Curalate: Visual Content [email protected]
For some fashion brands, building an audience
through social media is a struggle, and enticing
people to share photos of your merchandise is
like pulling teeth. Then there’s American Apparel,
with a social media presence that’s one of the
most enviable in the field. Its primary Instagram
account has a whopping 1.6 million followers and
#AmericanApparel has generated 934,000 posts
from people all over the world. Meanwhile, the
brand’s most loyal fans have posted more than
78,000 times with the hashtag #AASelfie.
So how does American Apparel capitalize on all the
attention it’s getting on Instagram? It partners with
Curalate to make its Instagram accounts shoppable,
and to easily identify and utilize the most compelling
user-generated content.
This spring, American Apparel launched Fanreel,
which pulls in fan photos from #AASelfie and
#AmericanApparel. Each image is actionable —
meaning people can click on the photo to reveal all
the products within the image and easily click through
to the product pages to find out more information.
The company’s mission for launching Fanreel is
simple: Show people that they’re not just customers,
they’re part of the brand.
SUCCESS STORY
American Apparel Wants Your Selfie. Here’s Why.
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#AAHALLOWEEN
Halloween is a special time for American Apparel.
The retailer sells everything from bodysuits to basics
to form-fitting disco pants — making it a hugely
popular Halloween costume destination. Whether
they’re going for funny or sexy, people love to use
AA merchandise as part of their costume designs.
American Apparel has hosted a Halloween costume
contest for years, but wanted to kick it up a notch
in 2015, so it offered this super-sweet silver 1987
Cadillac Allantè with Italian leather as its top prize.
To enter, the company asked fans to upload a
photo to any social platform with the hashtag
#aaHalloween.
After gathering thousands of awesome entries,
American Apparel wanted to show them off, so it
partnered with Curalate to create a Fanreel of all
the best entries, which is now displayed on the
American Apparel site.
But it’s no secret that Halloween can get racy, so
American Apparel wanted the ability to moderate
the content. With the Curalate platform, Katrina’s
team easily filtered through the entries to find
the best content, ask for user permissions and
remove any inappropriate material. Without it, social
contests at American Apparel — and all the fun that
comes with them — could have become things of
the past.
“We couldn’t continue to run social contests in the
way we had been running them historically. We
needed a tool like Fanreel to help us moderate the
content, but also a rights management tool to satisfy
our legal department,” said Katrina.
“We’re hoping to see our products on
as many diverse individuals as we can
— and we hope to share that content
to help engage our audience.”
“We’re hoping to see our products on as many
diverse individuals as we can — and we hope to
share that content to help engage our audience.
We’re inspired by our customer’s relationship to
our brand and clothing. It’s a natural step to create
a space where we can share the content they are
creating” said Katrina Reynolds, Digital Marketing
Manager at American Apparel’s Los Angeles HQ.
“It’s important we let our community know they’re
part of the brand in a very real way. Sharing UGC
on our social channels, and now online through
Fanreel, becomes instinctual.”
Katrina has high expectations for the new AA
Fanreel. “It’ll be great for our executive team to see
what kind of content is being created by our social
community,” said Katrina. “The millennials on staff
are used to seeing a high level of interaction on
social media, but I think our executive team will be
excited to see how engaged the follower base is
and the quality of content they’re creating.”
Curalate: Visual Content Monetization
Curalate: Visual Content Monetization
#WEARBODYSUITS
Another social campaign centered around a very
American Apparel product — bodysuits. AA asked
people to share photos showing how they styled
bodysuits, and offered a wide collection of them as
a prize. Katrina tempered her expectations for the
campaign because it targeted a pretty narrow subset
of the AA fan base. I mean, how many people really
feel strongly about bodysuits? A lot, apparently! The
contest generated more than 4,000 entries in just a
few weeks.
“People were massively engaged,” said Katrina. “To
get that many responses on such a narrow category
showed that we were reaching the consumer with
products they liked and were excited about — and
showed they wanted to interact with our brand.”
A big reason for the high engagement was in-
store promotions, with signage in fitting rooms
encouraging shoppers to a contest hashtag.
“It prompted instantaneous action,” said Katrina.
Instead of delaying or complicating the way
people entered contest, it also got staff at the store
level engaged.
“Most of our staff is younger and they’re already
taking these actions on their own,” said Katrina. “They
usually participate on their own accounts and use the
#AAemployee hashtag. It’s really natural for them.”
Running social contests of this magnitude takes a lot
of work, and the AA team says Curalate helped them
save serious time.
“The Curalate tool is really intuitive to us, which I
appreciate. I’ve used other platforms and if the tool
itself is not user-friendly, you just don’t end up using
it,” said Katrina. “Everybody that has access to the
tool finds it intuitive and helpful in their daily work.”
Curalate: Visual Content [email protected]
KATRINA REYNOLDS Digital Marketing Manager, American Apparel
“THE TRICKLE-UP EFFECT”
With 50 regional Instagram accounts, employees
can create compelling content at the store level
and then submit it to the corporate staff for
reposting on the main account.
“It has a trickle-up effect where the best
content gets back to us at HQ,” said Katrina. In
fact, they were so impressed with the folks at an
American Apparel store in Israel, that they
actually hired the photographer and models for
a brand-wide campaign.
“Accessing talent from all levels within the company
has always been part of who we are as a brand,”
said Katrina.
After partnering with Curalate, American Apparel is
armed with shoppable photos from fans and store
associates, an even more engaged fan base, and the
ability to easily launch new contests in the future.