Marketing Insight: thinking back to when jeans weren’t a wardrobe staple

It’s hard to believe now that, only 40 years ago, there would be a problem with the sale of jeans as today the likes of Levi’s, Wranglers and even a trusty M&S pair are an everyday staple in almost all our wardrobes. 

But if we go back to the 80’s, possibly the greatest decade for fashion (in my opinion), there was an explosion of youth culture. New Romantics, Soulboys, Young Casuals, Goths. You could find your tribe, the weirder the better. The problem was that none of these tribes were wearing jeans. 

Back then, in the US, Levi’s was associated with Ronald Reagan (i.e. old people)! Meanwhile in the UK, you had to look really hard to actually find jeans, usually in Millets.  

Ultimately, year-on-year sales for the former market leader, Levi’s, had decreased by 46% over four years. And the 501, Levi’s original jean from 1873, had suffered more than any other product. 

So, what did they do? 

On Boxing Day 1985 the now iconic ‘launderette ad’ aired.  

Nick Kamen enters a laundrette, takes off his Ray Bans, fills a washing machine with rocks, removes his t-shirt & jeans and puts them in the machine too. He then simply sits back and waits for the cycle to finish. The end line reads: “501 the original shrink to fit jeans”. 

The ad was deemed to be creative, raunchy and cool. Importantly, it sold van loads of jeans! It not only launched Nick Kamen’s career but also boosted sales of boxer shorts. In fact, it made such an impact that the ad had to be pulled as production could not keep up with demand. There was an astonishing 800% rise in sales. 

Accelerating Growth: increasing sales season by season

In 2023 the Jeans market was worth $71 billion, this is forecast to rise to $95 billion in 2030 (Source: Statista). By 2023, following year-on-year increases since 2010, Levi’s net sales had reached $6 billion. 

Brand awareness certainly plays a key part in Levi’s growth, but by pushing to the forefront of sustainability and product development, the brand continues to increase sales season by season. Whilst it’s difficult to attribute Levi’s sustainability goals to net sales, Levi’s is a leader in fashion sustainability, demonstrating a commitment to its values.  

So, did Beyonce’s song help boost business results? Levi’s Q3’24 results saw the sales of Levi’s 501 grow by 11%. Following a focus on growing the direct to consumer (DTC) business and the Beyonce ad campaign being activated across more than 3,000 DTC touchpoints, DTC grew by 10% in Q3. 

Jamie Hewitt joined MI over ten years ago and has seen the agency grow and develop over the decade. Last year he became the agency’s joint managing director, here he lets us look behind the scenes of the role of an MD.

What led you to a career in media?

I started getting a flavour for the industry through family connections and work experience when I was 15. I continued to spend my summers building experience in various small agencies, even spending time on graduate days with IPC. When I finished my A levels, this experience gave me the option of going to university or getting stuck in with my first job on the bottom rung of the media ladder. I’ve never been super academic, but I do enjoy structure with the freedom to be creative, so I chose the latter and haven’t looked back since! If I didn’t work in media, I would have either become a chef or joined the army!  

What does a typical day look like for you?

I typically start the week by making sure there’s milk in the fridge and biscuits in the tin for the team – we all know that a Milk Chocolate Hobnob is the winner! Beyond this, my job is to ensure the smooth running of MI Media. From looking after our people and keeping our clients happy to keeping the lights on in the office! On any given day this can look like 121s with the teams, joining a finance review or running client strategy sessions. For me it’s always been about being hands on and never asking anyone to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself. 

What mistake have you learned from the most?

I’ve made some clangers! But what stands out for me is that I lacked confidence in the early part of my career. I’m naturally an introvert, and it took me a long time to understand that this is not a negative trait but my superpower. So it took me a good while to push myself, commit, and be braver. We are fortunate to work in a people-based industry, you can always ask for help and support. You’d be surprised at how much people are willing to get involved and lend a hand. 

Who’s your role model and why?

I’ve always been a fan of military history and cooking, as my other possible careers might suggest! So Major Dick Winters of Band of Brother fame, and the infamous chef Anthony Bourdain both come to mind as two people that literally lived their lives on the front line, were great leaders in their fields and had a work hard play hard ethic! 

As reported by Campaign, following a three-way competitive pitch, supported and run by AAR Consultancy, Prostate Cancer UK appointed MI Media as its media agency of record.

The UK’s leading men’s health charity has ambitious growth targets. A core part of this is reaching and activating thousands more men across the UK to check their risk of prostate cancer and find out what they can do about it using Prostate Cancer UK’s award-winning 30 second Risk Checker. Helping more men understand their risk is key to ending needless deaths from prostate cancer. The earlier prostate cancer is found, the easier it is to treat.

John Dickinson-Lilley interim director of communications at Prostate Cancer UK said, “We’re excited to be working with MI Media. Throughout the pitch process they really demonstrated their strategic thinking and ability to deliver integrated planning, which we feel is the key to unlocking our growth opportunities in coming years.”

Our scope covers above the line, paid search, paid social and display. We will work in partnership with Goodstuff’s G-Force team for TV buying.

Richard Slater, joint managing director at MI Media said, “a disease which impacts us all and is a cause we’re passionate about. With some of our charity client relationships spanning over a decade, we have followed the changes in giving behaviour over a number of years and know that charities see the biggest success in securing donations when they have synchronised their work across both fundraising and brand building. We’re excited to be working with the team at Prostate Cancer UK to save and support thousands of men and their families across the UK.”

Laura Moorcraft, managing director, G-Force said, “We’re thrilled to be working in collaboration with MI Media and Prostate Cancer UK to take the charity’s media to new levels of impact and effectiveness.”

‘He who dares wins’ is one of those phrases that’s easy to say, but often hard to act on. However, in the context of UK charities, I’d argue it’s something to seriously consider over the next few years. Unfortunately taking a risk seems even harder when you feel vulnerable and the last five years have certainly been choppy waters for UK charities.

Looking first at The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a UK charity that works to end suicide. Its CEO, Simon Gunning, has made a noticeable impact since beginning the rapid transformation of its brand and operations, more than doubling its helpline service provision over a four-year period to reach more people before the point of crisis. As a former digital marketer who worked on the corporate side, including spells at Virgin Media and the BBC, it’s clear that Gunning is challenging charity norms.

Asking media and corporate partners to join you in taking a risk

From an outsider’s perspective, there are a few key areas which stand out where CALM has done things differently. The most obvious is the work the charity has done to get media and corporate partners to join them in taking some risks to create more impactful and compelling campaigns. However, it’s also clear the charity has wanted to use paid media in a more daring way, which can not only cut through, but also be amplified through publicity.

CALM’s clear focus on creating strong partnerships with media owners and brands has been bold and confrontational. One of the first campaigns under Gunning’s tenure (the Project 84 ITV partnership) focused on raising awareness of the fact that 84 men in the UK died by suicide each week. This launched with a graphic, attention-grabbing visual stunt: 84 statues of real male suicide victims were stood on top of ITV’s Studio Tower in the line of sight of Parliament. CALM then used each of these men’s real-life stories to build content across ITV’s channels and shows to encourage discussion and understanding. The campaign generated a huge level of publicity, putting the issue at the heart of the charity on the map and rightly winning several awards as a result.

Innovative content has been key to the success of Prostate Cancer UK. Following the pandemic, NHS England launched initiatives to get people back to their GPs, but checking yourself for the risk of prostate cancer posed a conundrum. Most cancers are detected by checking yourself, watching for symptoms and going for screening. But not prostate cancer. It doesn’t have symptoms until the cancer has spread and is the most common cancer with no routine screening program, putting people at a higher risk. To attack the issue, the charity developed a 30-second Risk Checker; an interactive, shareable piece of content that serves as a simple call to action in its campaign. It asks for age, ethnicity and family history to determine a man’s risk. After the first year, 211,000 men had used the Risk Checker. It was so effective that NHS England (NSHE) funded a £1.9m first-of-its-kind partnership campaign to deliver it. Together they scaled up the campaign to boost prostate cancer referrals, funded by NHSE and delivered by Prostate Cancer UK. It was the largest-ever charity partnership with NHSE and the first nationwide public health campaign delivered in this way.

Taking these new bold and innovative routes has undoubtedly helped both charities but it’s not without its risks. Of course, it’s easy for an outsider to extol the virtues of being more adventurous. It’s still important to recognise why charities have a degree of conservatism in their approach. Taking a wrong step could aggravate or even lose existing donors who might start to think the marketing budget for their chosen causes is being used irresponsibly. However, given the current context, there are some clear benefits of taking risks which the marketing departments within charities should spell out internally:

• Marketing campaigns can be used as a tool to challenge any misconceptions or taboos surrounding a charity/cause. To stand out amongst a sea of marketing, these must be bold
• Less conventional campaigns have the power to develop strong emotional connections and reinforce a clear brand identity
• Finally, brand campaigns like those mentioned above become talking points that are engaged with and shared more widely an in turn may attract the attention of prospective partners looking for leaders in the charity sector, or prompt valuable publicity

Over the past couple of weeks, events have been held across London as our industry leaders discuss their expectations for the year ahead in advertising. From the current mood amongst consumers to the continued conversations around AI’s impact on advertising, below we share our key takeaways on what we should look out for over the next twelve months.  

AI is still the word on everyone’s lips 

You would be forgiven for thinking we’d reached peak AI, but our news headlines are still saturated with it and these events were no different. At The Media Leader Year Ahead, panellists were asked what they thought would happen with AI in the advertising industry. Chloe Davies, founder & CEO of It Takes a Village questioned if AI is still a hype or if this will be the year when we face the reality, saying, “AI is still a tool, it’s there to be guided. AI can be anything we want it to be, we are the ones that need to shape the stories.” Meanwhile, Susan Kingston Brown, Brand President at UM lamented that, “Businesses see it as cost efficiency, but the problem then is that everything become bland. We should be training AI and asking questions. Bring back the power of humans. Bring back creativity and collaboration.” Human creativity was a sentiment echoed at Campaign’s Year Ahead, as Monzo’s AJ Coyne said, “I will always be an advocate of craft over technology. How I view AI is that you should never see it. It should be in the background.” At MI, we are inclined to agree with Katie Jackson, CMO, Channel 4 who said, “As long as we use AI to be additive and not reductive or replicative, then I think we’re in a good place.” 

What will make 2025 more rewarding? 

Finally, when asked ‘what will make our jobs more rewarding in the year ahead in advertising?’ panellists answered: ‘honesty’, ‘positivity’, ‘curiosity’ and ‘celebration’. By keeping these words in mind, we can approach the year with the fantastic ‘What If…’ mentality that Jackson has introduced to her team at Channel 4. What if 2025 turns out to be a really great year? 

The January launch aligns with a key time of year for job searches when many are motivated to make career moves in their New Year’s resolutions. Research shows that Mondays are the peak for job searches so, to target candidates on their commute as they start their working week, ads will be placed across key commuter OOH locations in London including Kings Cross, Liverpool Street and Waterloo. A study by The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities claims that 7 in 10 UK adults experience ‘the Sunday scaries’, with most citing the upcoming work week as the reason. To distract themselves, Welcome to the Jungle’s target audience turns to social media, therefore the OOH will be supported by display and social across Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn.

Marketing Insight – how could McDonald’s fight growing competition?

Despite being the leading fast-food brand in the Netherlands, growing competition saw McDonald’s struggle to maintain top-of-mind awareness. In a world of convenience and snackability, in more ways than one, McDonald’s needed a campaign that would captivate and engage audiences and reinforce its key market position. 

Now, McDonald’s has some pretty recognisable assets in their armoury. You can’t miss the ‘Golden Arches’ or mistake that tuneful whistle for any other brand, but there was one other trick up Ronald’s sleeve, the iconic smell of a McDonald’s French fry! 

Media Innovation – scented billboards: is smell an underused brand asset?

So how do you capture that iconic smell and turn it into a marketing campaign? The answer? Smell-o-vision!… Well, sort of. TBWA\Neboko, McDonald’s Netherland’s advertising agency, partnered with Raúl&Rigel, a production company specialising in unusual billboards, to create an innovative scented billboard for the campaign. 

The world-first activation featured plain red & yellow billboards (in the classic Maccies colours). Not a word, picture or logo in sight as the billboards were hiding a clever secret. Equipped with an internal heating and ventilation system, the billboards released the scent of the McDonald’s fries hidden within to passers-by within five metres of the installation. Billboards were strategically placed within 200 metres of restaurant locations in the Dutch cities of Utrecht and Leiden. “We are always looking for ways to give iconic brand assets their own place in culture,” Darre van Dijk, CCO of TBWA\Neboko said, “The smell of McDonald’s French fries is one of those iconic features.” 

Accelerating Growth – McDonald’s most successful PR campaign

It’s no secret that many of us are driven by food. From the heady aromas of a coffee shop in the morning to freshly baked goods at lunch, smells trigger a hunger with a potent need to satisfy. That is exactly what McDonald’s scented billboard campaign succeeded in creating. A street survey revealed that 87% of passers by recognised the McDonald’s scent and 71% of them could distinguish the smell of French fries, demonstrating a strong brand recall. 

The campaign also triggered huge online engagement, reaching over 1.5bn in its first week and over 85,000 engagements. The result, an earned media value of €49.9 million, marked it as McDonald’s Netherlands’ most successful PR campaign. 

Could this be the start of a new kind of experiential advertising? Might we see, or rather smell, roses from bus stops promoting Valentine’s flowers, or will the smell of spiced lattes takeover tube stations during our winter morning commutes? 

What is your proudest moment at MI?

The first time I presented a post campaign analysis (PCA) at MI Media I was really nervous. I’d never been the main presenter of a PCA, in the past they had been a team effort with different people presenting different components. However, for our client RNID, I was able to take control of the whole process. I had worked really hard on the campaign and delivered great results; we delivered 12x the number of conversions we were targeted against while remaining under budget! The presentation went really well and the client was ecstatic with the results. 

What advice would you give to someone looking to become a Senior Account Executive?

Always be curious and have a thirst for the industry that you’re going into. There are so many ways you can learn more about the industry. Consider shadowing, find mentors that can coach you in their skills and go to networking events. There’s a misconception that networking is just for more senior people already in the industry, but you can find out so much about different media owners and what they do at these events.  

It’s been a tough few years for all insurance companies, with a turbulent macro political landscape coupled with national economic and environmental hurdles. This has resulted in rising premiums and tightening coverage for higher risk policies – and in some cases coverage removed altogether. In a world where insurers are often mis-trusted, this heightened pressure-cooker environment is making it more challenging than ever for brands to position themselves as a trusted partner, protecting people from disaster.

However, with climate change posing a significant risk to communities and businesses worldwide, insurers will bear a substantial share of the financial burden through claims related to natural disasters. Therefore, there are both business and societal imperatives for them to act. This includes embedding ESG into their own business operations and rewarding sustainable behaviour from policy holders.

By changing underwriting practices, insurance companies can positively impact the environment

The surge in data and increasing AI adoption is an opportunity for insurers to become a catalyst for good. The depth of data now available means quotes can be more personalised than ever before. And by utilising AI to unlock hidden insights faster, personalisation can be offered at scale. This means people will be paying the correct premiums for their situation and can build a policy with exactly the right cover. However, with trust as one of the top motivators between choosing one insurer over another, it’s important to have complete transparency about how data is being collected, used and stored.

Another opportunity for insurance companies is to encourage environmental and societal good by embedding sustainability into their underwriting practices. This could be reducing premiums for insulated homes and EVs, or business insurers offering the construction industry discounts if they apply a green chemistry approach – which reduces pollution and improves overall yield efficiency. Stealing from a different industry, Diageo recently said that when it is looking at product innovation, it always looks for the ‘and’. Meaning that a product innovation only gets developed if it benefits customers, the business AND the environment. Applying this to insurance, ultimately the best claim for all parties is the one that didn’t happen – so by rewarding practices that are better for the environment, encourage safer behaviour or more concrete operations, it’s win/win for everyone.

When it comes to media buying, targeted campaigns across all channels will reduce waste. Not only will this lower the emissions of the campaign but will also save media budgets, resulting in both increased efficiency and effectiveness. It’s also important to understand the sway the industry can have on the advertising industry. With advertising powered by the advertisers, applying pressure on media partners to be more accountable across all elements of ESG, will force the media industry to adopt best-practice ESG principles.

Finally, Garm’s Media Carbon Calculator can measure emissions across all media channels. This allows for the off-setting of emissions through investment in reforestation or renewable energy projects as an example.

The opportunities for insurers to be the catalyst for change across all areas of ESG are huge. Designed to support people and businesses at a time of crisis, they can lend their weight to change consumer behaviour, offer more tailored support to people’s unique circumstances and ensure their own business operations and partners uphold high standards.

What advice would you give to someone looking to become a data analyst or data scientist?

Don’t stop learning about evolving technologies and techniques in the data science sphere. Become very familiar with how different data science techniques are used and the value they can bring. Your learning will be accelerated through experience in the industry. There are patterns in client problems therefore, once you understand a range of solutions, you can often apply these to many problems. Starting off in a company where I was learning from experts, such as an established data team, really helped me advance my skills and experience. Don’t be scared of suggesting innovative ideas or modifications to make solutions more effective.

Who’s your role model and why?

Robbie Williams is someone who springs to mind. Mainly because, after watching the documentary on Netflix about his life, it really brought out his determination and the way he dealt with his fears. I found it inspiring how he overcame those fears. Often, he would throw himself in the deep-end and run head-first into situations. But, as he’s gotten older, he’s become more emotionally intelligent and able to understand his own emotions and feelings.