The key challenge for the brand was to make Wrangler's Western heritage relevant to an audience of 20 to 30-year- old Asians, "whose exposure to the Wild West is largely limited to Woody from Toy Story", according to Motiv8 managing director, Chris Fjelddahl. Motiv8 created the Wrangler campaign.
VF Asia's managing director, David Smith, added: "Perhaps unsurprisingly, America's West is distant and less engaging to contemporary urban Asia.
However, rodeos, cowboys and the Wild West spirit represents core Wrangler values.
"We need the Wrangler message to be relevant to a very wide audience with very different perceptions."
As a result, the campaign features Asian models with faces that are "not definably Asian" for use across the region. The ads aim to help the brand, which has a long history in Asia, form a stronger bond with local consumers.
The advertising was developed with the spirit of the Wild West, rather than a literal expression of it to highlight that 'There's a bit of the West in all of us'.
Filmed in Guangzhou with the help of Greg Sutclisse on production and upcoming Japanese director Masami Kamiyama, the two television ads show young people with sudden bursts of cowboy-inspired, playful and spontaneous moments.
The campaign will air in 11 markets with 15- and 30-second versions of the TVC.
"This is a branding push, but the image campaign has to have correlation with sales," said Fjelddahl, adding that Wrangler's biggest competitor in Asia-Pacific is Levi Strauss.
Wrangler has an extensive distribution network in Asia through an independent distributor approach.
VF Asia also manages The North Face, Lee, Eastpak and JanSport brands.
