Levi’s and Snapchat Join Forces for Pride Month With Limited-Edition Pins and Patches

Levi’s doesn’t just want consumers to celebrate Pride month; it wants people to also wear it, via six limited-edition pins and patches that consumers can buy both in-store and through a new partnership with Snapchat, Shopify and Darkstore. Snapchat—which has done a series of these e-commerce activations with various partners from Jordan Brand to Adidas—is working with Levi’s again to bring together the first multi-product commerce experience to the app. The activation, debuting on Jun. 7 and running till the end of the month, will let consumers unlock a special Pride Lens by either visiting one of 30 Levi’s locations via a Snapcode, or by receiving a Snapcode from friends. With the Pride lens, consumers can try on a denim jacket in two different shades as well as customize the jacket with six different pins and patches. Customers can then order it via the app, and Darkstore, a fulfillment company, will ship the products to consumers in the U.S. within two days. “This was designed with a consumer-first mentality,” said Rachel Daly, creative strategy lead at Snapchat. "From a creative-strategy standpoint, [these types of lenses] help spark further engagement with the activation and can have a higher play time or share rate." Brady Stewart, svp, LSA Digital at Levi Strauss & Co., said the company’s previous activation on Snapchat, a partnership with Disney, “reinforced” the notion that the consumer “lives their lives on social media.” Levi’s partnered up with Snapchat again this time around because the brand sees Snap as “the best in class with camera technology." Daly said Snapchat's receiving this type of request—to virtually try-on products—from more retailers to help achieve a full-funnel purchase experience. “As a brand we need to make sure we intersect with our consumers wherever and whenever they want to shop,” Stewart said. “The idea is to help consumers get Pride ready—testing the boundaries of retail by partnering with Snap to provide multi-product checkout.” Though the six pins and patches are limited, the denim jackets themselves are not, in a different approach than most ecommerce activations on the app. Stewart said that though Levi’s isn’t necessarily selling a limited-edition, must-get-now type of item, it doesn’t mean the company’s worried about how well the activation will go. For Levi’s, it’s about helping consumers get ready for Pride Month wherever they are, with parades and activities happening all throughout this month. “As a company our goal is to meet our consumers where how and when they want to shop,” Stewart said. “We’re seeing increasingly our fans are really discovering and considering on Levis.com, our stores and on social commerce. We’re trying to be really present across the market, [and] you will continue to see us testing these types of boundaries within retail.” The company wouldn’t comment directly on whether LGBTQ employees were involved in the activation, but did state that Levi’s supported the community and its LGBTQ employees through a number of actions, such as offering partner benefits 20 years ago to filing an amicus brief with the California Supreme Court in support of marriage equality. The company’s Pride activation isn’t the only activity the company’s doing around the monthlong celebration either; 100% of the company's net proceeds from its Pride Collection go to OutRight International, an LGBTQ advocacy group, and the company is participating in different Pride events across the country. Lee Hnetinka, CEO of Darkstore, whose company has previously done these activations with Snapchat, said one of the surprising learnings from running these campaigns is seeing how fast legacy brands are adapting to using technologies like AR to sell products. "We believe this is the biggest shift in an industry from an analog space to a digital space in the history of the internet," Hnetinka said. "What we’re doing with Snapchat can’t be done with any other social platform. The magic that comes to life with the lenses, blending together commerce and the social aspect—not only do brands love it, but their customers love it." [kickout id="1"]

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Levi’s and Snapchat Join Forces for Pride Month With Limited-Edition Pins and Patches

Snapchat users can customize and purchase virtual denim jacket via the app

Ann-Marie Alcántara

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Ann-Marie Alcántara