Gap Launches Summer With New ’Rock Color’ Marketing Campaign

Highlights of Campaign Include a Traveling Pop-up Store, Free Tickets to Hot Summer Concerts and Colorful Advertising

SAN FRANCISCO - April 26, 2006 – This summer, Gap rolls down its windows and cranks up the music with the introduction of its ROCK COLOR summer marketing campaign. ROCK COLOR revisits the brand’s roots as Gap recalls the spirit of the summer of 1969, the year the company was founded.

ROCK COLOR is an integrated marketing campaign that infuses high energy, great music and bold colors through every campaign element. Launching this May, the campaign includes a pop-up store in the form of a retro-inspired traveling bus, an in-store promotion and online microsite offering customers the chance to win summer concert tickets, as well as a color explosion in print ads and in-store marketing.

“The summer of 1969 is part of the visual inspiration and soul for each element of this campaign,” said Kyle Andrew, vice president of Gap Marketing. “We hope our ROCK COLOR Bus Tour and Summer Concerts will evoke the fun and freedom of summer while enabling us to connect with our customers on a personal level.”

The first element of Gap’s summer marketing campaign features the ROCK COLOR Bus Tour. Throughout May and June, Gap will bring their stores to summer hot spots in the shape of a late ’60’s styled school bus. The traveling pop-up store will make an appearance at neighborhood beaches, festivals and other fun summer destinations in Los Angeles and New York. Customers will be able to purchase iconic Gap items like T-shirts and hoodies and essential must-have summer items like flip flops and beach hats on the bus. Brightly adorned in ROCK COLOR graphics, the bus was transformed into a pop-up store by removing the seats, building in shelves and installing a cash register near the driver’s seat.

Gap’s ROCK COLOR Bus Tour kicks off in Los Angeles on May 5 and concludes at the New Jersey shore on June 25. In addition to popping up at local beaches and hot spots on both coasts, the bus will be spotlighted at exclusive events in the Los Angeles and New York areas. In May, Robin Lewis West, fashion expert and head stylist of the hit TV series The OC, will be on the bus in LA, offering expert style advice on how to build the perfect summer wardrobe. The ROCK COLOR bus will then make its way across the country to host a special VIP party in the Hamptons in June.

The second aspect of Gap’s summer marketing campaign is the ROCK COLOR Summer Concerts. Beginning May 1 through June 18, Gap customers in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago will have the chance to win tickets to some of this summer’s hottest concerts. Customers who enter participating Gap stores will receive a game piece, while supplies last, for a chance to instantly win a pair of tickets to summer concerts including:

• Dave Matthews Band
• Counting Crows and Goo Goo Dolls
• Willie Nelson
• John Fogerty
• Panic! At the Disco
• John Legend – performing at an exclusive concert hosted by Gap at New York City’s
legendary Supper Club

Customers can also visit www.gap.com/rockcolor to enter a national online sweepstakes for a chance to win concert ticket gift certificates to other hot concerts. Additionally, one grand prize winner will receive a trip for two and backstage passes to Gap’s private New York City concert featuring John Legend.

The ROCK COLOR campaign features print ads, store windows and in-store graphics with bright colors and retro graphic treatments all with a modern twist. The marketing elements focus on t-shirts, polos and hoodies – the classic, must-have items Gap is known for – which are highlighted in pops of neon color and set against a black and white background.

Gap’s ROCK COLOR summer marketing campaign, which consists of the pop-up store, the concert promotion, print, newspaper, outdoor, direct mail, online, radio spots, street teams and in-store marketing was developed by Laird + Partners, Gap’s creative agency. Regan Cameron photographed the print campaign, which will run in May and June issues of magazines including Vanity Fair, Vogue and InStyle.

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Gap

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