Gap gets real for first global marketing campaign

Masako Kinishi, a merchandiser for Gap 1969 denim, is one of the real-life Gap employees featured in the brand’s fall marketing campaign.

Sarah Duxbury @duxburysarah

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Betting that truth is indeed more interesting than fiction, Gap brand has opted to focus on real people, including its own 1969 denim employees, for its first global marketing campaign.

The “1969: L.A. and Beyond” campaign uses over 30 easily-shared video vignettes that Gap will make available to influential bloggers and other social media mavens, as well as on Gap’s Facebook page. These short videos tell the story of the West Pico Boulevard studio where Gap’s denim intelligentsia designs the 1969 denim collection, as well as profiles of individual employees like designer Nicole King-Burroughs or wash specialist Rob Crews and how-to tips on denim care (have you ever considered freezing your jeans?), washes, fits and new fabrics.

Gap will also pay sites like Hulu.com and similar digital sites to show the videos and related banner ads, though none will appear as traditional television ads.

There are traditional aspects to the campaign, though even these have social, digital tweaks. Two-page print spreads feature real-live people found on the street in places like Williamsburg, N.Y., Austin, Texas, Manchester, England and Nakameguro, Japan, dressed in Gap clothes. Other inserts tell parts of the L.A. design studio story with short urls that direct people to the online videos, making a print ad quasi-interactive.

Sarah Duxbury’s beats include education, hospitality, restaurants retail and nonprofits.

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Facebook rolls out new Ads API for heavy-duty social marketers

For those who live and die by Facebook advertising and marketing, Facebook has taken the wraps off a new Ads API.

Part of the social network’s suite of Marketing APIs, the new offering is being positioned as “a scalable alternative to the Facebook Advertising Manager tool.” It’s best suited for use by ad agencies, marketing tools companies, and others who heavily reply on Facebook ads in their marketing campaigns.

“The Ads API doesn’t provide new functionality, but it helps people do things at scale,” a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Developers and marketing companies will likely be the ones to build on the Ads API, but this opens up the opportunity for businesses of all sizes to use it.”

The Marketing APIs also include a Pages API and an Insights API. Together, the APIs will “help the overall online marketing ecosystem grow,” said Facebook’s rep.

The Ads API beta included more than 20 companies that have already used the Ads API to service thousands of advertisers.

To give you an idea of who might find the APIs useful, the Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat that Efficient Frontier, Context Optional and Nanigans have been using the new Ads API. All three of these companies specialize in managing and optimizing Facebook ad campaigns; for non-devs and companies with simpler campaigns, Facebook’s ad management tools are still the best bet for keeping track of Facebook ad performance.

Interested devs can check out the documentation and apply for access online.

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Tags: development, facebook ads, marketing

Companies: Facebook

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