American Eagle Is Sticking With Sydney Sweeney

The official verdict on American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney campaign is in.

In its second quarter earnings call on Wednesday, the retailer announced that its revenue for the three months ending August 2 hit $1.28 billion — the second-highest ever for the quarter. Chief executive officer Jay Schottenstein said on the call that the success of its Sweeney campaign played a major role.

“Hands down, the ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ campaign is our most successful campaign to date,” chief marketing officer Craig Brommers told The Business of Fashion in an email.

In the spot, the brand referred to the actress as having “great jeans,” riffing on the double entendre with the word “genes” — leading countless social media users to claim the campaign has racist undertones.

But according to Brommers, the chatter only benefitted the brand. Sweeney’s custom jeans sold out in the first week after the campaign’s release, while her jacket did so in one day, he said. The “Syd’s Picks” shop on American Eagle’s website has also been restocked four times. The campaign also broke company records for new customer acquisition — picking up new shoppers in every US county — and brand awareness across demographics.

“The marketing results speak for themselves,” Brommers added. “We have seen brand demand at the highest level in two decades, new customer growth and increase in brand engagement.”

The retailer expects the halo effect to last into the autumn, upping its third-quarter sales outlook. More high-profile marketing has rolled out already, including a product collaboration with Travis Kelce, which fortuitously dropped the day after he and fiancée Taylor Swift announced their engagement and drove triple the sales in one day than previous collaborations have in a week, as well as high traffic and new customer acquisition. (The timing, Brommers said, was a coincidence — the brand has been working with Kelce for over a year.) A second drop with Kelce is set to go live on September 24.

There are plans to continue using Sweeney in ads going forward with added “new elements,” Brommers said in yesterday’s earnings call. Despite its backlash, American Eagle will continue with the marketing strategies it had in place rather than react to the online chatter.

“The current rollout is not a change from our plan or any type of reaction, but a very thoughtful progression in two parts: the first launching with Sydney and denim, and the second transitioning to AE x TK by Travis Kelce rounding out the season and kicking off holiday,” Brommers said.

Generating buzz is key to get people shopping, and it’s more difficult than ever to do in today’s crowded landscape. For that reason, Brommers added he is confident that taking “big swings” is the right move.

Still, the retailer understands that buzz alone can’t sustain sales. Since the launch of the Sweeney campaign, American Eagle’s customer count is up by 700,000 people, and combined with the Kelce collaboration, the campaigns have generated 40 billion impressions — a boon for any brand, whether the conversation is positive or negative.

Looking ahead, the goal will be to retain new customers and keep them engaged with the brand in the long term.

“Now is our opportunity to continue to convert this buzz into business and to convert these new customers into repeat customers,” said Brommers on the call. “That’s the work ahead.”