Gap Inc.
September 4, 2020
Back-to-school season has officially kicked off, but uncertainty remains on what schooling will look like. Now more than ever, consumers are relying on the brands they trust to provide them with product that makes them feel good and inspires confidence. For years, Gap Inc.’s family of brands have been the go-to destination for families’ back-to-school shopping. While school may look a little different this year, here is how Old Navy, Gap, Athleta and Janie and Jack shifted to meet families where they are, whatever learning looks like.
Wear Now Product
Our brands have always offered product in our assortment that is casual, versatile and stylish for wear-now, which is perfect for any learning scenario. For Old Navy, the back-to-school season is always focused on fun with clothes that are fashionable, functionable and above all, comfortable. Some of the most popular back-to-school product for this year are in fabrics that are washed and soft against the skin, like in Old Navy’s fleece sets, elevated joggers, playful graphic tops and activewear. Whether parents are shopping in-store and online, customers are loving our styles for shorts across all fabrications for boys and girls, along with graphic tees and fleece tops and bottoms!
To help dress an underserved age group in apparel, Gap and Old Navy launched their first-ever teen and tween collections this year. The Gap Teen collection is created for a generation that is majorly plugged into the planet, with sustainability woven through the line. Graphic tees, high rise denim and dresses have been flying off the shelves for Teen Girl! Old Navy’s first-ever Tween line with POPSUGAR is heavily anchored in unisex jogger sets, bright colors and optimistic graphics that lets kids' personality and confidence shine through.
With face masks being the new normal, all the brands quickly pivoted to create a new category over the past few months in a variety of sizes for the entire family. We found that 70 percent of our surveyed customers are planning to buy masks for their kids for safe playtime and learning, and our brands are ready to deliver with fun styles for every type of activity.
Purpose Driven Marketing
With back-to-school looking different this year, our marketing teams needed to work quickly to tailor campaigns to showcase a range of experiences and messages to help families looking for ways to talk about the world with their kids with new digital activations.
Athleta is hosting (Em)Power Hour for Girls, interactive sessions to reignite girls’ love for sports with guest speakers Abby Wambach, 2x Olympic and World Cup champion and Gabi Butler and Lexi Brumback from Netflix Docuseries Cheer. Both sessions will be moderated by Peloton trainer Tunde Oyeneyin. Janie and Jack launched virtual Good Books Storytime Series to empower parents to talk about race, unity and kindness. GapKids celebrated youth in their Fall campaign, Be The Future, and hosted its first-ever worldwide digital rally led by a diverse range of leaders, to share their hopes for the future and enact change, garnering 1.2M impressions on social, reaching over 430k people.
Old Navy partnered with EmbraceRace, a community platform to help parents raise kids who are thoughtful and brave about race, to share advice on their social channels. In addition to helping customers create safe and meaningful spaces for conversation, Old Navy launched its back-to-school commercial featuring mixed media, pop art and user generated content from our social community with a take on a hit song by Lizzo.
Giving Back to Our Communities
To further our commitment in the communities where we live and work, Old Navy continued its partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America + Canada in the seventh annual ONward! back-to-school drive raising over $1.6 million to help unlock job opportunities for underserved youth through our first jobs program, This Way Ahead. The brand's goal is to provide 20,000 jobs to underserved youth by 2025. And, to keep everyone safely covered this back-to-school season, brands have donated 70,000 masks to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America + Canada.
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