Madewell invents #JORTCORE

We helped Madewell ride several cultural trends this summer with the creation of their own trend: #JORTCORE.

With the aim of engaging Gen Z and highlighting sustainability, we celebrated jean shorts (jorts) and self expression. We hired Brooklyn surf-punk girl band Nevva to write an original song. Influencers used it to promote reusing old garments and even upcycling the scraps!

The result was benchmark-breaking ad recall and view rates.

it’s called jortcore!

LEARN MORE BELOW

BRAND CHALLENGE

Madewell’s core customers are millennial, and they came to Movers+Shakers to acquire a younger audience. They asked for a campaign that feels culturally relevant to Gen Z and native to TikTok, while rooted in the Madewell brand and product. 

CREATIVE SOLUTION

Riding on the recent fashion trends like #Cottagecore and #Normcore, we created our own #core for jean-loving, edgy TikTokers.

To make #Jortcore a thing, we activated Gen Z tastemakers on TikTok to jam along to our original pop-punk track by the Brooklyn band Nevva, all the while transforming a pair of Madewell jeans into the summer’s hottest pair of jorts! They also shared their denim creations on Instagram through their own personal Photo “Joto” Dumps.

A recycling partnership ensured none of their denim scraps went to waste. ♻️

IMPACT

Madewell’s #JORTCORE stopped the scroll and broke through to Gen Z audiences. The campaign had an overwhelmingly positive response from TikTokers, resulting in over 74 million views, ad recall above expectations, and a video viewthrough rate 73% higher than TikTok benchmarks. 

This campaign also resulted in lifts with “Inspiring Self Expression” and “Promoting Upcycling” - key attributes for the Gen Z audience. 

Beyond performance metrics, the  #JORTCORE campaign launched right before jorts became the hot topic of summer style, positioning Madewell as a leader in front of the cultural conversation.