{"id":11683,"date":"2023-08-30T14:36:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T14:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/marketing\/how-aerie-keeps-its-creators-real-in-a-world-of-filters\/"},"modified":"2023-08-30T14:36:14","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T14:36:14","slug":"how-aerie-keeps-its-creators-real-in-a-world-of-filters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=11683","title":{"rendered":"How Aerie keeps its creators real in a world of filters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Before there was BeReal, there was #AerieREAL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Since 2014, the retailer has made unfiltered beauty its marketing mantra, beginning with a commitment to not airbrush models. In the last nine-plus years, Aerie has worked with a diverse set of brand ambassadors to promote body positivity as part of its #AerieREAL campaign, including gymnast Aly Raisman, actress Hari Nef, the Rollette dance team, and influencer Remi Bader.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">\u201cWe\u2019ve been really inspired by our customer, which is where the genesis of the Real campaign began,\u201d Stacey McCormick, director of merchandise strategies at American Eagle Outfitters, told us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Influencer marketing and UGC have been \u201cin the DNA of the brand\u201d since its inception, McCormick said. She said that paid social and influencer marketing continue to make up the biggest portions of the brand\u2019s marketing spend, though she didn\u2019t share figures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">But in a modern social media landscape of \u201cBold Glamour\u201d TikTok filters and \u201cInstagram Face,\u201d how does the brand ensure its creators\u2014and brand image\u2014continue to convey authenticity?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 hlktdj\"><strong>Real recognizes real<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">McCormick said Aerie isn\u2019t concerned about follower counts when sourcing its community of influencers, but rather retouching\u2014or lack thereof\u2014and body acceptance. \u201cWe want to make sure that we share the same beliefs and purpose,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">At night, McCormick said she\u2019ll sit and scroll through posts under #AerieREAL looking for creators to reach out to, whether they\u2019re \u201chigher-tier\u201d influencers like Victoria Garrick Browne\u2014 who has more than 1.3 million TikTok followers\u2014or more micro- or nano-influencers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"style__FullViewportWidthContainer-sc-6fdcc87e-1 beAldL\">\n<div class=\"style__InlineRecommendationWrapper-sc-8b9d8ea4-0 bBpiUz css-0\">\n<div style=\"margin-top:1rem\" class=\"style__ArticleBlock-sc-8ccc5960-4 Zzudq\">\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">McCormick said Aerie works with a PR\/talent agency, a social influencer agency, and a media agency to manage its workload, but its in-house social team consists of just three people. \u201cA lot of the [creators] we find are people who just inspired us and ended up coming into the family that way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Its approach to influencer marketing seems to be working: In the first quarter of 2023, Aerie\u2019s revenue grew 12% year over year, marking an \u201call-time\u201d Q1 high for the brand.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 hlktdj\"><strong>#NoFilter?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">When Aerie makes deals with creators, they\u2019re told not to use filters: \u201cThat\u2019s the top thing in the brief,\u201d McCormick said. UGC, however, is another story, since it\u2019s often created without a brief and therefore with less creative control.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">According to McCormick, Aerie encourages people to post without filters to #AerieREAL, but doesn\u2019t audit or have any enforcement mechanisms to ensure everything is completely unfiltered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Still, she said, \u201cUGC and real people are what our customer wants to see from us\u201d and therefore it makes up a \u201cbig part of [Aerie\u2019s] allocation of spend.\u201d In addition to hosting challenges to get people to post about Aerie, McCormick said the brand also hosts events, like this month\u2019s Hidden Gems Marketplace, which help generate organic content.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Another thing that motivates the community to post, McCormick said, is featuring #AerieREAL posts on the brand website and product pages. Each week, she said her team selects a group of images to post, which allows people to \u201cfeel seen and heard\u201d by other fans of the brand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">\u201cHaving this influencer\/UGC word-of-mouth portion of our marketing has been very effective,\u201d McCormick said. \u201cIt\u2019s turned a lot of people onto the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketingbrew.com\/stories\/2023\/08\/30\/how-aerie-keeps-its-creators-real-in-a-world-of-filters?utm_source=&#038;utm_medium=syndication&#038;utm_campaign=feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before there was BeReal, there was #AerieREAL. Since 2014, the retailer has made unfiltered beauty its marketing mantra, beginning with a commitment to not airbrush models. In the last nine-plus years, Aerie has worked with a diverse set of brand ambassadors to promote body positivity as part of its #AerieREAL campaign, including gymnast Aly Raisman, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Aerie keeps its creators real in a world of filters | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Before there was BeReal, there was #AerieREAL.Since 2014, the retailer has made unfiltered beauty its marketing mantra, beginning with a commitment to not\" \/>\n<meta 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