Digital & Dirt
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.
01:54:37 · Craig Brommers, Ian Dallimore
[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. [01:55:37] S0: Yeah. Side note, I forgot to even mention this. My wife, before she opened her high end boutique years later, she was a manager at the local American Eagle store. And I just remember that moment, this is this is pretty cool. That's awesome. So last few questions. Oftentimes data is overthought. It's overthinked, but it feels like sometimes you guys just kind of make the decision that just says, like, we just need to go for this idea.
01:55:37 · Ian Dallimore, Craig Brommers, Doug Zarkin
[01:55:37] S0: Yeah. Side note, I forgot to even mention this. My wife, before she opened her high end boutique years later, she was a manager at the local American Eagle store. And I just remember that moment, this is this is pretty cool. That's awesome. So last few questions. Oftentimes data is overthought. It's overthinked, but it feels like sometimes you guys just kind of make the decision that just says, like, we just need to go for this idea. [01:55:59] S7: Yeah. I always try to tell myself and my team, data informed, but not necessarily data led. And it is about the art and science. And I think that you wouldn't have necessarily created the phenomenon of Sydney's Sweeney Has Great Genes if it was just about data. You wouldn't have identified Ella Langley and taken a little bit of a bet on where country music is going if you just relied on data. So I would say to our listeners here today is be informed as much by heart and by gut as data. And obviously, there's moments to fact check yourself and in moments that we've lived through recently to validate that you actually are on the right path. But I think that the hard thing about if you only look at data, so many other people are looking at the same data. Sure. You're not [01:56:47] S10: going to stand out in a unique and differentiated way.