Go Big or Go Home: How Gap Taps Into Culture, for the Holidays and Beyond

Advice to follow and pitfalls to avoid

Gap has kept the focus on music once again for its holiday campaign, with a reimagined version of Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” soulfully performed by Sienna Spiro. It’s a particularly fitting festive offering from a brand with so much to sing about.

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Gap has seen increases in profits after reinventing itself under new CEO Richard Dickson. This turnaround was helped by a marketing approach that boosted its cultural capital and made people care about the brand again. A recent example being the “Better in Denim” campaign featuring the girl group Katseye dancing to Kelis’ “Milkshake.” It racked up a staggering 400 million views in what Dickson described as “a cultural takeover.”

And this has been achieved without relying on short-term tactics such as memes, stunts or rage-baiting. Instead, the focus has been on creativity, craft and collaboration. This is an important lesson for brands fighting to be heard over the noise. It demonstrates how, by investing in creativity for the long-term, you can capture the public imagination, boosting cultural relevance and revenue as a result.

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Here are some key considerations for brands wanting to emulate Gap and plug into culture:

Forge deep cultural collaborations

As well as tapping into the power of nostalgia, Gap’s strategy has focused on collaborations with artists and creators. Effective team-ups should be approached like media partnerships. It’s not about paying for someone’s image and hoping for the best. Gap analyzed the Katseye audience and developed an ecosystem of content that felt authentic both for the band and the brand. The subsequent rollout played like an unmissable press tour with different story beats.

Plan with precision

Rage baiting and memes might get temporary spikes of attention, but they aren’t conducive to brand building that drives real growth. Campaigns that make a big cultural impact on social, like Duolingo’s “RIP Duo,” might appear to operate on the fly. But in reality they are born out of huge amounts of preparation and research. They succeed owing to a deep understanding of how your audience is talking about your brand.

Invest in craft

Creating for social doesn’t mean taking a DIY approach. Gap has proved that no matter the medium, you need to invest in craft to elevate your brand. Beats By Dre’s advertising, including its recent campaign starring footballer Cole Palmer, is cinematic yet authentically rooted in street and sports culture. High craft doesn’t have to mean high gloss. It’s about tone, attention to detail, storytelling and emotion.

Earn your invite into culture

Culture can’t be owned by anyone, least of all a brand. It’s built by people, art and community. Brands have to be invited in. Brands that are doing something different, contributing positively in some way to people’s lives, have an advantage. We’ve seen this with values-driven brands, like Ben & Jerry’s, Lego and Patagonia, as well as disruptor brands like Liquid Death.

Think long term

Real cultural impact can’t be faked or achieved through a one-off. It requires steady investment over a long period of time. After years of building its global reputation as the most buzzed-about studio in film, A24 recently acquired an historic theater, billed as the “Birthplace of Off-Broadway,” with the aim of deepening its fandom and expanding across the culture long-term.

Trends and short-term hits aren’t a path to brand longevity. It’s easy to get a headline, it’s harder to win hearts.

As the landscape becomes ever more saturated, creativity will always be key to becoming—and remaining—a cultural powerhouse.