American Eagle debuts new collection, back-to-school campaign (Score 34)

Sales lead: Reach out now to score some of these extra back-to-school ad dollars. 

• American Eagle (AE) launched its 2023 back-to-school ad campaign and collection. 
• The brand collaborated with celebrity sisters Maddie and Kenzie Ziegler on the ads and collections. 
• The campaign will be supported across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snap, Threads, and OOH in New York City. 
• This is reportedly AE's biggest marketing push since before the pandemic. 

Target demographic: Gen-Zers

The company will likely:

• Keep utilizing Gen-Z celebrity influencers in its creative
• Experiment with new channels such as Threads to reach Gen-Z
• Keep ramping up digital ad spend

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: AE spent nearly $13.1m on digital display ads YTD, more than double the $6.3m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 1.7b impressions via Instagram (64%), Facebook (29%), and YouTube (6%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend increased by 36% from $13.3m in 2021 to $18.1m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 100% of these ads directly onto sites such as instagram.com, facebook.com, youtube.com, whowhatwear.com, and yahoo.com. 

Additional channel insights  

• Vivvix: AE also invests in OOH. 
  • It holds media planning discussions in Q3, and it buys during Q4. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Those of you that can help AE appeal to Gen-Zers will have the best luck picking up work. 
• Current roster:
  • VaynerMedia: media & digital AOR
  • ICF Next: creative
  • Shadow Public Relations: PR