American Eagle Outfitters has credited brand and marketing – in particular the viral ‘Sydney Sweeny has great jeans’ campaign – for delivering its “second highest ever” revenue for a quarter.
In its results for the second quarter ending 2 August, American Eagle Outfitters reported second quarter operating income of $103m (£89m), up 2% on the same period last year “exceeding expectations”.
This is despite total net revenue declining 1% of $1.28n (£952.9m). Operating profit hit $103m (£76.6m), up 2% on last year.
In a call with investors yesterday (3 September), CEO Jay Schottenstein said American Eagle’s autumn season is “off to a good start”, fuelled by the strength of its product lines and the success of “recent marketing campaigns”.
American Eagle Outfitters has credited brand and marketing – in particular the viral ‘Sydney Sweeny has great jeans’ campaign – for delivering its “second highest ever” revenue for a quarter.
In its results for the second quarter ending 2 August, American Eagle Outfitters reported second quarter operating income of $103m (£89m), up 2% on the same period last year “exceeding expectations”.
This is despite total net revenue declining 1% of $1.28n (£952.9m). Operating profit hit $103m (£76.6m), up 2% on last year.
In a call with investors yesterday (3 September), CEO Jay Schottenstein said American Eagle’s autumn season is “off to a good start”, fuelled by the strength of its product lines and the success of “recent marketing campaigns”.
Schottenstein claimed the “iconic fall denim campaign” with Sydney Sweeney drove “record-breaking new customer acquisition and brand awareness, cutting across age demographics and genders”. The campaign caused controversy on its release in July, with the creative sparking debate over race and drawing comparisons to the widely discredited concept of eugenics.
Positive second quarter traffic across all brands and channels, including American Eagle and sister label Aerie, was attributed to the firm’s marketing partnerships and customer focus.
“We are leaving no stone unturned. We are committed to growing our brands by putting our customers first and improving operational efficiencies,” Schottenstein said.
This is a moment to take big swings. And we have big talent, we have big amplification. The world is talking about it.
Craig Brommers, American Eagle Outfitters
Group CMO Craig Brommers said the Sydney Sweeney campaign was “intended to be a brand and a business reset” and will continue throughout the remainder of the year. He claimed the campaign has led to “unprecedented new customer acquisition”. A second drop of American Eagle’s campaign with NFL star Travis Kelce campaign will also go live in the coming weeks to coincide with the “height of the NFL season”.
“This is a moment to take big swings. And we have big talent, we have big amplification. The world is talking about it. We know that purchase intent is significantly and meaningfully up,” said Brommers.
The CMO described the Sydney Sweeney campaign as being at the start of its journey, explaining work will be done to “continue to convert this buzz into business and to convert these new customers into repeat customers” during the latter part of the year.
“A brand campaign is not to be judged in just one day, one week or even one month, a brand campaign endures. We are off to a start beyond our wildest dreams. As we track consumer sentiment over the past six weeks, we’ve seen consideration and purchase intent meaningfully up,” he added.
Brommers described Travis Kelce as being “at the intersection of fandom and fashion”, and claimed sports is “driving culture in a way that it has never done before”, describing the NFL player as collaborating like a creative director during the campaign.
On the Sydney Sweeney and Travis Kelce campaigns, Schottenstein said the company has “seen periods of very strong demand”, fuelling positive traffic in August and 40 billion impressions.
On customer acquisition, Brommers said the decision to “level up with talent” helped, as American Eagle is seeing “a national swell” in new customer acquisition in “every single county”.
President and executive creative director of American Eagle and Aerie, Jennifer Foyle, also called out the company’s longstanding partnership with the Amazon Prime show ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ for creating momentum within set product ranges.
She claimed the Kelce and Sweeney drops have achieved “a strong response”, with the Sweeney Signature jeans selling out within a week and some products within a day.
“As we look ahead, our plan is to build on this momentum to further expand brand awareness, customer engagement and retention, and ultimately strengthen the long-term brand loyalty,” said Foyle.
