Gap Goes 'Back to Blue' With Tumblr, Styld.by

Gap's "Back to Blue" fall campaign includes an initiative that will own all of Tumblr's mobile ads for one day.

While singers Amy Winehouse and Beyonce have gone Back to Black, clothing retailer Gap is going Back to Blue this fall in a campaign that focuses on simple and confident attitudes and clothes in its messaging to millennials.

According to Gap, the promotion celebrates the brand’s heritage with print, outdoor, direct, social, in-store, and digital advertising, as well as a return to TV.

“You can be your truest, most confident self more often than not when wearing a casual style like a t-shirt and denim,” says Rachel Tipograph, Gap’s director of global digital and social media. “It’s a simple message and when you look at the creative, you think, ‘Wow – that really feels like Gap.'”

The campaign includes new digital content every day across its platforms, including a partnership with Tumblr’s mobile platform.

So-called lo-fi digital content features 24 influential millennials – including Tanisha Long from MTV’s Girl Code and Urban Bush Babes blogger Cipriana Quann – sharing what Gap calls “simple, raw and relatable stories about what it means to be one’s most authentic self.”

Each wears their favorite pieces from the Back to Blue collection in short films, photographs and animated GIFs.

These influencers “have a huge following online,” Tipograph says.

Therefore, the brand created three months of content around them, including “raw, simple moments on YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter,” she adds. “They’ll be sharing content throughout the season, which is also shoppable, so it’s a branded content experience using 24 online influencers to lift brand awareness.”

In addition, Gap launched a contest on Tumblr that encourages “digital artists” to share what Back to Blue means to them by creating an original piece of content.

To help spark creativity, fashion blogger FashGif submitted the first piece of content.

On August 29, the four best pieces will be featured on Gap’s Tumblr and turned into mobile ads. According to Gap, this is the first time a brand will own all of Tumblr’s mobile ads in one day.

“Hopefully by creating a large takeover experience, it will encourage [consumers] to share Back to Blue content,” Tipograph says.

Gap approached Tumblr because it wanted to create a “splash” and create content users will want to pass around and create what Tipograph refers to as a “cultural moment.”

Gap has also updated its Styld.by platform, which it says “inspires customers by bringing Gap products to life through the editorial point of view of popular lifestyle bloggers.”

Styld.by will include a video series with style advice from Jenn Rogien, costume designer for HBO’s Girls and Netflix’s Orange is the New Black. In the series, Rogien will discuss how she uses clothes to help bring characters to life and “how everyone can express their personalities and tell their own stories through clothing.”

According to Tipograph, Rogien is known for styling cast members in Gap clothing. The videos will launch in late August or early September, she says.

Netflix will co-promote the series.

In addition, partners include fashion and style site Refinery29, social media and technology news site Mashable and New York restaurant, bar and nightlife blog Eater.

In order to “[dive] deeper into interest communities,” Refinery29 will style Gap’s key fall items with fashion and lifestyle bloggers, Mashable will style technology influencers and Eater will style chefs.

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