LOS ANGELES  What happens when a viral video teaser is virulent enough to infect the larger brand campaign? That's what jeans giant Levi Strauss & Co. was discussing with lead agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty last week in the wake of a surprising viral phenomenon from project shop Cutwater.

The viral hit, "Jumpin' In," features agile youth who appear to back-flip into jeans held aloft by their buddies. Made by "Benzo" Theodore, who directed Cutwater's similarly stunt-like Ray-Ban viral hit "Catch," and seeded on the Internet by The Feed Company, Hollywood, Calif., "Jumpin' In" unexpectedly garnered 3.5 million hits in 10 days, Good Morning America play and Wall Street Journal attention. The video was released May 5 to stir curiosity leading into Levi's first global brand campaign for its flagship 501 jeans, "Live unbuttoned," which will break in 110 countries from now until fall.

"['Jumpin' In'] was supposed to be a small seeding activity," said Robert Cameron, vp of marketing, Levi Strauss, San Francisco. "We didn't know it was going to blow up. So we're meeting with BBH on how to chase this. What do we do to adjust the strategy and ride the wave?"

"Jumpin' In" is only the first of 10 viral videos by various directors coming from Cutwater every few weeks throughout the summer. The second, "Hollywood Jungle," also by Benzo, shows an orangutan in T-shirt and button-fly denims going through the typical routine of an auditioning actor, from text messaging on the bus to lining up for a latte along the way. It debuted over the weekend.

Though Cameron made it clear that Publicis Groupe's BBH, under founding partner John Hegarty, was still very much in charge of the campaign, he said he would discuss how to further exploit the Cutwater virals with BBH New York creative director Paul Foulkes. One possibility: a targeted TV buy on a young-male-oriented channel like Fuel TV, as well as a Times Square Jumbotron run to coincide with the weekend opening of a new store.

"I know that if we're going to chase it, we need to do it now," Cameron said. "When the TV campaign breaks for back to school, it will already be old news."

For its part, BBH is unopposed to integrating Cutwater efforts, regarding them as part of a larger plan. "There won't be a matching set of luggage," said Emma Cookson, CEO of BBH. "I hope there won't be the appearance of different creative brains at work. We're trying to land one idea on the market with multiple strands of creative, each with their own role."

For Cutwater, there's the satisfaction of being back on the brand that ecd Chuck McBride had worked on since his days at Foote Cone & Belding, San Francisco, where he executed the last big 501-specific campaign, "Reasons," in 1996. After a stint at Wieden + Kennedy, McBride reunited with Levi's in 1999 at TBWA\Chiat\Day, San Francisco, where he won numerous awards for work on the brand, including the 2002 Spike Jonze-directed spot "Crazy Legs" and a quirky commercial for Levi's corduroy that featured a badger amorously following a man whose cords swished when he walked. "To this day, it's still played in [University of Wisconsin's] Badger Stadium," McBride said.

Chiat\Day, San Francisco -- which became Cutwater last year -- lost Levi's to BBH in 2002, but the client has never been out of mind, nor even out of sight. It was the Levi's win in 1997 that led TBWA to open a 'Frisco office, and employees of the agency and the apparel company, only two blocks apart, often see one another in a parking lot and always remained cordial.