This case shows how challenging times call for new ways of thinking. And also how Internet memes aren’t only silly past times, but actually have research value. Through social listening we discovered a new form of culture that made light of these unprecedented times. These insights were captured in the new Diesel campaign positioning denim as the beautiful memories made instead of all our cancelled plans.

In a year when an entire industry struggled to survive, we managed to grow the business by almost 50%.

Diesel is the very definition of a culture brand. Its default modus operandi is to plant itself on everyone’s cultural agenda, tapping into current conversations and putting their own Diesel spin on it.

For its 2020 denim focused campaign, we needed to bring the cool factor back into denim and make Diesel worth its tag by tapping into the brand’s cultural heritage.

And just like that, culture disappears. Suddenly, we’re all at home in lockdown, wearing sweatpants and watching Tiger King. Or busy stocking up on essentials and living the toilet paper drama. Nothing major was really happening and we could see boredom creeping up.

Naturally, buying expensive clothing wasn’t on anyone’s agenda. "No-one wants to buy clothes to sit at home in," as Next's chief executive put it. Once the world entered lockdown, buying expensive denim was hardly a priority in the so-called year of the sweatpants? (according to New York Times)

The only viable trigger to buy expensive fashion at this point was to position it as a long term investment. Mindful of the economic instability and uncertainty, people wanted clothes that could last through seasons without quickly going out of style, ready to flaunt whenever it was that style would make a comeback.

But how do you talk about long-lastingness in a way that doesn’t put people to sleep? We needed to translate this unsexy functional benefit into one that’s embedded in today’s culture.

We went online and used social learning (especially relevant once life moved into the virtual space) to take the pulse of things

What the bountitude of memes related to Cancel 2020 revealed was that culture hadn’t disappeared altogether, it simply took another form, becoming a sort of subculture dealing with what life has thrown at us.

As bad as the year has been, it was undeniably one that we would remember - and there was still an untapped need to commemorate 2020 through some form of memorabilia. This is where Diesel could have a clear role.

Long lasting Denim stays with you, and through creases and fades ultimately becomes a wearable record of all the times we’ve experienced, good and bad.

In a year with not much going on, the Diesel denim would become a souvenir of the year itself: the infamous, yet truly unforgettable 2020.

We gave a friendly nod to 2020’s canceled plans while positioning our long lasting denim as unforgettable - the souvenir of a terrible year. Things might not have gone as planned, but at least you’ll always have something to remember.

Make beautiful memories of what you didn’t do

Our creative idea was to celebrate the beautiful memories of the plans we all had to put on hold, marking the unexpectedly memorable occasion with equally memorable denim to wear with pride. The platform covered dozens of video clips, with real life anecdotes, based on the cancelled plans most frequently mentioned online.

To make the idea even more relatable, online and in stores people could customize their chosen pair of denim jeans with their own cancelled plans

We also partnered with different cancelled events, like one of the most renowned music festivals worldwide, to create series of limited-edition denim.

Diesel denim sales rose 49% compared to the previous year, while total sales grew by 42% during the campaign. The positive trend maintained also after the campaign ended.

2 things for context:

Everything else was down vs. 2019

Media budget cuts versus the same time last year, distribution decreased by almost 60%, with physical stores closed for most of the year. Lastly, there were no price cuts or promos to account for the uplift in sales.

Overall global sales of the entire premium denim plummeted -19.4% vs. 2019, the biggest fall in recent years. Levi’s reported a 62% drop in its global revenue and said it will slash about 50% of its workforce.

The campaign was featured on some of the most well-known sites and became pick of the day on AdAge. It achieved an organic reach of over 700k $ worth, mostly from social.