:cia was involved from start to finish, assuming many roles at once: we developed the proposal, we were project managers and media planners/ buyers, as well as brand custodians, in helping to design the online site to ensure the tone was right for our channel recommendation.Following a series of Mediaedge:cia-led brainstorming sessions on the Lee target consumer, the media vehicle recommendation became the starting point. We explored all possible opportunities to connect with our target audience. The media mix was not predetermined by the creative work. The many elements of activity came together as one campaign, providing greater value than was first anticipated–through PR coverage (including half page lead story in WSJ and much other trade press coverage), plus the significant results achieved on the MTV/Lee sites. The jeans market is an extremely cluttered one, with similar ads, all focusing on idealistic images. At the time of the campaign Lee’s brand identity was not clearly differentiated and it was largely perceived as an ‘older’ brand. We needed to rejuvenate the brand and do this in a consistent European way, through a campaign which would stand out from the competition. We managed to deliver an impactful campaign based around content that we developed and fully exploited. At times this became a bit too ‘risqué’, but we convinced the client to take the risk and see the hype this would generate, which was exactly what Lee were looking for.We put Lee back where it belongs, on the Pan European stage after a five year absence, and left the client completely convinced of the creative role that media can play in driving both communication and business objectives.This was truly European (40+ countries), with one creative message, one media vehicle and one deal. It is one of the few truly fully integrated European deals ever done on MTV.It demonstrates that you can effectively connect with the European youth audience in an impactful way and still compete with the high-spending competitors.

We wanted to make sure that both the media vehicle chosen, and the way in which it was used, would clearly deliver the Lee brand values and maximise the creative synergies with the “Bottoms” campaign. The ‘cheeky’ way in which we used the media, TV and Online, meant that we could reach our audience in an entertaining way, with the medium becoming the message.

Mediaedge:cia was involved from start to finish, assuming many roles at once: we developed the proposal, we were project managers and media planners/ buyers, as well as brand custodians, in helping to design the online site to ensure the tone was right for our channel recommendation.Following a series of Mediaedge:cia-led brainstorming sessions on the Lee target consumer, the media vehicle recommendation became the starting point. We explored all possible opportunities to connect with our target audience. The media mix was not predetermined by the creative work. The many elements of activity came together as one campaign, providing greater value than was first anticipated–through PR coverage (including half page lead story in WSJ and much other trade press coverage), plus the significant results achieved on the MTV/Lee sites.