American Eagle Outfitters
Situation
American Eagle Outfitters, a trendsetting, popular young adult clothing retailer with 950+ U.S. and Canada retail locations wanted to:
- Increase brand awareness among college students.
- Showcase alternative Spring Breaks with sun, snow and “green” destinations.
- Create a series of unique experiences to inspire and entertain customers both online and in stores.
- Drive consumer traffic online and in store.
Solution
Created a two-tiered Spring Break program that targeted students in Cancun (sun) and Lake Tahoe (snow). (Note: American Eagle Outfitters partnered with a long-term AEO Foundation non-profit to create the “green” experience.) Program elements included:
- Onsite brand activation in Cancun through multiple events and executions. The American Eagle Cancun destination included a Lounge/Cabana area where students could relax, an AE Day Stage with daily entertainment and contests, distribution of free Spring Break bags and lip gloss, an AE branded game area for dodgeball and volleyball tournaments, and an AE T-shirt hut where students created custom AE T-shirts. American Eagle also connected with students in their Spring Break environment with custom AE keycards and elevator wraps at their hotel along with branded bus transportation. The daytime activities were punctuated with weekly nighttime concerts featuring musical performances by Fall Out Boy and Akon.
- Spring Break in Lake Tahoe featured a mountainside live performance by Gym Class Heroes. Additional brand exposure was delivered through the AE on-mountain brand lounge with a fenced in area for skiers/boarders to gather with friends and chill-out between runs. Whether warming up around fire pits, listening to the DJ spin music, participating in MC games/contests, or just stopping by the AE hut for free scarves and other giveaway items, this lounge served as the social hub for all Spring Breakers.
- American Eagle provided photographers at both locations to capture the fun. Spring Breakers were able to retrieve, print, and share their Spring Break photos.
- The program was extended online and in store with video and photo content captured onsite at each event.
Results
The program delivered hundreds of thousands of brand impressions during Spring Break and helped keep the American Eagle Outfitters brand top-of-mind among the college target:
- Onsite in Cancun, American Eagle distributed over 20,000 AE Spring Break bags and lip gloss samples, and created more than 3,000 custom T-shirts for students.
- Onsite in Lake Tahoe, American Eagle distributed over 11,000 AE scarves, 3,000 lip gloss samples, and 1,500 AE Spring Break bags.
- The Spring Break concert events in Cancun and Lake Tahoe had a combined audience of more than 20,000 Spring Breakers.
- AE captured and aired content from the concert events, snow and sun activities with Fall Out Boy and Gym Class Heroes, video bloggers, and lifestyle video shoots with a crew of students.
- Students interacted directly with the American Eagle Spring Break activities in Cancun and Lake Tahoe, plus the AE Spring Break experience was shared and viewed through in-store video and visits to www.ae.com.
