Gap captured attention this fall with its partnership with rising girl group Katseye. This fall campaign not only resonated deeply with younger demographics like Gen Z but also provided a competitive edge in the highly contested denim market. Now, the retail giant aims to build on that momentum with “Give Your Gift,” its emotional holiday campaign already yielding promising results.
The “Give Your Gift” campaign centers around a poignant 90-second spot featuring a cover of Miley Cyrus's “The Climb” performed by 20-year-old Sienna Spiro, supported by a diverse, multigenerational choir ranging from ages 8 to 72. Since its launch in November, the campaign has generated more than 30 million views, according to Global CMO Fabiola Torres.
This latest iteration of “Give Your Gift” expands on Gap’s successful holiday campaign from the previous year, which similarly featured creators and emerging musical talent in an a cappella rendition of Janet Jackson’s “Together Again.” The current campaign also leverages the recent triumph of “Better in Denim,” Gap’s collaboration with Katseye, which garnered an impressive 8 billion media impressions. This partnership significantly enhanced Gap’s connection with younger consumers and elevated its standing to the No. 6 adult denim brand in the U.S., a two-spot improvement from 2024.
Torres emphasizes Gap's intentional approach to engaging Gen Z with “Give Your Gift,” ensuring that this focus does not exclude other generations, who are prominently featured in the campaign's creative. "We wanted to shake it up this year to do it differently — bigger choir, newer song — as we’ve been really trending with Gen Z," Torres stated. "We’re just touching the surface, to be completely honest, because it has a lot of potential."
Marketing Dive recently interviewed Torres, who transitioned to Gap last spring from PepsiCo, to gain deeper insights into the denim brand’s holiday strategy. The discussion covered the rationale behind its multigenerational casting, its approach to nurturing rising talent, and how the team intends to build on the momentum generated by its Katseye success.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
MARKETING DIVE: What inspired the extension of the ‘Give Your Gift’ campaign?
FABIOLA TORRES: More than an extension, I want to call it a platform. We’ve been dancing a lot, and we said, OK, let’s take a pause and do what we did a year ago, and that’s supporting emerging talent and taking a moment when the universe is [also] taking a moment.
I think just being relatable in the moment where everybody wants to slow down and be with their people — [“Give Your Gift” is] about being together … We thought that doing it again in a different way could be more honorable and build the platform. We’re very excited. The sentiment has been extremely positive, and especially as we launched it earlier in the season, we hope we can pick up more and more views for the rest of the season.
MARKETING DIVE: Why have partnerships with emerging talent been so crucial to Gap’s marketing strategy?
FABIOLA TORRES: That’s in the DNA of our brand. We’re a 56-year-old brand, and it’s always about mixing seasoned talent with new songs or older songs with new talent. It’s about providing a platform. Gap represents inclusivity, self-expression, and [the idea that] all of us can have a chance, and that’s where we start the work.
MARKETING DIVE: Other marketers have similarly been focused on a multigenerational cast for their holiday campaigns. Why was this important for ‘Give Your Gift’?
FABIOLA TORRES: We went very Gen Z with Katseye … We wanted to make sure that we remind everyone that we’re a multigenerational brand as well, and we wanted to be very intentional — it’s about the talent, your voice, it doesn’t matter how old you are.
MARKETING DIVE: How would you describe the sentiment of Gap consumers heading into the holidays?
FABIOLA TORRES: I think it’s not just Gap consumers, it’s the world. When it comes to these things, these moments in time and this season, it’s all about reflection, it’s about trying to be positive, to add more positivity to the world, especially with the macro situation that we’ve been having this year and the past year. It’s always good to send a positive message.
I think everyone wants to have something good in their lives and that’s part of our briefs. If you hear the lyrics of “The Climb,” it’s about always getting better, and climbing to where you will be next, and it felt perfect for us. Everybody wants some positivity, everybody wants your environment to be better, and [at] Gap, we feel like we can take the driver’s seat as well and be part of this.
MARKETING DIVE: The latest iteration of ‘Give Your Gift’ follows Gap’s partnership with Katseye earlier this year — a campaign that has proven to be particularly effective. What made it so successful?
FABIOLA TORRES: There’s so many factors. I think we had an eye on them since they formed as a group … and it’s all about the opportunities that we were giving to them at the start, and then the opportunity they gave us as well to showcase a global point of view.
The energy was magical. I’ve been on so many sets in my career, and this particular one just felt right. It felt magic. When you find that chemistry with talent, you have to really take advantage in a good way and produce more content for the community. It was one of the biggest sets that Gap has done, if not the biggest one that has been done in the history of Gap.
MARKETING DIVE: How did the effort perform compared to the KPIs you set?
FABIOLA TORRES: We knew that it was going to be the best one yet, especially in the last two years, but not at this level. Having 8 billion impressions ... it helped our category as well — denim is not an easy one when you have revenue and relevance together, and our CEO is very adamant on that as well, to say, if you want to drive relevance, you need to bring revenue, we’re a company. And this felt so right, and the community and consumers, especially Gen Z, were shopping all the way for the new styles.
