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For the past two-and-a-half years, Oli Walsh has quietly helped make Gap’s creative output required viewing for marketing watchers. Walsh is the founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Invisible Dynamics, which bills itself as a “brand transformation group,” not an agency.
Invisible Dynamics has worked with Gap on a series of noise-making campaigns, including its spring 2025 “Feels Like Gap” campaign, starring Parker Posey. This year, the collaborative work reached a crescendo with the debut of Gap’s Fall campaign, “Better in Denim,” starring the global girl group Katseye.
In “Better in Denim,” the six members of Katseye, who hail from across the Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States, dance to a rendition of the 2003 Kelis hit, “Milkshake.” The dance, choreographed by Robbie Blue, was quickly recreated across social media. Walsh and his team worked closely with Gap CO Mark Breitbard, CMO Fabiola Torres and vp head of creative Calvin George Leung on the campaign.
“Better in Denim” debuted on August 19, shortly after American Eagle’s controversial spot starring Sydney Sweeney, which dropped on July 23. On TikTok, many suggested it was a response, even though Gap’s ad had been in the works for months. But the timing served the brand well. “Our message was about unity, diversity and bringing people together through different forms of dance and different cultures,” Walsh said, noting the contrast to the American Eagle ad, accused by some of having racist undertones.
The timing also drew global attention to denim campaigns. “Better in Denim” generated over 8 billion impressions and over 500 million views across platforms, a Gap representative shared. On the brand’s third-quarter earnings call, CEO Richard Dickson said the campaign fueled “double-digit growth in denim.”
Regarding the casting, Walsh said Invisible Dynamics prioritizes looking ahead to where culture is going, “not just in the next three to six months, but in the next 12-24.”
“We’d been following Katseye since before their Netflix documentary launched [in August 2024],” Walsh said, noting that his team is “incredibly good at casting [celebrities] when they are just about to have a moment in culture.” As evidence, he pointed to recent Gap campaigns featuring Tyla, Troye Sivan and Parker Posey.
Walsh said he knew that the Katseye campaign would be a hit but didn’t know to what extent it would “catch fire.”
“You could spend five hours on TikTok and not get to the bottom of people recreating [the dance],” Walsh said, noting that Gap has seen well over 250,000 pieces of user-generated content tied to the campaign since it debuted.
Dance has become a Gap ad signature, and it ties to the brand’s heritage, Walsh noted. “It’s fashion as entertainment,” he said. “When [Gap] launched in 1969, they sold Levi’s jeans and records [from their] first store in San Francisco.”
Invisible Dynamics’s other work this year included Nordstrom’s “Oh, What Fun!” holiday campaign starring actor Kyle MacLachlan, Theory’s “Made by NYC” fall 2025 campaign starring actor Britt Lower, and Nike’s “Comfort Zones” campaign.
