KATSEYE’s GAP Better in Denim” Fall ad has racked up over 400 million views across all platforms. Set against an ivory backdrop, the six-member group and backup dancers showcase street jazz choreography to Kelis’s “Milkshake.” The cinematography and choreography earned wide praise — deservedly. So, it begs the question: why did a jeans ad capture KATSEYE better than one of the world’s most renowned music festivals?
The GAP ad’s virality comes weeks after KATSEYE took Lollapalooza’s T-Mobile Stage before 85,000 attendees — the festival’s largest day crowd in its 34-year history. I watched the livestream. The park show was immaculate. The broadcast wasn’t. Off-center frames cut to crane sweeps, intercut with glitchy head-ons scrambling to catch the choreography. During the first-ever “Gabriela” dance break — a sequence the group had perfected — the director cut to crowd shots. Advertisers got everything they wanted; performance viewers got nothing. I gave up and searched YouTube the next day for fancams (fan-filmed videos focused on the performance) to glimpse what KATSEYE performed.
GAP recognized performance as the draw. Lollapalooza treated it as a vehicle for sponsor exposure. KATSEYE got caught between two cameras with distinct jobs: the Sponsor Camera dominating U.S. festivals and the Performance Camera that built K-pop. One delivers metrics; the other delivers choreography. We couldn’t see KATSEYE because the cameras weren’t watching the stage — they were securing next year’s ad buy.
HYBE and Geffen developed KATSEYE using K-pop methodology, in which sharp moves, formation changes, and synchronization are the main attractions. The style assumes cameras will reward precision. Cameras join the choreography through time-coded shot lists, center-locked frames, and pre-planned pushes that hold through transitions. South Korean weekly music shows broadcast multiple group and individual member-focused edits of each performance, with specialized main edits. They create content worth watching twice.
GAP understood this. Its 90-second spot focused on performance, creating something fans watch repeatedly like a music video. KATSEYE’s Lollapalooza stage performance was extraordinary — we just couldn’t see it through the broadcast.
Hulu’s livestream prominently displayed its “Livestream Presented By” slate — T-Mobile, Bacardí, and Dove were among the sponsors. These brands buy impressions and exposure minutes. Nielsen and Relo Metricsquantify logo visibility by duration, size, and placement. Every crowd cutaway during “Gabriela” became a deliverable. Brands need footage proving ROI to this year’s CMO and next year’s underwriters.
Sure, crowd shots bring sponsors; sponsors bring funding; funding keeps festivals running while giving performers platforms. South Korea solved this differently. Monetization happens around the frame, not inside it. Sponsors buy preroll and side banners; the performance feed stays clean. Rewatchable stages generate the long-tail viewership brands actually want.
The fix is straightforward: Run two feeds. Make the performance camera primary; save sponsor angles for breaks. Lock one camera on choreography. Brief operators on formations. Publish a clean edit within 24 hours — before fancams beat you to it.
KATSEYE’s fanbase, EYEKONS, voiced frustration on Reddit: “The camera work was horrendous… Just what I want to see every 2 seconds — the crowd!… that ‘Gabriela’ dance break deserved much better.” YouTube comments echoed this: “Whoever’s on camera really thought we came here for crowd shots during the dance break? Be serious. Show me my girls.”
It’s no surprise that fancams have now evolved from niche recordings to essential performance documentation. These phone-shot, performance-locked videos preserve choreography, enable replay value, and drive international discovery better than official streams. They often surpass official broadcasts in both views and positive reception.
As I reflect on it, two video genres capturing KATSEYE’s Lollapalooza debut exist: what 85,000 witnessed in Grant Park and what everyone else saw through the Sponsor Camera. Neither captures KATSEYE’s actual performance. That lives in phone videos, shot by fans who understood choreography was the point.
If viewers keep abandoning official streams for fan recordings, media planners will face a different question. Not “How many impressions can we deliver?” but “Will anyone watch?”
GAP’s 400-million-view campaign proves that respecting artistic integrity creates better retail outcomes.