When we say this is a tell-all, we mean it.
Buckle up, because we have a MASSIVE interview with Hollister’s SVP of Creative Marketing about their newest campaign that just dropped. This is simply not one to miss.
Before we get there, we’ll share some context:
Instead of a traditional video spot, Hollister teamed up with Gigi Perez and Green Day to create the first-ever official cover of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” paired with a full-length music video that reintroduces the iconic coming-of-age anthem to a new generation ahead of graduation season:
As you can tell from watching this, the concept is rooted in Gen Z’s fascination with late-’90s and early-2000s culture, from music to fashion. This is apparent everywhere - from the high school setting to the filters - incorporating personal details from Gigi’s own high school experience, like her drawings and Homecoming Queen sash.
Hollister’s consumers didn’t just inspire the campaign concept or creative direction; they’re central characters in the video itself, which features members of the Hollister Style Hub.
As for the products, the “Time of Your Life” campaign includes a limited capsule designed for milestone moments - gradutation ceremonies, parties, trips, and summer transitions - but the music video itself was intentionally created to not feel overly brand-y. As they shared, “We want this to be more than a moment in time, and we are betting on cultural relevance and emotional connection to drive brand affinity, consideration, and long-term loyalty.”
Today, we had the absolute honor of chatting with Joanna Ewing, SVP of Creative Marketing at Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Hollister team - about the campaign. (If you’ve read our deep dives with Crown Affair and MERIT, this one is similar.)
We’re diving into every aspect of the campaign, from the focus on nostalgia marketing to their choice of talent to the reasons they partnered with Vevo and Snapchat to amplify it. Above all else, if you care about brands, marketing, or just good creative work, this piece is jam-packed with tangible insights, with the Hollister team sharing learnings from working on this campaign.
A big thank you to Joanna and the entire Hollister team for taking the time. We’re obsessed with this campaign and hope you enjoy this exclusive deep dive into how it all came to life. One for the books. Here we go:
BRAND MARKETING
PEOPLE BRANDS AND THINGS: You described this campaign as a blend of music video and nostalgia. Why is nostalgia such a powerful tool for brands?
Joanna Ewing: Nostalgia works when it does more than look back. It has to connect to what people are feeling in this moment and it has to respect the permanence of those memories. For us, that means using a song and cultural reference point that already carries real emotional weight, then reintroducing it in a way that feels fresh, relevant and worthy of being part of someone’s personal archive. We’re living at the intersection of digital and analog memories: playlists, camera rolls, yearbooks, ticket stubs and those artifacts become how people remember their “time of your life” moment. In this case, graduation season gave us a natural emotional backdrop tied to a very specific Gen Z milestone, so nostalgia became a bridge between something timeless and something immediately present, and we approached that with a real sense of respect. It is a great honor and responsibility to be a part of people’s memory making.
PBT: What is Hollister’s unique take and/or point of view on nostalgia?
JE: For us, nostalgia isn’t a buzzy trend word that we are weaving into our strategy. We were one of the original Y2K brands and created the trends that are now “nostalgic.” Looking at our customer, Gen Z has a passion for the late 90s and early 2000s culture as they’re just discovering it for the first time. This is relevant in music: how TikTok stitches older songs to make them trend today, and in fashion: how Gen Z rediscovers the styles from that era and styles them in a unique and modern way.
Our job is to meet them there in a unique way that only we can. We set many of these original trends years ago, and have since reimagined and reintroduced them via Vault Drops. We want that merge to continue to be authentic. This campaign connects a timeless song like “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” to the lived reality of senior year and graduation, no matter what year it is. The campaign doesn’t just borrow nostalgia, it becomes part of the emotional scrapbook they carry forward. Something that feels true to who they are now and still holds up when they revisit it years from today.
PBT: We often talk about brands becoming entertainment engines. How does that idea influence your creative approach, especially with entertainment-led campaigns like this one?
JE: or this collaboration, it needed to feel artist-led, so we built a campaign around the music itself, the graduation moment, Gigi’s personal touches that really brought it to life, and with real Gen Z voices through The Hollister Style Hub and supporting cast of high schoolers.
PBT: Talent selection is a key piece of any campaign. What made Gigi the right fit for the brand?
JE: Gigi made sense because she already sits naturally within Hollister’s music world. We had partnered with her at her Lollapalooza debut and our sponsored Aftershow, so this felt like a genuine extension of a connection we’d already built with an artist who resonates with Gen Z and fits the brand’s music-first DNA. She also brought the right emotional tone for this project: honest, raw, and very much of the moment, which mattered because this campaign is really about senior year, graduation, and that in between feeling of looking back while moving forward.
CREATIVE DIRECTION
PBT: Can you give us an inside look at an early creative meeting for a campaign like this? Who’s in the room, and how does the process typically begin?
JE: We are a highly collaborative, freethinking team, and the room is full of folks with different perspectives. Everyone unites around a genuine passion for our customers and the stories we get to tell. The discussion always starts with connecting with customers’ real lives. What are they up to? How can we celebrate with them, and be an authentic part of what they love? And then we get into the blue-sky mindset of, “wouldn’t it be cool if we?”... and build momentum from there. It’s an honor to be able to be there for our customers during one of the most memorable times of their lives.
PBT: Nostalgia plays a big role here. How did you creatively go from late ’90s and early 2000s inspiration into a high school-era concept?
JE: We knew that if we tapped into nostalgia, it had to show up in every layer of the creative, not just in a soundtrack. High school and graduation gave us a natural bridge because it’s a universal chapter where people actively make the memories they’ll revisit for years. It’s more about being a timeless coming-of-age story, and less about a throwback. We considered how nostalgia and modern memories are experienced today: as a mix of analog and digital platforms ranging from film photos and yearbooks to records and playlists to point-and-shoot camera rolls to iPhone capture. That’s why we intentionally captured moments on film, created a physical yearbook and also shot digitally so the visuals could live natively in the spaces where Gen Z actually consumes and saves content. Those analog touches: the grain of film, the feel of a printed page, the personal objects woven into the set, speak to permanence. They’re a reminder that we’re not just telling a story for now, we’re contributing to how this moment will be remembered, and then translating that into a digital language that feels natural for our customer.
PBT: Can you share more about the mood board that shaped the visual direction? What specific references inspired the music video, and why?
JE: Everyone has that memory box under their bed, or that sentimental piece of clothing in the back of their closet that is special because it holds a memory. The mood board was really connecting to that universal experience, and building a world that felt emotionally familiar and visually specific to senior year. We knew we wanted to include things like school life details, coming of age cues, and small personal objects that carry meaning. The set also incorporated pieces from Gigi’s own high school experience, like her Homecoming Queen sash, which helped the visual direction feel grounded and authentic rather than overly polished. That specificity mattered because it made the video feel like a lived in memory, not just a stylized campaign set.
PBT: A music video–style campaign is different from a traditional video spot. What key learnings or takeaways would you share for teams exploring this format?
JE: The biggest takeaway is that a music video style campaign has to feel like a real world, not just a standard campaign with a soundtrack layered over it. When exploring this format, the anchor is authentic storytelling that must be strong enough to stand on its own with every element—from the music and casting to the set design, styling, and emotional tone—working together.
For us, that meant starting with a clear point of view: this campaign is about one of Gen Z’s biggest milestone moments, so the creative had to feel personal, emotionally honest, and built with our customer in mind. Bringing in The Hollister Style Hub and incorporating details from Gigi’s own high school experience grounded it in real life, which keeps the format from feeling overly produced or distant.
We also designed it with permanence in mind. We didn’t just want content that performs well in the moment; we wanted something that could live on as part of how people remember this chapter: songs they replay, videos they save and images that still feel relevant years from now. A music video–style approach gives you more to work with across digital, social, in‑store, and streaming, but it works best when you treat it as a story that will outlast the campaign window, not just fill it.
MEDIA AMPLIFICATION
PBT: The rollout strategy is especially interesting. Can you walk us through an initial media planning meeting - how do you determine the right placements?
JE: We usually start by mapping the story to the audience and the format. In this case, we knew the campaign had a strong emotional hook, a music component, and a customer-led story, so the rollout had to reflect that across different touchpoints. That’s why we built it to live primarily on digital and social -- our owned channels, Gigi’s, and with creator extensions to tell their version of this “time of their life” they’re experiencing. We thought through video and social channels really strategically to tell different parts of the brand story in the most resonating way. You’ll see it across site, social, email, in-retail, and video streaming, with a media plan that supports both reach and engagement.
PBT: You’ve incorporated platforms like Vevo and Snapchat exclusives - what made those the right channels for this campaign?
JE: Those platforms were a natural fit because they help us tell the story in ways that feel immersive and native to how Gen Z already consumes content. Vevo gave us a strong premiere environment for the video itself, while Snapchat let us extend the story with behind the scenes content and a more intimate “insider-access” feel. Together, they helped us make the campaign feel like an experience, not just a launch.
PBT: Can we expect to see this campaign come to life in any physical or IRL experiences?
JE: Yes, we wanted the campaign to exist beyond the screen, which is why we’re also bringing an interactive element to select stores. The campaign is about a shared milestone moment, and translating that into an IRL experience helps customers interact with the story in a more tangible way.
This music video concept isn’t just Hollister jumping on the bandwagon of a successful format or randomly entering the music arena - it’s far from it. As the team shared, this campaign is the culmination of an intentional strategy that treats music as a core marketing growth engine, not just a one-off stunt. Some examples:
Hollister’s Feel Good Fest music program, which brings artists to high schools and select venues around the country.
Campus-driven activations, testing how music and live experiences can deepen connections with Gen Z in their own spaces and on their own terms.
Hollister becoming the official presenting partner of the Lollapalooza aftershows in Chicago in 2025, spotlighting emerging artists like Gigi Perez.
Safe to say, we’re on the edge of our seats and very excited to see this campaign come to life in the near future and out in the world. Again, a big thank you to Team Hollister. Now, if you need us, we’ll be watching this music video on loop…
They are so spot on with this. I’m a Millennial (1990), and our class song was Good Riddance (2008). This is a great interview!