Each week, we'll bring you select insights from our newsletter, How to Build Brands and Influence People (HBBIP). To have all of these insights delivered directly to your inbox, subscribe today!
Look folks, I’m just gonna cut right to the chase: in case it wasn’t clear from the title, this is a blog post about Katseye.
As somebody who spends most of his waking life tracking performance numbers for various brand activities and explaining what those numbers mean (typically big number = good, but not always!), a lot of people have asked me about Gap’s recent Katseye campaign. These asks have been both internal and external, both in my professional capacity and from friends who are vaguely aware of what it is I do.
People are even coming up to me in the street and saying, “Alex, this Katseye thing—what are the numbers? The numbers, man! What do they mean?”
That isn’t actually happening, thankfully. But it almost feels like it is, and this is my newsletter, so sure, let’s just say that my adoring public is clamoring for answers.
Anyway, to give context for those of you receiving emails beneath those rocks you’re living under, in August 2025 Gap unveiled a flotilla of fashion-forward fall styles, focused primarily on the brand’s denim collection, fronted by ‘global girl group’ Katseye. Featuring members of the band, who hail from all over the world, dancing to Kelis’ 2003 song about milkshakes and boys in yards and whatnot, the ad quickly became a super mega viral sensation, in part because a lot of people felt that it stood in contrast to a certain other denim-themed ad that launched around the same time.
But we’re not here to dwell on the negatives, or get sued! We are here to accentuate the positives. And boy, are there a lot of positives for Gap to accentuate.
There’s always a certain risk to writing these sorts of newsletters. I always feel a little trepidation. After all, I’m positing a specific campaign as something be-all and end-all, but what if the numbers don’t bear that out? What if our data shows that this whole Katseye thing was just a drop in the bucket?
Well, that would also be an interesting story, but it would 1. Conflict with a lot of other reporting on the topic, and 2. Not be what people want to hear. So there would certainly be some doubt cast on our findings.
Today is not one of those instances. You know that I’m all about the hot takes, so here’s the hottest take of all for you: people were, in fact, talking and/or dancing about this whole Katseye thing.
Let’s take a long view and look at Gap’s content volume in the U.S. since January 2020. We want to get pretty granular, so we’re going to go month by month. See if you can pinpoint Katseye’s impact:
Well alright then. Looks like something in August 2025 was responsible for adding about 2.5k posts to Gap’s monthly total.
But I also want to point out that Gap was already trending upward prior to August. For as much as we give the Katseye campaign its flowers, it’s important to note that the moment came on the heels of a lot of brand growth and investment in creators from Gap. After all, as any marketer knows, it’s never just about the moment: it’s about all the moments that lead to the moment.
This long-term momentum is further confirmed by Gap’s creator count, which doesn’t quite double between July and August, but comes pretty close. (In fact, 3.3k of Gap’s 4.2k creators in August hadn’t posted about the brand during the previous month.) So it turns out that Katseye does, in fact, bring all the creators to the yard.
Okay, so far we’re seeing a pretty clear upswing, but nothing crazy, IMHO. This is a brand having a big moment, but not necessarily one of the biggest moments of all time, right? Do we have any numbers that show something like that?
Gap Engagements: January 2020 - August 2025
Oh.
On first glance, that chart does seem pretty lopsided. But once you dive deeper into the numbers, it actually becomes extremely lopsided. Here are two facts to put things in perspective:
We saw a similar, though slightly less pronounced, surge in impressions:
Again, “slightly less pronounced” is all relative. This is just a paltry 569% month-over-month improvement, which begs the question: was Gap even trying?
I think it’s quite telling that Gap saw a sharper spike in engagements, rather than impressions, surrounding its Katseye campaign. That discrepancy demonstrates that people weren’t just noticing the campaign, or broadly aware of it—they were, well, engaging with it: talking about it, liking it, sharing it. More often than not, they were loving it. In fact, over my decade or so in the space, Gap’s work with Katseye stands out as perhaps the most widely and passionately embraced campaign that I’ve ever observed. It became part of the discourse in the best possible way, a rare feat amid an era when conversation often seems to swirl around what divides us, rather than all the reasons we’re stronger together.
Anyway, before this newsletter gets canceled, here are some more graphs:
This is a breakdown of where Gap’s impressions came from in August: an almost picture-perfect 60-40 split between TikTok and Instagram. I was surprised that a greater proportion didn’t come from TikTok, given how these things usually play out. Then I took a look at the breakdown of Gap’s August engagements:
While engagements are usually dominated by Instagram, in this case we find that TikTok drove a greater share. This is further evidence of not only the ample conversation surrounding Gap’s campaign, but where this conversation was taking place. And by conversation, I mean creators syncing their dances to the dances in the commercial. I’m pretty sure it was illegal to be on TikTok in late August and not be doing the dances.
Oh, and since I said ‘late August’ just now, here’s one more thing about Gap’s Katseye campaign to make it even more impressive: creators first started mentioning it on August 18th. So really we’re looking at its impact over not even a full month, but rather a two-week timescale.
Let’s all give a round of applause, a bow, and that twirly hand thing to Gap, and to Katseye. Sometimes you can’t fully plan for the context in which a campaign is launching, and capturing lightning in a bottle always takes a bit of luck. But by reading the room, tapping into the zeitgeist, and finding a brand partner that not only reflects its values but also makes for viral, engaging content, you can significantly increase your chances of success. Gap did all that, and the numbers don’t lie: it made for a campaign like few others I’ve ever seen.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a dance to learn.
To get all of these stories, plus much more, delivered to your inbox weekly, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.