Campaign Trail: Skims clones Kim Kardashian for first TV push

For years, pop culture has been full of celebrities and influencers who have tried to keep up with Kim Kardashian. While these lookalikes can copy her image, style and even her designer looks, they can’t as easily replicate the success of her $4 billion shapewear brand, Skims.

That’s part of the insight behind “Skims Lab,” the brand’s first TV campaign, which debuted earlier this month during the Oscars. Directed by Frank Lebon and soundtracked by the 1975 classic “Dream Weaver,” the 60-second spot features Kardashian overseeing a heightened version of Skims’ R&D process.

On a wall full of TV monitors, Kim clones test out factors like support, stretch and smoothness, and once the tests are complete, the crew — dressed in neutral-colored Skims gear and see-through lab coats — gather on the deck of what is revealed to be a space ship orbiting the planet.

Along with its nationwide TV debut, “Skims Lab” represents the brand’s first work with an outside agency, Wieden + Kennedy Portland, which was asked to pitch a year ago. For Wieden, the campaign was an opportunity to start a conversation with the brand and make great work that the agency would be excited to collaborate on, according to Chief Creative Officer Azsa West.

“Even though they’re an incredibly successful brand and super relevant in pop culture, they were looking for something much bigger scale with Gen Z, from a storytelling perspective,” West said. “Their brief was simply, ‘We want to go broader, we want to take the next step and take things to the national stage.’”

Despite its excitement, Wieden did not arrive at the concept for “Skims Lab” straight away and had to overcome what West describes as “curveballs” in the process. But as it worked on ideas, the agency keyed into the brand’s core truth and how its famous co-founder’s obsession with perfection — and the hours spent studying every inch, curve, line and shade — shows up in the shapewear products.

“We wanted to integrate this idea of testing into the concept to make it more known to the audience how much rigor and scrutiny goes into each and every product that’s made,” West said. “Most people know Kim as a different kind of icon, but most people don’t know the other side of Kim and the way she runs the company.”

Crafting a gift for consumers

Rather than a serious look at how Skims creates its products, Wieden opted for a playful tone while exaggerating the company’s rigor. The spot works to balance the seriousness of how Kardashian runs her business while still toying with her pop culture persona and the clone concept. The team came up with countless “tests” to include before landing on the ones that would be fun but also demonstrate real-world value propositions, like a bra support test carried out on a g-force simulator.

“It goes back to positioning ourselves in an innovative way,” West said. “It’s really important to continue surprising your audience and doing things in unexpected ways.”

Wieden presented its vision for “Skims Lab” and West says the brand was “incredibly generous,” allowing the agency to go big in the spot, which was shot on film by Lebon, a director and photographer who has worked on campaigns for Dior, Supreme, Kenzo and more. Costume design was handled by Heidi Bivens, best known for her work on HBO’s “Euphoria.” Unsurprisingly, the biggest asset of the campaign was Kardashian herself.

“Kim was on board to go through the process because I think she saw the value and making sure the craft came through,” West said of the shoot, which utilized more of Kardashian’s time, rather than turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to build up the creative, a use of buzzworthy technology that was briefly considered by the agency.

The analog craft and shot-on-film look of “Skims Lab” could help the brand as it makes the move from direct-to-consumer performance marketing to larger-scale brand building, especially when considering a Gen Z audience. In previous branding efforts, Skims — which last year became the official underwear partner of the NBA, WNBA and USA Basketball — has united pop culture, entertainment, fashion and sports. The new campaign also allows Wieden to stay true to its own brand as a leading creative agency.