category finalist
sarah@corbin-pr.com
Named one of the best Gen Z marketing ideas by Ad Age, our “Always With You” campaign pushed JanSport to its highest-grossing month in company history in 2024 and returned in 2025 to beat the prior year’s record-setting results across reach, impressions, and views with Gen Z. The campaign strengthened JanSport’s position not just as a backpack, but as a Gen Z’s cultural companion.
The Situation
JanSport had near-universal recognition, but needed renewed cultural relevance with the next generation. Since 1967, its backpacks had been everywhere. But for many 18–24-year-olds, the brand risked being seen less as an icon and more as “the bag your mom bought you as a kid.”
In 2024, our “Always With You” platform began shifting that perception with irreverent humor, music-first storytelling and a TikTok-native sensibility that helped reconnect the brand with Gen Z. This time, we had to build on that momentum for another critical back-to-school.
Strategy
We didn’t want to sand off what made the first campaign break through. Gen Z is allergic to polished advertising, but does respond to what feels honest, raw and self-aware.
We also knew JanSport’s strength was not its fashion status. It was its basicness. The backpack is a dependable companion through the everyday mess, stress, boredom and absurdity of young adulthood.
Last year’s work established JanSport as more of a sideline viewer of everyday life. This time, we told the story from the bag’s point of view.
Idea & Creative Execution
The premise: What if your JanSport could talk? Or better yet, sing? What would it say about what it’s seen?
We brought that to life through a series of five musical-comedy films. Using puppetry and practical effects, we turned the front zipper pouch into an expressive “pocket mouth,” allowing each bag to sing its own melodramatic anthem about the strange indignities of young adulthood. We wrote original songs spanning genres, with untrained vocals and lo-fi production to preserve the imperfect, handmade quality that makes content feel native to Gen Z’s world.
Rather than listing product features, the work dramatized what the backpack endures. In doing so, it conveyed JanSport’s durability, usefulness, and emotional familiarity in a way that felt entertaining rather than promotional. The campaign ran across TikTok, YouTube, and digital channels.
The backpack’s unwavering devotion became the message: JanSport is not trying to be something cooler than it is. It’s the loyal, always-there companion that has earned its place in young people’s lives.
Results
The campaign delivered strong business and brand results. Four weeks after launch:
YouTube:
Viewers were 4.5 times more likely to search “JanSport” than non-viewers
Engagement rose 435%
View-through rates increased 110%
CPMs dropped 20%.
TikTok:
99% view-through rate, up from 85% the year prior, showing the work functioned as entertainment in its own right
Impressions and reach surpassed the brand’s record-setting 2024 totals
Comments described the ads as “unforgettable,” “the good kind of weird,” and “literally the funniest backpack content ever made”
Most importantly, the campaign strengthened JanSport’s position not just as a backpack, but as a Gen Z’s cultural companion.
