American Eagle launched its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, and whereas the outcomes weren’t precisely stellar (comp gross sales slid by 3%) these figures embody solely a few week’s price of the cultural tidal wave generated by “Sydney Sweeney Has Nice Denims,” the marketing campaign that broke the internet when it debuted on July 23.
To gauge the total impact that the coquettish 27-year-old actor might have had on gross sales, traders must wait till third-quarter earnings seem on the finish of November. However American Eagle CMO Craig Brommers lifted the tent flap just a little in a name with ADWEEK.
In sum, Ms. Sweeney moved the needle, and the model has no regrets in regards to the advertisements.
“We [saw] double-digit will increase throughout each ladies’s and males’s denim gross sales within the first six weeks of this marketing campaign,” Brommers stated. “There was a Sydney denim jacket that offered out in sooner or later and a Sydney Jean that offered out in a single week, and has been so widespread that we’ll be restocking it through the vacation interval.”
In accordance with Brommers, the Sweeney marketing campaign drove “unprecedented new buyer acquisition” for American Eagle, whereas her marketing campaign generated 40 billion impressions general.
That these impressions have been a blended bag was additionally some extent Brommers addressed. Quite a few media shops (together with this one) reported on the general public’s umbrage over the marketing campaign’s free swapping of “denims” with “genes,” with some accusing AE of selling a caucasian magnificence normal and even eugenics concept.
However in fact, Brommers stated, most customers truly appreciated the advert. “It’s a totally false narrative to say that the marketing campaign has been overwhelmed by unfavourable sentiment,” he stated.
And he’s appropriate, at the very least in keeping with an Economist/YouGov poll taken in mid August. The survey of 1,635 Individuals revealed 39% thought of the Sweeney marketing campaign to be “intelligent,” whereas solely 12% known as it “offensive.” (One other 40% believed it was neither and eight% didn’t have an opinion.)
In fact, in a section as aggressive as attire, a traditionalist would possibly argue that entrepreneurs can’t afford to offend or alienate anybody in any respect—and 12% isn’t nothing when Gen Z (American Eagle’s core buyer) makes up 1 / 4 of the inhabitants.
However Brommers stood firm behind the marketing campaign. “For anybody who’s requested if advertising works,” he stated, “they need to reference the American Eagle Sydney Sweeney marketing campaign as proof that it does.”
The shop-level outcomes generated by “Sydney Sweeney Has Nice Denims” additionally seem to affirm American Eagle’s resolution to accomplice with Tru Kolors, the 6-year-old label launched by Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce. The 90-piece limited-run assortment, known as AE x Tru Kolors by Travis Kelce, debuted on Aug. 27, with a second drop slated for Sept. 24.
