How JanSport Activated TikTok Creators Using Mavrck to Amplify Brand Engagement with Gen Z

The Challenge

Since JanSport’s inception, the brand has always had its customers’ backs. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, JanSport knew they needed to help in an authentic way to the brand. They wanted to bring to life the notion of having their customers’ back.

In addition to the social good JanSport wanted to execute, the brand also wanted to increase brand awareness and amplify engagements among its target Gen Z audience – an audience that has a keen distaste for traditional brand advertising.

The Idea

To support and connect the millions of Gen Z students adjusting to a digital high school environment and social distancing from friends as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, JanSport launched #UnpackThatChallenge, a social awareness campaign on TikTok for displaced students to promote a hopeful message while adjusting to their new normal. To do this, Jansport partnered with popular TikTok influencers to promote a hopeful and empowering message while making a difference.

The Activation

In partnership with JUV Consulting and Mavrck, JanSport activated popular TikTok creators through the Mavrck platform to show the world their new workspaces at home on TikTok. The narrative creators were asked to follow was simple: grab a backpack from out of frame, go to leave for school and then remember that classes are online now – there’s nowhere to go.

Creators then had the opportunity to show off their new workstations in their rooms by unpacking their backpacks and showing what’s inside – whether it’s a pencil pouch, textbooks, laptops or even family pets. After unpacking, creators were instructed to pass their backpack off frame to the left side to offer the chance for someone to duet. This ending, paired with Greyson Chance’s “seasons nineteen” audio, was intended to create a hopeful and uplifting message.

In the same way that creators were asked to pass the backpack off to each other by way of duet on TikTok, JanSport passed it off to those in need by donating up to 10k backpacks full of supplies to the World Central Kitchen for each video following this format and using the hashtag #UnpackThatChallenge.