Bronze: Best Use of Content Marketing 2015

What does it mean to “dress normal”? Apparel retailer Gap wanted to show that normal, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder—and that its clothing, generally considered basic and classic rather than cutting edge, could be styled to accommodate all concepts of “normal” dressing.

Gap and agency A Squared Group handpicked 30 influential Instagram photographers in Atlanta, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle and asked them to photograph 10 friends, relatives, or muses wearing key items from the fall 2014 collection. Top stylist Trish Summerville, costume designer for the hit movie Gone Girl, traveled to each city to help them adapt the Gap items for their own unique style.

Popular street photographer Tommy Ton then curated the images to decorate the walls, windows, and other elements for a mobile shop that visited each city. The imagery used for the shop was changed every five days to reflect each locale’s distinct vision of normal. Discount cards were distributed at the shops, as were limited-edition, city-specific #DressNormalProject ‘zines.

In part because the selected photographers had their own significant social media followings, the campaign generated 3.71 million social media impressions. These were complemented by 100 million earned media impressions. Roughly 3,000 consumers visited the mobile shop, and mobile sales exceeded expectations. And the focus on individuality resonated with the target audience of 18- to 34-year-olds, raising overall sentiment for the brand by 20 points.