merit
JanSport bags are the most ubiquitous backpacks in the world and ultimate everyday essential, but the everyday isn’t always glamorous. From bathroom stalls to crowded subways, it’s stuffed into the spaces where life happens and that life can be messy. If there’s anyone who knows how to turn a less than ideal situation into something unserious, it’s the people who wear JanSport bags - the Gen Z'ers who are 78% more likely to share funny, relatable ads. So Party Land made a funny, relatable, TikTok-first campaign centering the quirky, boring, sad, mundane moments we find ourselves in with our backpacks in tow, stuffed with our stuff.
Deliverables: Digital Video, Social, Influencer, OOH
The brief to us was to entertain! We were tasked with creating a campaign that aged up the brand, drove relevance with college aged kids, and made them feel like this legacy brand really understood them. As we took a look at the landscape and saw how JanSport was being used and perceived, we found something interesting: it is the most ubiquitous and functional backpack around, an essential. A staple. So when a brand stumbles into iconic status in this way, why shy away from that and try to be anything BUT that? When we stop telling our audience what to think and who they should aspire to be, we get to tell very funny stories about who they are now, and as the backpack that goes everywhere with you, there is no shortage of personal stories about JanSport.
We began brainstorming by sharing the very real, individual experiences of our Gen Z team members, and quickly found these stories to be highly relatable and impossibly funny. Designed for stall hooks, hallways, and to hold the evidence of your life lived, JanSports are made for everything, everywhere. Even the bathroom. And in true Gen Z fashion, what better way to capture the unseriousness of these moments than by singing about it?
Since its launch last month the campaign has already seen a 350% increase in audience engagement vs 2023, which shares in the 1000’s and counting.
