AE77 New York Wild Posting® Case Study
American Eagle Outfitters (AEO)
The Client
38,148,492-plus
Estimated total impressions
1,148,492
Street-level bulletin impressions
37 million-plus
Wild Posting® impressions
About the Client
American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) is a trend-setting clothing brand popular with Gen Z. In 2021, the company launched a sustainable denim brand for men and women called AE77, paying tribute to the year the brand was founded. The company pledged 1% of annual sales to the nonprofit 1% For the Planet, which encourages brands to support environmental cause
Promote the launch of the new eco-conscious denim line
American Eagle had two simple aims: Raise awareness of the newly launched denim line and drive traffic to AEO’s first store in SoHo, located at 83 Spring St., which opened around the same time the new line was introduced.
Tracking all the moving parts
We pitched a mix of hyper-targeted media alongside a traditional Wild Posting® campaign focusing on SoHo to supplement the hyper-targeted media.
We booked six individual street units with different hold expiration dates, and not all were seamless in the holding and booking process. Some had backup holds by other advertisers who were ready to book them from underneath us if we didn’t make our move. That was stressful because we knew we had to wait for approval to secure the media, but we couldn’t rush that process as it passed through the necessary channels. The expiration dates and back-up holds kept us on our toes because we didn’t want to lose any inventory for the client.
Mixing Wild Posting® with hyper-targeted media
The client was very vocal about their desire to secure multiple locations as close to the SoHo store as possible to gain the most visibility from people walking or driving through the neighborhood. Since the goal was to bring awareness to the brand as well as the store, the more locations we could have, the better.
We looked at the available media surrounding the SoHo neighborhood, compared costs for different options, and decided multiple units would be the best approach vs. a single prime wallscape. We weren’t going for a vanity play, so that wouldn’t have made sense for the campaign goal.
SoHo is a hot commodity for media, so when we had the opportunity to get various units that could target the store, it was a no-brainer. The client wanted media that would stand out and didn’t break the bank, and packaged street-level billboards did just that.
Organic reach from the AE77 accounts
The campaign itself wasn’t posted on socials, but AE77 did promote it via its own socials and through online articles on several digital magazines and news sites.
Six street-level bulletins & 69 Wild Posting® locations
We worked with vendor partners who offered several media options within and around SoHo (plus the store location). Then, we presented the best ones to the client, with an option to package within their budget parameters. We had to wait for hold requests and confirmations, which took one to two weeks.
From there, we allocated the remaining budget to a traditional Wild Posting® campaign. We provided artwork specs and a deadline and secured all of the media with the vendor partners while we waited for artwork files to send to production.
Launch went seamlessly. We received photo “glams” in the days after the launch, and they all looked amazing. We were very pleased with the locations and visibility.
Street-level boards lasted two to three weeks starting Sept. 20, 2021, and included a few scattered start dates based on availability. Street bulletin locations in Soho included:
- Lafayette Street and Bleecker Street
- Lafayette Street and Broome Street
- Dominick Street and Varick Street
- Grand Street and West Broadway
- Thompson Street off 6th Avenue
- Mott Street and Spring Street
Each Wild Posting® location featured a minimum of two standard posters. Posting started on Nov. 15, 2021, and lasted six weeks. In addition to Soho, the 69 Wild Posting® locations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn included:
- Midtown Manhattan
- Noho
- Lower Manhattan
- Tribeca
- Chelsea
- Murray Hill
- Upper East Side
- Prospect Park
- Sunset Park
Exceptional impressions from the bulletin & Wild Posting® locations
The street-level bulletins generated 1,148,492 impressions. The Wild Posting® generated at least 37 million impressions and probably more since about half the sites were unpermitted, making it hard to accurately gauge impressions.
Estimated total impressions
Street-level bulletin impressions
Wild Posting® impressions
Connections pay off when inventory is limited
Looking out for the best deals on media is the best thing we can do for our clients. We know all the players in NYC, especially SoHo, and we stay in the loop on changes occurring among vendors and with new or existing inventory. Even when clients have a substantial budget, we still want to give them the best offerings to make it worth it for them to partner with us on any project.
Being transparent and managing expectations was also critical in this campaign. We checked in multiple times with the client before deadlines. It’s always worth it to know that you did everything you could to get things done the right way by a deadline.
“The client reached out to us immediately after the campaign began to tell us how pleased they were with the creative and to thank us for doing such a fantastic job in achieving their vision. You can’t ask for much better feedback.
Gino Sesto, Founder & CEO, DASH TWO
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