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Calvin Klein set the internet on fire on January 4th when it unveiled its new spring 2024 campaign featuring a shirtless Jeremy Allen White wearing the brand's signature underwear. Social media feeds were flooded with reaction videos, and the media covered the campaign extensively. The following week, Calvin Klein saw a 30% increase in underwear sales over the previous year.
Jonathan Bottomley, chief marketing officer at Calvin Klein, said the brand could not have predicted the campaign would receive such a huge response, but the brand did everything it could to strategize for it. He says he did.
“How can you create such a spike in a culture that is so flat…We're adopting what's called an entertainment mentality,” Bottomley said on stage at the BoF Professional Summit in New York. Told.
On this week's BoF Podcast, BoF Founder and Editor-in-Chief Imran Amed speaks with Mr. Bottomley to uncover Calvin Klein's marketing strategies and how they cut through the noise to create cultural moments.
key insights
- Calvin Klein's entertainment ethos can be divided into three main parts. “First, we focused on creating stories and creating content that people would want to spend time with. Second, we focused on not only the scope of engagement, but also the cultural character. It's about really thinking about talent in terms of opportunities to create and showcase talent in ways that maybe haven't been seen before,” explains Bottomley. “And the third thing is media. We're blending the media mix, experimenting with algorithms, and really trying to break through.”
- Bottomley insists the brand isn't trying to stir up controversy. “There's an authenticity to what we do, and that's part of his DNA as a brand as well. This idea of sensuality and empowerment goes hand in hand,” he says. “It's more to do with partnership, creative expression, and this idea of a character that we feel is going to work, but that our partners really believe in.”
- Regarding the balance between brand marketing and performance marketing, Bottomley believes the two are intertwined. “Our mindset is that everything is brand and everything is performance. The brand’s responsibility is to lead from within the boundaries of where the culture is going and say, ‘How can we break out of that and inspire people with something? “Can I get them excited?” ”
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