Gap gets into "fashiontainment"

It’s possibly harder than ever for marketers to compete for our attention these days, especially online.

Maybe that’s why Gap Inc. wants to move beyond just marketing, to media. Call that “fashiontainment” — Gap’s terminology, not ours. The retailer recently hired a Paramount executive as its Chief Entertainment Officer.

Fashiontainment sounds like a newfangled word for something that already exists. 

Paul Hardart, who heads the entertainment, media and technology program at NYU Stern, said call it communications, call it marketing, call it advertising, but “companies have been doing this to some degree for a long time, but I think this formalizes it a bit.”

Gap wants to formalize what’s made the retailer go viral lately: its pop culture collaborations with musical artists. Like its Better in Denim campaign featuring Katseye dancing to Kelis’ “Milkshake”.

In some ways, these campaigns look more like music videos. Hardart said that is very much on purpose. 

“People are increasingly wary of advertising. And the blurred lines between content and advertising are more and more important,” he said.

It’s likely why Gap has hired a Paramount executive and why the retailer is having her open an LA-based office on Sunset Boulevard. We might not see Gap Inc. movies or TV shows, Hardart said, but he could imagine, say, musical events — in the same kind of way that Red Bull puts on extreme sports, breakdancing and gaming competitions. 

But Brian Wieser, CEO of advertising consultancy Madison and Wall, said spending this kind of money can be a big risk for companies. 

“It’s not core to the strategy for many marketers. It probably won’t be,” he said.

Mostly because it’s hard to collect data on how much a giant campaign influenced someone to go buy a new hoodie.

“You have to believe it. It’s a very subjective choice,” Wieser said.

Advertising is a bit mysterious. It’s partly why when a company finds a bit of magic, everyone else piles on, Wieser said.

Like, somehow we’ve gotten to this place where every insurance company has a mascot? The GEICO Gecko, Jake from State Farm, the Aflac duck, Flo from Progressive.

“It takes a lot to keep innovating and sometimes you can innovate and your innovation is copied,” Wieser said.

In a lot of ways, Gap is also just copying itself and the khaki commercials of its ‘90s heyday.