Levi Strauss: Holding back stories

A service for journalists frustrates other audiences.

The Site

Levi Strauss, the US-based denim clothing company, promotes ideas for brand-related articles to journalists but does not follow them up for site visitors.

Levi Strauss’ corporate News section includes a Story Ideas sub-section. This lists brand-related issues that could be made the topic of articles featuring three of the company’s major product lines (Levi’s®, Dockers® and Levi Strauss Signature®). For example: ‘Find out which PGA Tour Professional golfer has partnered with the Dockers® brand to bring style back [sic] to the golf course’; ‘Why are organic jeans important?’. Named brand contacts are provided for journalists “to explore a story idea”.

Story Ideas is highlighted as a right-hand link on the News introduction page, but none of the topics is covered either in the section or elsewhere on the site, including the story-rich Heritage section.

The Takeaway

Levi Strauss makes a good job of selling article ideas to journalists with well-turned ‘teasers’ that succeed in rousing interest. As a service to reporters it is a rarity and shows the company’s communications team is wise to exploiting the web in its job of attracting media coverage. However, its very success brings into question the value of having the feature on the site.

The crux of the matter is that plenty of non-journalists will be drawn to Story Ideas: the section heading, News, is more inviting of a general audience than would be the usual alternative, ‘media’; and, once there, the crafting of the prompts and headings will work its magic on all-comers. The result is frustrated readers, eager to know more but unable – and unaided – to do so. Posting the ideas online also removes any aura of ‘exclusivity’ from the stories, so reducing their appeal to journalists. Why not cut out the go-betweens and publish the best stories? It’s not as if Levi Strauss doesn’t know how to spin a good yarn online or isn’t expecting a general audience to come to the site – the Heritage section and a universal timelines feature are proof of that. The stories could still serve as a conduit to brand contacts with a revised invitation to journalists to find out about further story ‘opportunities’.

First published on 14 October, 2008