Influencer Marketing: How American Eagle Became Relevant Once Again…
Addison Rae Easterling is a social media influencer from the United States. In July 2019 she started actively posting content on TikTok, where her dancing videos rose to fame and where her name soon became a brand on its own. While Addison Rae stands for beauty and cosmetics, she’s lately been collaborating with American Eagle — a clothing company. Since Rae’s biggest pull comes from TikTok, having a little over 72 billion followers, it comes as no surprise that she was chosen as a social media influencer to enhance American Eagle’s TikTok presence. Back in 2020, mid pandemic, TikTok influencers rose even higher than ever, with their social media presence skyrocketing. That’s why it comes as no surprise that this was the time that Addison’s American Eagle campaign made its debut.
As Mark Schaefer in the Marketing Rebellion book infers “your customers are your marketers”, Addison Rae’s statement when asked why she did the collab was: “I’ve been wearing American Eagle jeans for as long as I can remember, so being part of the back to school campaign felt authentic to my real style.”
While Addison Rae still posts regularly on her social media channels, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of focus to the campaign — so whenever she does post about American Eagle, it feels more authentic than a regular “buy these and get this” types of campaigns.
American Eagle shared emails and even blog posts where Addison Rae was showcased, winning the hearts and minds of millions of Gen Z’ers. As Mark mentions in chapter 6 of his Marketing Rebellion book, sometimes brands have an issue of relevance. In order to stay relevant, many brands like American Eagle have to opt to listen to their clients and refocus their energy into making them feel heard and understood. I remember a few years back when Aerie launched (American Eagle’s subsidiary for intimate apparel) in the early 2000’s. They were among the first to make the statement that every woman is beautiful and should celebrate the skin they’re in. It was so impactful for me at the time to see their ads with no touchups, not really knowing they were taking a stand in the body positivity, and inclusivity movement. That, back then, made American Eagle stand out from the competition, making them relevant once more. This time is no different, while there are other things at play (like social media and technology), the core subject still is “relevance”. How to stay relevant while stores are closed due to the COVID pandemic? Easy, target the audience that you wish to have shopped at your stores where they’re at — at the comfort of their own homes. What better way to get their attention than having them see your products being used by one of their recently-discovered idols?
At first glance, it doesn’t feel like Addison is pushing their product, is more laid-back like “hey, I use these jeans, you should too”. In her most recent post (on Instagram), the copy reads “Pre-order now! More inside🦋 @americaneagle” and goes on to mention all of the other people that made the publication possible (Hair and makeup, for example). The top comment that’s on that same publication is from the photographer — with a “preordering right now” type of comment, there’s a sense of missing out if you DON’T check out their other products. While the FOMO is real with Gen Z’ers, I can see how that comment makes clients want to shop and feel included.
Mark makes mention of 2/3rds of a brand’s marketing, not being their own. How companies now have to pivot their communications and see how to influence consumer-driven campaigns. This is where influencer marketing comes in. With American Eagle, we can already quantify how much Media Impact Value (MIV) Rae brings to the table.
“Rae generated $4.26 million in Media Impact Value for American Eagle over a six-month period, according to a new Launchmetrics report. The report found that the average MIV per post was nearly $7,000 across 618 publications.” (Tietjen, 2020)
Having an influencer market for your brand, makes people feel a connection to your brand. People relate to people. People will always listen to other people’s opinions. Word of mouth advertising, shared experiences, placing ethics and value in high regards — that’s what moves today’s economy, that’s what marketing should be all about.
References:
Grigoriadis, V. (2021, March 23). The Beauty of 78.5 Million Followers. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/magazine/addison-rae-beauty-industry.html.
Schaefer, M. W. (2019). Marketing rebellion: the most human company wins. essay, Schaefer Marketing Solutions.
Tietjen, A. (2020, December 16). EXCLUSIVE: Addison Rae Generates $4 Million in MIV for American Eagle. WWD. https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/addison-rae-american-eagle-tiktok-1234681059/.
Meet Taylor: #InMyAEJeans TikTok challenge winner! AExME. (2020, September 2). https://blog.ae.com/2020/09/02/meet-taylor-inmyaejeans-tiktok-challenge-winner/.
https://milled.com/AmericanEagle/shop-addison-raes-faves-Z5tR2a7uSezGjVNh
