Blog 4: Water.org and Levi's -- Carolyn Gillette

The jean company, Levi’s joined up with Water.org in 2012 to create a social marketing campaign for the Global Water Crisis. The campaign, Go Water< Less, encouraged people to save water through shortening your showers, efficiently washing your clothes and using glass wear instead of water bottles when drinking. The campaign went over several years and included an online challenge with prizes, a “waterless” jean for purchase and an overall encouragement for the public to conserve water.

Levi's and water.org were mainly targeting Californian customers.

The target audience of the social marketing campaign is identified to be the average North American who takes advantage of using their water sources. Though the campaign did not directly state their audience, the target for the campaign is most likely the Californians that are buying Levi’s jeans. The State of California (where Levi’s headquarters are located) limits daily personal water usage to account for their frequent droughts. The social marketing campaign is most likely targeting Levi’s customers and not only gains exposure for water.org but it also supports Levi’s water  conservation, who is often affected by water limits.

The main communication tactics used for this campaign are the use of Levi’s clothing tags. Levi’s released jeans that were 100 per cent made from recycled water bottles. As the target audience was most likely Levis’ customers, their consumers would frequently see their advertisements and these tags and theoretically have a very successful campaign. The campaign was also released on Twitter, however there was very little social media pick up.

While I do support water conservation, I found the campaign difficult to get behind. While some suggestions like taking an “intermission” from water usage during showers might be something to get behind, I thought asking people to not use reusable water bottles or waiting to flush the toilet was a bit unrealistic. Further research into California’s water restrictions and Levi’s target audience, might tell a different story.  

Levi's encourages their consumers to conserve water. 

The negative behaviour that the campaign is trying to correct is that using too much water is causing the Global Water Crisis. Why taking shorter showers would contribute to stopping the Global Water Crisis is never fully described. The campaign listed statistics that did seem positive, however the benefits could have been made clearer. The campaign description stated that 1.82 billion litres of water had been saved, thanks to cutting back water usage but it didn’t state why that was really important or whom it helped. I felt pretty disappointed looking at the campaign, as I expected it to be more informative than asking people to not waste water.

I think water.org would benefit from exposure they received by being on Levi’s advertisements but the actual name and logo of the organization was very small compared to Levi’s. Levi’s is a huge campaign to partner with and I don’t think they used it as effectively as they could have. There 
was media pick up about the new jeans, however there was 
little mention about the organization water.org.

Any time a social marketing campaign is launched, the main goal of the campaign is to change negative behaviour to a more positive one. Levi’s and water.org did effectively spread awareness about increasing water conservation and the Global Water Crisis, however there was little exposure for water.org. I think Levis created a successful social marketing campaign but without a clear benefit to changing negative behaviours and without exposure for the charity, I think the partnership could have been more mutually beneficial.