Journeys Advertising Technique Amps Up the Enjoyable Vibe for Gen Z

Mall raves. A teenage Bigfoot retailer worker. Surrealist adverts a couple of college stuffed with next-gen stars.

Since Journeys launched its Life on Loud model platform final 12 months, the retailer’s advertising and marketing staff has been turning out unique content material and messaging meant to interrupt by the noise to succeed in at present’s teenagers.

“Life on Loud, in general, is designed to feel less like advertising and more like something our target would actually choose to watch,” stated Stacy Doren, who’s govt vp and chief advertising and marketing officer of Journeys Group and who joined the corporate in 2024 after an extended tenure at Levi Strauss & Co. She famous that younger individuals will scroll previous something that feels overtly like promoting, so Journeys is as an alternative tapping into their passions, beginning with remix tradition.

For the official debut of Life on Loud in 2025, it recreated the music video for the 1998 New Radicals hit “You Get What You Give,” this time that includes singer Gus Dapperton and a forged of Gen Z teenagers partying within the mall.

Also final fall it launched a humorous scripted sequence referred to as “Jazmine From Journeys” about Bigfoot’s daughter, who lands her dream job promoting sneakers at Journeys. The quick episodes aired on YouTube and the retailer’s social channels, garnering greater than 120.3 million views complete.

“We checked so many boxes with it,” stated Doren. “It was about a teen girl going through all the things that they go through: first job, first love, balancing work and school.”

The newest iteration of Life on Loud was a back-to-school marketing campaign in July dubbed “Turn It Up,” which certainly upped the ante with an even bigger forged and unreal visuals developed alongside inventive company Anomaly. Set inside a college, the adverts turned hallways, cafeterias and faculty buses into areas for “creative disruption,” the place the principles (particularly of physics) don’t apply.

According to Journeys, the marketing campaign generated 230 million impressions in its first 4 weeks, backed by a 30 % greater media spend.

The adverts featured actresses Madison Bailey of “Outer Banks” and Anna Cathcart of “XO, Kitty;” music artists Inji and Samara Cyn, and sibling skaters Sky and Ocean Brown.

The intention behind the bts initiative — and all Journeys’ messaging — is to have a good time and encourage self-expression. “It’s an invitation for teens to turn up the volume on who they are,” stated Doren. “Today’s teens and young adults are constantly being told by algorithms what to wear, what to like and who to be. We want to encourage them to push back against that.”

That mission dovetails properly with the overarching technique shift at Journeys, which noticed the retailer broaden its audience.

“[In the past], we had one consumer segment,” stated Doren. “We call them the Anti Hero, and they are more skate and alternative. We don’t want to lose them. They’re still very important. But there’s a whole other world of consumers out there, and we knew that we could broaden our target and appeal to more people.”

Now, along with the Anti Hero, Journeys additionally seeks to serve the Dynamic Explorer, an adventurous early adopter who retailers usually, and the Style Chaser, who cares about wanting good however is slower to leap on tendencies. “Then there are our consumers who don’t fit neatly in any one of those boxes,” stated Doren.

To attain younger clients, Journeys is closely targeted on social media, with TikTook and Instagram being its strongest platforms. “Instagram is more of a reach platform for us, but we get really strong engagement on TikTok,” the CMO stated, noting the staff works arduous to create a constant expertise, from social and streaming to the web site and in-store TV community.

Digital isn’t all the pieces, although. “The kids spend a ton of time on social, but they also are craving those ‘in real life’ events,” stated Doren.

In the early 2000s, Journeys was synonymous with dwell occasions, beginning with its Backyard BBQ excursions and later as a sponsor of the Vans Warped Tour and Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater. Getting again to these sorts of activations is on the highway map, in line with Doren, however the model is beginning small with in-store occasions, like a rave in considered one of its New York areas.

Its focus, for now, is to reestablish a model identification by investing in compelling content material and leveraging partnerships to amplify its message.

For occasion, the retailer final 12 months piloted an envoy program amongst retailer associates, recruiting 10 workers who had been chargeable for posting a number of items of month-to-month content material. “It’s some of our best-performing content. It’s very authentic,” stated Doren. And plans are within the works to construct out a wider creator community.

And model companions proceed to be considered one of its most precious belongings. Take the brand new bts marketing campaign: Sky Brown is a Nike athlete, and Cathcart is an Adidas ambassador. Regarding the latter, Adidas has constructed out a full-year program with Journeys referred to as “Own the Halls,” starring Cathcart and geared towards teen ladies and making each highschool second as expressive as the massive ones.

John Miller, president of Adidas North America, pointed to this system as considered one of some ways the 2 firms collaborate. “Initiatives like ‘Own the Halls,’ integrated business planning and our joint product creation workshops reflect the depth of our partnership,” he stated.

Doren stated the corporate’s companions are excited in regards to the new path, with a number of tasks within the works headed into the vacations. “The level of engagement and partnership has been inspiring, and you’ll see ownable activations with our best partners, from new product launches, Journeys exclusive talent, paid media and in-store activations,” she stated. “We have a stacked plan.”