Levi's Odyssey Ad: B2B Marketing Lessons on Building Brands That Break Walls with Head of US Marketing at Freepik, Paula Vivas

A man crashes through walls. A woman joins him. Together, they run straight into the sky. No dialogue. Just music, motion, and a pair of Levi’s jeans.

This is Odyssey, the Levi’s ad that changed how we think about brand storytelling. In this episode, we're unpacking its marketing lessons with our special guest, Paula Vivas, Head of US Marketing at Freepik.

Together, we explore why storytelling is the most powerful strategy, how boldness builds lasting brand identity, and why emotional resonance is your greatest competitive edge.

Because the best marketing doesn’t just show a product, it makes you feel something real.

About our guest, Paula Vivas

Paula Vivas is the Head of US Marketing at Freepik. She has over 15 years of experience in visual design, online marketing, and social media marketing, with a passion for creating and promoting engaging and innovative content.

Paula is also the co-founder of Charis, a platform that celebrates AI‑empowered creativity. With that, they launched the Charis Awards, a global competition that showcases the best AI-generated images and their creators.

Paula’s experience spans across Product Marketing, Content Marketing, Events, Ads and Growth Marketing in the Tech industry.

What B2B Companies Can Learn From Levi's Odyssey ad:

• Story is the strategy. The Levi's Odyssey ad didn’t just sell jeans, it sold a feeling of liberation. Paula recalls watching it and thinking, “I want to be able to give a meaning to a brand.” The brilliance wasn’t in the product, but in the story it told, breaking through walls, both literally and metaphorically. In marketing, stories aren't a “nice to have”; they’re the whole point. When you anchor your brand in a powerful narrative, you move from transactional to transformational.
• Break through with brand identity. In the Levi's Odyssey ad, two people sprint through wall after wall, finally launching into the sky, all while wearing Levi's jeans. To Paula, it wasn’t just an ad; it was a masterclass in brand symbolism. No voiceover. No product breakdown. Just raw, kinetic metaphor for freedom and durability. In B2B, the lesson holds: skip the specs and aim for the soul. The brands that break through aren’t the loudest, they’re the ones that hit instinct before intellect.
• Emotion is the ultimate differentiator. What makes the Levi's Odyssey ad timeless wasn’t just its visuals; it was how it made Paula feel. In an era of AI-generated everything, emotion is your moat. Tools can replicate images, but not meaning. The best marketing doesn’t just look good, it makes you feel something. Give your audience that, and they’ll remember everything.

Quotes

*“ Let's make great content. Let’s forget about Will Smith eating spaghetti. Let’s forget about doing another Star Wars. Star Wars is going to be there, and of course, that’s going to go viral because it’s Star Wars. Let’s create beautiful content for you to watch, and sit down and say, ‘This is what a creative mind can do. This is what we can do with AI.’ Let's make something original. Let's create a path that's different.”

*“ I don't think AI is going to take out anything. I think it needs to be humane. We need to be behind it. We need to be the person at the wheel. LLMs are created by us, so we have to be there, right? Our creative part is always gonna be there.”

*“ If you give me a cookbook, that doesn't make me a chef. [AI] is not gonna take anybody away. It is just gonna make everyone better and faster and explode those creative parts of themselves.”

Time Stamps

[0:55] Meet Paula Vivas, Head of US Marketing at Freepik

[02:32] Why Levi's Odyssey Ad?

[03:09] Levi's Odyssey Ad Origin

[08:01] Why