Levi's Launches Interactive Promo

Levi Strauss and Co. is launching a four-week interactive marketing campaign that gives consumers the chance to win a jewel-encrusted pair of Levi’s jeans by entering an online contest. The contest will culminate on Jan. 16, when Levi’s will air the final clue in the contest during a 60-second Super Bowl ad.

The San Francisco-based clothing manufacturer hopes to build interest in its newest line of jeans, Levi’s Type 1, scheduled for launch in the spring. The promotion centers on a jewel-encrusted pair of jeans that consumers can win by visiting the Levi’s site, www.levi.com, where they can answer questions and play virtual games in return for clues to where the jeans are hidden. Each week a new question will be posted, with the final clue unveiled during a televised advertisement airing during the second quarter of this year’s Super Bowl. Two days later, Levi’s will compile the entries guessing the correct location of the jeans and randomly select one as the winner.

In addition to the jeans, which boast four diamond buttons and a gold Levi’s patch, the winner will receive $65,000 in cash and gold. Levi’s values the jeans at $85,000.

Levi’s will execute a broad online advertising push to get consumers to enter the contest. A company spokeswoman said it would run Eyeblaster ads on a variety of sites, including ESPN.com, teen-focused Alloy, and games site IGN.com. The campaign will also include Evite ads closer to the Super Bowl, as well as text-messaging through EnPocket.

The interactive promotion is part of Levi’s launch of its Type 1 line, which it describes as one of its most significant product rollouts. British agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty designed the Type 1 ad campaign, which includes TV, print and outdoor elements. The 60-second TV spot, airing in the most expensive time slot during the most expensive programming of the year, will look to update Levi’s rough-and-ready image by combining Old West imagery with modern lifestyles.

ABC, which will air the Super Bowl this year, said last month that it had sold about 80 percent of the commercial slots available. Each 30-second slot is reportedly going for an average price of $2.2 million.

The Type 1 promotion is not the first time Levi’s has experimented with interactive campaigns using multiple media. In 2000, the jeans maker created the “Lost But Not Lost” campaign, featuring Web sites that documented three Americans’ adventures in Morocco to hype its SilverTab line of jeans.

The following year, Levi’s took a page out of BMW’s book when it released “Lost Change,” an Internet film revolving around the question of what a person would do if he found $100,000. Viewers were encouraged to participate in the series through interactive games and the chance to win prizes.

Last January, Levi’s offered consumers the chance to vote on which of three commercials the company should air during the Super Bowl. Levi’s said 600,000 people visited the site and more than 250,000 voted.