Dive Brief:
- Bonobos unveiled a 30-second TV spot featuring 172 men of different shapes, ages and ethnicities to highlight the full range of pant sizes it offers customers, as reported in Ad Age. The campaign, with the tagline "However you fit, Bonobos fits you," is reportedly the company's costliest to date.
- In addition to the TV commercial, airing in the Austin and Chicago markets, the brand will project the video on buildings in those cities. The push also includes radio, digital and social media marketing.
- Digital elements include a 90-second video and a seven-minute mini-documentary showing interviews with the campaign's many models. Walmart purchased Bonobos last year for $310 million, and the brand is currently searching for a CMO. Co-president Micky Onvural is handling marketing duties in the meantime.
Dive Insight:
Retail brands have, in recent years, started to recognize a wider range of body types and sizes in their marketing to meet consumer demands for more diversity, and Bonobos is answering this call by hiring one model for each of the 172 pant sizes it offers.
While the campaign is centered on traditional 30-second spots, it's extended through more experimental formats that might resonate with consumers online, including longer-form content in the documentary format. Several other fashion and retail brands have recently tried their hand at documentary filmmaking, including Tommy Hilfiger, which last week announced a new docu-series following the life of brand ambassador and Formula One racecar driver Lewis Hamilton.
Direct-to-consumer brands that have a large e-commerce presence like Bonobos often drive higher viewership and brand awareness for their original digital video (ODV) efforts, according to recent research from the IAB. Viewership of ODV, or ad-supported professionally produced and digitally distributed video, increased 60% from 45 million in 2013 to 72 million in 2018. The format also tends to attract a younger, more diverse and more tech-savvy audience, the trade group found.
