Digital & Dirt
01:50:35 · David Sable, Ian Dallimore, Anthony Scaramucci, Craig Brommers, Doug Zarkin
[01:50:35] S9: It never would have gotten it. That's the da Vinci effect. That is what's gonna save humanity. Yep. Because we are about da Vinci effects. Don't... You guide people out there, don't lose hope. Just think about the da Vinci effect. Be creative. Be yourself. Think big. It's all good. [01:50:51] S0: We're too creative and too curious as humans. So look, I love this time. I could talk to you for hours. And look, I'm very grateful from the outside barely knowing you, but the work that you've done has definitely set off and set in a place with a lot. So I wanna thank you. [01:51:04] S9: I appreciate it. [01:51:04] S0: It was great talking to You too. Thank you, my friend. Alright. Coming off stage, Craig Brommers, CMO of American Eagle. Good to see you. [01:51:18] S4: Hey. Good to see you [01:51:18] S7: as well. That was a lot of fun. [01:51:20] S0: I know. You did great. And we just had David on who we've now deemed that the two of you are gonna take off and do a podcast together. [01:51:25] S10: There we go. [01:51:26] S0: The rapport between the two. Also looking very sharp in the all denim. [01:51:29] S7: You know what? It's the signature. One thing you learn as a marketer is branding. And so if I'm on a stage, you better believe I'm wearing double denim. [01:51:36] S0: Yeah. Now is that you on the side, like you've always been a fashionista kind of guy?
01:51:36 · Ian Dallimore, Craig Brommers
[01:51:36] S0: Yeah. Now is that you on the side, like you've always been a fashionista kind of guy? [01:51:41] S7: I wouldn't say fashionista. Listen, I've been head of marketing for Gap, for Abercrombie, for Calvin Klein. And so that American lifestyle kind of fits me well. Obviously, AE is a is a more casual expression of American style. So I love me a pair of jeans and I'll not even throw a denim jacket or denim shirt on. [01:52:01] S0: A very good friend of mine who turned out to be completely famous was a model for Abercrombie, Ian Somerhalder. He went on to become Vampire Diaries and Yeah. Lawson, all those folks. [01:52:09] S7: Yeah. No. I definitely heard of him. He, back in the day, obviously, had some very big Yeah. Up and coming celebrities participating in Bruce Weber shot Abercrombie campaigns, and it's it's fun to hear about Ian. But Taylor Swift and Yeah. So many others were [01:52:23] S0: were part of that as well. It's brilliant. So, again, amazing conversation. So American Eagle has done a great job of putting itself into culture, and it doesn't ever feel forced. And it's almost like the magic that you guys have produced with... And I'm sure you're tired of talking about Sydney Sydney Sweeney, but today brands are so desperately trying to force themselves into culture. And it seems like the work that you've done with American Eagle, that it's just been kind of authentic and has just felt like it was perfect for the moment and the position that it was in.
01:52:23 · Ian Dallimore, Craig Brommers
[01:52:23] S0: were part of that as well. It's brilliant. So, again, amazing conversation. So American Eagle has done a great job of putting itself into culture, and it doesn't ever feel forced. And it's almost like the magic that you guys have produced with... And I'm sure you're tired of talking about Sydney Sydney Sweeney, but today brands are so desperately trying to force themselves into culture. And it seems like the work that you've done with American Eagle, that it's just been kind of authentic and has just felt like it was perfect for the moment and the position that it was in. [01:52:53] S7: Yeah. It sounds so trite, but it does have to start with the customer. And we do a ton of research and learning from the customer. Then I think our team does deserve credit. I think when you think about what we've been able to achieve over the last twelve months or so, we are definitely ahead of the curve. Sydney Sweeney has a great jeans campaign, obviously the crescendo of that, but we've had an amazing run with Ella Langley, this country singer who was, I think, number one for twenty four weeks. We identified that country music was a trend for Gen Z, became the number one listen to music genre for Gen Z. People were seeking out simplicity, family, friends, community, in some cases, even faith. And and Ella fit that profile just perfectly. We're coming off a massive success during the World Cup period. One of our brand ambassadors is Lamine Yamal. Team Spain won the World Cup. Again, foresight there is that young, diverse sports star could really transcend the globe.
01:52:53 · Craig Brommers, Alex Grieves, David Sable
[01:52:53] S7: Yeah. It sounds so trite, but it does have to start with the customer. And we do a ton of research and learning from the customer. Then I think our team does deserve credit. I think when you think about what we've been able to achieve over the last twelve months or so, we are definitely ahead of the curve. Sydney Sweeney has a great jeans campaign, obviously the crescendo of that, but we've had an amazing run with Ella Langley, this country singer who was, I think, number one for twenty four weeks. We identified that country music was a trend for Gen Z, became the number one listen to music genre for Gen Z. People were seeking out simplicity, family, friends, community, in some cases, even faith. And and Ella fit that profile just perfectly. We're coming off a massive success during the World Cup period. One of our brand ambassadors is Lamine Yamal. Team Spain won the World Cup. Again, foresight there is that young, diverse sports star could really transcend the globe. [01:53:55] S2: Yeah. And now he's had such a [01:53:57] S7: such a major impact on our business here in [01:54:00] S9: The States.
01:54:00 · David Sable, Ian Dallimore
[01:54:00] S9: The States. [01:54:01] S0: In in the most, and again, I I love fashion denim. Sidebar, I used to invest in a Japanese denim company years ago, so I love denim, but nothing's more American than denim itself. And and I love that in that product itself. You guys have brought American Eagle back to the forefront of, you know, maybe it wasn't thought of as a certain caliber and it was so quickly brought up. So with that question, we live in a generation that you're advertising towards that can smell a marketing ad like immediately. How do you guys and what does it take to make sure that authenticity lives there and it doesn't kind of feel forced?
01:54:01 · Ian Dallimore, Craig Brommers
[01:54:01] S0: In in the most, and again, I I love fashion denim. Sidebar, I used to invest in a Japanese denim company years ago, so I love denim, but nothing's more American than denim itself. And and I love that in that product itself. You guys have brought American Eagle back to the forefront of, you know, maybe it wasn't thought of as a certain caliber and it was so quickly brought up. So with that question, we live in a generation that you're advertising towards that can smell a marketing ad like immediately. How do you guys and what does it take to make sure that authenticity lives there and it doesn't kind of feel forced? [01:54:37] S7: I think it's a balancing act. What we talk about internally is we have a tops down, bottoms up strategy. A tops down strategy is to identify people that are not just participating in culture, but are literally determining culture. And then how do you partner with them in an authentic way? Sid, Ella, Lamine, great examples of those. But the bottoms up is this identification that it's people inside of individual communities or individual subcultures that are helping to find trend for certain people. And when you think about American Eagle, sometimes we can be thought of about as a big corporate American brand. But the reality is we kind of try to twist it upside down and say, we are 900 local stores serving 900 local communities with a staff that is very embedded in that local community? And how do we bring that to life in a very authentic way? And so I think we've done a nice job of balancing both of those strategies.