American Eagle is channeling sunshine and coastal vibes for its latest campaign and clothing collection, teaming up with the solid of coming-of-age drama “The Summer I Turned Pretty” to get Gen Z warm-weather ready ahead of the Amazon Prime Video series’ second season.
Aptly titled “The Summer of Us,” the campaign launched May 23 and boasts partnerships with actors Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno and Lola Tung, the three stars of the Prime Video romance. The campaign is supposed to advertise human connection and can span in-store, American Eagle’s digital properties, including its website and mobile app, and the brand and talent’s social media channels through the tip of the summer. The speciality retailer can even share custom content promoting its summer collection across TikTok, Instagram and Snap, along with experiments on Lemon8, which the brand recently joined.
The selection to partner with “The Summer I Turned Pretty” solid was a no brainer, in response to American Eagle CMO Craig Brommers, who took notice of the series’ cultural impact on the younger generation when it debuted last yr. The show, which is able to release its second season on July 14, tells the story of a woman who finds herself in a love triangle with two brothers during what was purported to be an ideal summer.
“(The show) has the spirit of the summer season, it has a spirit of getting outside and living out loud,” Brommers said. “The form of the show made it an obvious selection for AE.”
More specifically, the series possesses a way of optimism — and a convenient appreciation for denim — that the retailer instills in its branding, the exec said. The campaign was designed with the goal of boosting the mood for Gen Z because the cohort continues to get well from feelings of loneliness and isolation spurred from pandemic restrictions.
“It’s about ‘us’ again, it’s about getting together again, it’s about that human connection that we’re all craving, but actually Gen Z is craving,” Brommers continued.
American Eagle prior to now has partnered with other shows popular among the many younger generation, including Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” “Outer Banks” and “Never Have I Ever.” The brand also teamed up with “The Summer I Turned Pretty” last yr around the vacation season to release two limited-edition garments. A concentrate on streaming falls under what Brommers describes as Gen Z “passion pillars,” with other focuses including music, gaming and community impact.
“I’m unsure if Gen Z knows what linear television is outside of perhaps a live sporting event, but we do know they’re still heavy consumers of video, and never just TikTok, definitely heavy consumers of video on Netflix on Prime, Hulu and Disney,” Brommers said.
Summer of social
Among social media plans, American Eagle will share content on TikTok, which stays Gen Z’s favorite social platform, featuring “The Summer I Turned Pretty” solid members. Examples already shared include get-to-know-you style videos and playful challenges, with the content dually showcasing items from the summer collection.
The brand can be doubling down on its use of nano-creators, or people who command smaller followings, to advertise products from its best-selling categories. When it involves American Eagle’s creator strategy, Brommers describes a “top down, bottom up” approach, which incorporates partnering with larger creators at the highest level for reach and utilizing those with mid-size and smaller followings to up the chances of more personal, values-driven introductions.
On Snapchat, the retailer will launch two augmented reality experiences. The first, called Selfie Mode, utilizes a randomizer technology to match consumers with a wide range of outfit pairings that users can sport of their selfies. Another experience, called World View, pairs summer occasion backdrops with styled virtual mannequins to assist provide users with outfit inspiration.
“The insight behind that’s that youngsters are really also wanting versatility of their outfitting today, so from the beach to the bar or from day to nighttime, we’re attempting to showcase a few of that versatility,” Brommers said.
Users on each Snapchat experiences can click-through to buy various styles on the brand’s website. American Eagle often utilizes Snap’s AR for its marketing, including through a recent partnership with ThredUp in April to launch RE/AE, an internet resale shop, supplemented by a shoppable lens featuring styles from the gathering. The brand also used the technology around its holiday promotional efforts prior to now, with one such effort generating over $2 million in revenue.
Betting big on Meta
American Eagle is expanding its marketing muscle on Instagram for its summer collection promotion, utilizing Meta’s Creator Marketplace to provide a bigger quantity of relevant Reels. Meta launched the Instagram Creator Marketplace last yr to assist brands connect more easily with talent. The retailer can even share content from its “The Summer I Turned Pretty” partnerships.
The concept for the brand’s Reels will draw inspiration from Apple’s AirDrop feature, which allows phone users in close proximity to drop files to 1 one other. In the videos, creators receive an “AirDrop” of summer products. Once they’ve accepted the drop, they’ll quickly appear within the clothing inside an on-theme destination.
The brand is leaning heavier into Reels than ever before, a choice encouraged by recent success, per Brommers.
“For us, the Meta performance over the past two quarters has been increasingly strong,” Brommers said. “I do wonder out loud in the event that they’ve been refocusing on what they do best for specialty retailers like ourselves, and that’s really to drive business.”
Specifically, the team at American Eagle has observed that Reels are being fed into Instagram’s algorithm at a more elevated rate than still content, the exec continued. Meta’s revenue in the primary quarter returned to positive growth following several quarters of declines, which chief executive Mark Zuckerberg credited to increased investments in artificial intelligence that boosted performance, including the monetization efficiency of Reels. People now reshare Reels posts greater than 2 billion times every day.
Enter Lemon8
Aside from more concrete strategies across Instagram, TikTok and Snap, American Eagle last week officially made its foray on Lemon8, a budding social media platform owned by ByteDance, which also owns TikTok, that Brommers describes as “if Instagram and Pinterest had a baby.”
Only days in, American Eagle hasn’t yet identified an excellent strategy for the platform, though it should use it as a further avenue to share content from its “Summer of Us” campaign. So far, the team has gathered that the platform is heavily skewed toward women, and can likely market to that audience accordingly, Brommers said, while counting on avenues like YouTube and gaming to achieve its male audience.
American Eagle has often been quick to hitch latest Gen Z social platforms. Last yr, for instance, it became one in every of the primary to hitch “anti-Instagram” app BeReal. When it involves Lemon8, Brommers said the team is taking an identical approach.
“Some of that humor and a few of that honesty is something that appears to be connecting with Gen Z on a few of these newer platforms,” Brommers said.
The exec is quick to confess that American Eagle doesn’t have all of it found out, especially with regards to maintaining with whichever progressive social media platform comes next. However, so long as Gen Z stays curious, the brand will proceed searching for out what’s latest, next and unique.
“There’s such a sea of sameness on the market and in economic times which can be trickier to navigate, we’re checking out that if we stand out in a memorable way, we’re top of mind when that customer is able to buy their shorts, buy their denim, whatever it’s,” Brommers said.
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