This document provides a digital PR strategy for Gap to build a tribe of brand ambassadors. It includes an analysis of Gap's social media presence and opportunities for improvement. The strategy proposes partnering with influencers on Instagram to promote products, running a paid media campaign on Spotify to target millennial women, and empowering store employees to engage customers on social media and become internal brand ambassadors. The goal is to increase online and store traffic and sales by strengthening customer engagement and the relationship with the Gap brand.

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Digital PR Strategy:
Building a Brand Ambassador Tribe
Haylee Brown
Johns Hopkins University

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Executive Summary
In the midst of striving to be the world’s favorite for American style Gap is struggling to
make that happen. With sales still not as high as expected the brand is under pressure
to make the brand great again. In recent years Gap has invested in Omni-channel
capabilities including ship-from-store and reserve-in-store to enhance the consumers
shopping experience but there is still some work to be done. With this in mind a plan
focused on building a brand ambassador tribe both internally and externally will drive
engagement that results in increased traffic online and in stores. This starts with
creating strong brand experiences that resonate with the target audience. In order to
build a tribe of brand ambassadors Gap should follow Seth Godin’s idea about tribes:
• Tell a Story
Use visual storytelling to create customer touch points-moments of
influence where consumers can engage with the brand.
• Connect a Tribe
Partner with influencers on social media to increase awareness.
• Lead a Movement
Launch a paid media campaign on platforms that fit target audience.
• Make a Change
Utilize field employees (internal brand ambassadors) to tell the story,
engage and with followers and brand ambassadors on social media.

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Social Media Audit and Research
Social Media
Gap has a strong presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with daily posts. The
social media audit revealed that although Gap has developed social media platforms their
competitors have stronger engagement levels and are more talked about online. There is
not much consistent conversation about Gap product online. Gap’s financial performance
has dominated the conversation. Gap has the opportunity to increase conversation about
the brand through targeted engagement and more consistent monitoring and interaction
with followers and fans.
Looking at the conversation that is happening it primarily takes place on Facebook with
people leaving comments. The comments are quite spilt with some very positive showing
excitement for the brand while others express their disappointment with the product and
concern for the brand’s future. Another trend is customers commenting on the lack of
product available in store that is featured in ad campaigns and increase in prices. This
illustrates how fast fashion competitors like H&M and Zara are impacting consumers
demand for lower price and consistent new inventory.
Social Media Followers/Fans
Twitter 667,094
Facebook 7,876,896
Instagram 1,300,000
Pinterest 125,700
Website
Gap’s website has strong visual content with compelling collections created to easily
locate the product. The website has links to all social media accounts and is updated
frequently. The mobile website retains all the important information and has features
such as zooming in on product to see the details to inform the decision making process.

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Search
When searching for jeans on Google Gap was on the first page of results but when
searching for denim Gap did not make the first page. Considering bottoms and
specifically denim are at the core of the brand and what made Gap the brand it is there are
some improvements that Gap could make to their search engine optimization.
Financial Performance
With a first and second quarter sales posted lower than expected investors are losing
faith in the retailer’s turnaround plan. The primary conversation about Gap is in regards
to financial performance and lack of consumer excitement about product offering.
Although sales have improved from the first quarter Gap is still trying to gain market
share in the competitive and challenging retail industry.
Key Insights (Tell a Story)
Use visual storytelling to create customer touch points-moments of influence where
consumers can engage with the brand. These impactful brand experiences will help

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engage and strengthen the relationship between
the consumer and the brand. In order to create
powerful brand moments Gap should focus on
American staples and the core of their product
offering jeans. By dominating in jeans Gap will
build increase loyalty. As Gap is getting back to
basics the visuals and copy should reflect jeans and
basics that can be curated and personally styled to
showcase Gap’s effortless style.
Communication and Business Objectives
Gap’s primary business goals are to increase online
and in store traffic to drive sales. This is proving to
be a difficult task as the retail industry is being
disruptive by new technology and fast fashion
retailers.
Gap’s primary communication goals are to communicate the quality and wear ability of
its clothes. It’s current marketing campaign online #doyou illustrates the approachability
of the brand and the ability for people to wear the same clothes but in ways that reflect
their individual style.
Strategy
Gap’s digital strategy includes targeting and engaging with millennial women on the
many platforms they use throughout the day. Millennial women in Gap’s target
audience have many interests from lifestyle content to fashion and food. Considering
that consumers are constantly seeing ads they are learning how to ignore them. To cut
through the noise Gap must create and deliver relevant content to the target audience
at the right time on the right platform. When this happens Gap will have the platform
to tell the Gap story through upfront, impactful moments that share the brand’s
optimistic American style. This is where millennial women can connect with the brand
and become brand ambassadors both online and word of mouth.
In order to execute this plan Gap needs to develop brand ambassador tribes. First Gap
should utilize and develop field employees who are internal brand ambassadors. These
employees live the brand and interact with customers daily. By clearly defining the field
employees roles in the digital plan will help buy in and contribute to its success. The role
of field employees will be to execute social media strategy for their location and actively
promote the brand’s strategies to attract and retain customers.

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Target Audience Segmentation and Profile
Millennial Women
Gap’s target audience consists of millennial women aged 25-34. 85% of Gap’s social
media audience is women with top interactions in New York, Los Angeles and San
Francisco. The target audience’s media consumption consists of lifestyle/fashion
bloggers, social media and on-demand streaming services.

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Millennial Moms
Moms, particularity millennial moms make up a huge audience online in terms of
bloggers and social media users. These millennial moms want effortless fashion that is
classic and won’t go out of style. Seeing that the core age of Gap customers who are
moms is 28, right in the middle of the millennial generation, this is a huge opportunity
for Gap to increase market share.
source: http://klear.com/profile/Gap
Tactics and Campaigns
Tactic 1- Partner with Influencers (Connect a Tribe)
Gap has a solid online presence across many platforms but it is uncertain of how
influential their digital presence is on purchasing decisions. The addition of influencer
partnerships will help ensure that the attention converts to sales. By engaging key
lifestyle and fashion influencers Gap will expand their reach This plan will support the
primary business goals of driving sales online and increasing traffic in stores.
By partnering with these influencers on sponsored posts on their
Instagram pages and blogs will help expand the reach of Gap’s brands to
new audiences that would already have an interest in the brand but need
the recommendation and review of an influential blogger to try the
brand. Lisa Thiele (With Style Grace) is an example of an influencer on
Instagram for her depth of followers (over 10,000) and her consistent

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engagement with them (ex: responding to comments). Below is a sample pitch letter
inviting her to try on and blog about our fall collection.
Hi Lisa,
Our Gap brand social media team has been following your social media platforms and
blog. Your food and lifestyle posts are beautiful and approachable at the same time.
The Instagram post of you in the Kimpton hotel in a white blouse and jeans is
reminiscent of the Gap brand-optimistic, American style. As we approach the fall
season we are contacting you in regards to a sponsored post for Gap’s fall line.
Food is your passion but we can’t help but notice that your style is on point and your
readers can’t get enough of it! With that in mind we would love to send you some
samples from our fall line and have you post about some must have staples for fall.
Keeping with the spirit of your style and blog we think that featuring one item from Gap
in your fall must have staples would allow us to show off our product and gain you early
access to our fall line to share with your readers.
If this collaboration interests you please feel free to contact us for more information on
a partnership for this fall.
Thanks for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you.
With style,
Sarah Williams
Sarah.williams@gap.com
415-732-9128
Although Lisa Thiele (With Style Grace) primarily blogs and posts about food she is a
stylish individual with a significant digital presence. By mentioning a specific post of
Lisa’s is shows that significant research has been conducted prior to contacting her
about collaboration. Conducting an audit of her content we noticed that she does
feature posts about clothes and many comments on her posts are questions about what
she is wearing. Seeing that many of her followers value fashion and trust her style Lisa
seemed like a great unexpected fit for an influencer that Gap’s competitors may not
identify and reach out to.
Time Frame:
• Week 1-2identify influencers on Instagram that would be a good fit for Gap
and contact influencers about collaboration.
• Week 3- Draft and send pitch to identified influencers.

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• Week 4 and 5- follow up influencers to gauge interest and create a content
calendar with a storytelling strategy based on interested influencers.
• Week 6-9- Confirm collaboration agreement with influencers, roll out
campaign and follow up with influencers after about the collaboration.
Resources Needed:
• Two full time digital strategy/social media specialists to own influencer campaign
Benefits:
• increase market audience on Instagram and uses influencers network to
promote fall product
• increase conversation about product due to bloggers promotion
Measurement/ Evaluation:
• Monitor and track the conversation and engagement of influencers’ posts
• Increase website traffic by 15% the week the influencer posts about Gap
• Increase followers and fans on social media by 5-10%

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Tactic 2- Paid Media Plan (Lead a Movement)
Paid media is a mechanism to engage consumers with the brand and convert traffic to
gap.com. The focus of the paid media campaign is to choose platforms where
millennials spend time throughout the day. By capturing the attention of millennials in
Gap’s target audience the campaign should extend
brand reach and convert new traffic to the website.
An example of an ideal platform for Gap is Spotify.
Spotify has a high concentration of millennials and mobile users which fits with Gap’s
target audience and push for Omni-channel shopping experience. This platform allows
Gap to introduce itself to millennial women who may not be familiar with Gap. The
media campaign for Spotify will entail creating a wardrobe playlist generator that allows
customers to pick songs that reflect the mood of getting dressed and picking outfits.
Playlists allow users to engage with Gap and promote the product.
Time Frame:
• Week 1- research Spotify advertising options and how they identify
demographics based on the music selection.
• Week 2-analyze previous sponsored playlists on Spotify to see opportunities.
• Week 3-4-determine budget and desired reach of Spotify campaign.
• Week 5-present final Spotify campaign to social media manager to approve
• Week 6- roll out campaign on Spotify
Resources Needed:
• One to two full time employees on the project to research and create Spotify
paid media plan.

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Benefits:
• Increase engagement with millennial women throughout the day.
• Expose Gap to a new audience of millennial women.
• Playlists allow you to target consumers based on mood.
• Engage the target audience with the brand in an interactive platform.
Measurement/Evaluation:
• Click through rate.
• Conversation to website from Spotify.
• Increase in sales of products featured on Spotify.
• Expected website traffic to increase by 15%.
Tactic 3- Social Media Engagement (Make Change)
Gap’s field employees are knowledgeable and passionate about the brand. For many
customers these are the only Gap employees they interact with. Keeping that in mind
Gap should communicate and share the digital strategy with store employees through in
store posters and videos. Taking the idea a step forward Gap will send a field trainer to
visit general managers in stores or through video conference and educate them on best
social media practices and how to use the marketing strategies shared on Gap’s internal
communication board Gap Web to their store’s specific social media accounts such as
Instagram and Facebook.
Time Frame:
• First month-develop the training and content to train field leadership.
• Second month-revise and finalize training and determine platforms for video
learning and select 25-40 stores to visit and role out pilot training.
• Third Month-Begin to visit and train field employees on social media tactics
• Fourth Month-Evaluate effectiveness of initial roll out and monitor social media
accounts of stores that have been through corporate social media training.

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Resources Needed:
• 3-5 full time employees to analyze, develop and train field employees as well as
answer and respond to field employees questions on managing social media
accounts.
Benefits:
• Increase effectiveness and use of social media by corporate owned stores.
• Expected increase of 10% in store traffic after one month post social media
training.
• Expected increase of 15% for followers/fans on stores social media accounts.
• Develop internal brand ambassadors at the store level.
Measurement/Evaluation:
• Conversation happening online about Gap.
• Increase in sales and products featured on store’s social media account.
• Increase in store traffic compared to previous year.
Summary and Conclusion
By engaging field employees as internal brand ambassadors and cultivating external
brand ambassadors through powerful target content Gap will be able to more
effectively communicate and share the brand story to relevant audiences. This will
result in increased online and in store traffic that drives sales.

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During and after the plan’s roll out measurement and evaluation should be done to
determine how effective the strategy was and if there are opportunities to learn and
improve for future campaigns. This includes:
• Did the campaign engage the target audience?
• Was the campaign shared on social media?
• What was the reach of the target audience?
• In what areas and times of day was the campaign most impactful?
• Did the campaign increase conversation about Gap online?
The metrics gained through this initial engagement plan will help drive future plans. By
looking at last year same time online and store sales versus this years will help to
determine if the investment in influencers paid off for Gap.

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Sources:
Adweek: Infographic: 72% of Spotify Users are Millennials
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/infographic-what-marketers-
need-know-about-millennials-music-habits-170869
Gap’s Second Quarter Sales:
http://www.gapinc.com/content/dam/gapincsite/documents/Press%20Releases/GPS_Q
216_EPR_FINAL.pdf
Gap’s Quarterly Financial Summary:
http://www.gapinc.com/content/attachments/gapinc/GPSEarnings/QFS_External.
pdf
Seth Godin: The Tribes We Lead:
https://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead?language=en#t-
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