The message of JCPenney’s new integrated back-to-school fashion campaign, “You’ve Got it Inside,” created by DDB Chicago and Tribal DDB Worldwide, Chicago, is anti-clique. Gone are the days when kids have to try and fit themselves in with one particular group jocks, Goths, preps, or theater kids. Instead they are encouraged to express their individuality and style while recognizing a connectivity among their fellow students, who, like them, are perhaps juggling schoolwork with other hobbies, nurturing friendships and surviving dating.
Recognizing that today’s digital space is where kids often create their own sense of identity and style (think MySpace.com), Tribal DDB created www.jcpenneybts.com, underscoring the campaign theme. Two television spots are also part of the campaign.
The spots, directed by Josh & Xander of Tight, Santa Monica, take viewers on a journey through the rooms of several kids and teens dressed in JCPenney apparel, doing what adolescents do in their rooms, like play video games, surf the Web, talk on the phone or hang with friends, and you transfer from room to room based on certain key elements, whether it’s a sports item or music or various iconic symbols.
“The insight was that kids and teens use their bedrooms as a place to really show and express themselves,” said Tony Cordero, associate creative director at Tribal DDB. “One of the things that became clear is that in every one of those rooms, there are certain things that tie certain individuals together. So while each kid is an individual, they have a number of different shared interests.”
The Web site engages viewers further, allowing visitors to actually explore the rooms seen in the spots, interact with the characters and see the influences that make them individuals. They can get an up close and personal look at the fashions they are wearing and ultimately make a purchase.
“I’m proud of the tie-in between the brand experience and the merchandise,” Cordero said. “As you go through the site, you are able to click on the models and view their outfits. We also developed a feature on the site called The Closet categorized by young men, juniors, girls and boys. And if you look at the spots online, you can click on any point in the spot and find information about items featured in that frame.”
There are six rooms to probe on the Web site, and jump points imbedded in each room allow you to move from room to room based on a shared influence. Clicking on different spots in each room reveals information about each character. For instance, in Jake’s room, his profile reveals what activities interest him, and details about the outfit he is wearing and other styles are available. You can even listen to some of his favorite tunes by clicking his play list, which links to MTV Overdrive.
Speaking of MTV, JCPenney teamed up with MTV to further emphasize that it is in touch with teen culture. With MTV’s help, the retailer is producing a five-city mall tour, which like the campaign, reflects personal style. The events will feature MTV personalities and representatives from Seventeen and Cosmogirl magazines (two of several publications the retailer has placed print ads in) to host the “Insider” promotion, a chance for teens to appear on MTV and be a guest at the MTV Video Music Awards. Clicking on spots in the character’s rooms also provide chances to sign up for the contest.
JCPenney also partnered with Fox and the Teen Choice Awards and X Games, both of which are also featured on the site. “The partnerships that we worked with and the way we worked them into the site just helped to reinforce the feeling of these shared influences and the things that brings these kids together,” Cordero said.
While navigating throughout the site and viewing the spots, visitors are energized by the electricity of the rock band OK Go, whose song “Do What You Want” engages visitors and brings a fresh, edgy element to the campaign that reflects the fashion forward apparel and JCPenney’s desire to be a top teen destination for back-to-school. This is not your mom’s JCPenney.
“The music was chosen to make sure the spots had the right kind of rhythm. It worked out really well for us as far as tying in the overall thought,” Cordero said. “I think music becomes critical when we are getting into these more immersive, more narrative environments. In this campaign, music plays a critical element to guiding the rhythm and people’s patterns as they navigate through the site.”
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING Cordero explained that with the bandwidth that is available online these days, the thinking behind what Tribal DDB did with the JCPenney Web site is similar to that of video game development.
“This is because we are building longer form narratives, which is also a nice way to extend the thought of the overall campaign,” he said.
According to Cordero, the Web site is more engaging than the one they created last year for JCPenney due to emerging technologies.
“From last year to this year, the amount of changes in a lot of the back-end technologies allows us to do a lot more with video, and knowing that the bandwidth is available in a lot of people’s homes makes us more confident that we can bring these experiences to people.
“Primarily using Flash and video, we shot against green screen. With the new version of Flash, you could do a lot more with green screen work than we could do even last year. We have characters now in sets whereas last year you saw a lot of work that was coming out with video where everyone was on white backdrops. That was really a technical limitation that we are now able to work around with the new version of the Flash program.”
REWARDING EXPERIENCE The most rewarding part of working on this JCPenney campaign for Cordero was “really seeing through an integrated effort. In the past, and I think this is industry wide, there have been a lot of pieces and parts that have been hard to put together. But where we are succeeding in these campaigns is making sure that we’re unified.”
He explained that everything was shot together on the same sets. “So we were tied together in between the TV and online experience. There’s consistency between all the models and actors, and that really makes everything tight.
“In the past because of technology limitations and in general as we were trying to figure out the best way to unify messaging, it was more challenging. But now that the bandwidth is there and the audience is available to hear it, we can send one message across many channels in a way that really hits home with the audience.”
