American Eagle's BTS Spot Powered by Zoom, Inspired by TikTok

It’s all a blur. It’s fast. It’s loud. It’s an assault on the senses. I’m not sure I get it.

Cue the “OK, Boomer” commentary.

If that’s my reaction, than American Eagle is winning with its new back-to-school effort.

It’s one thing to talk about embracing your audience and the channels where they live and breathe. It’s another thing to do it. As someone who’s sat in more than his share of marketing and communications meetings, there are a lot of “old school” marketers still out there who just can’t budge beyond their comfort zones. When they hear plans or ideas around TikTok or Twitch or even Instagram, there still tends to be an instinctual, if not outwardly stated, apprehension. New doesn’t equal opportunity to those folks. New equals risk. What you know can get you what you know.

American Eagle’s back-to-school campaign, in contrast, embraces it all. Now, the required caveats are that AE’s audience is undoubtedly teens. And, yes, we’re in a pandemic , so shooting things virtually and utilizing technology is almost a given. Still, with all that, I was impressed with the brand’s push to launch their BTS campaign with a video shot “entirely on Zoom,” featuring TikTok stars and “everyday” teens, that embraced the style and persona of the platform.

Focus. Let the eyes return to normal state.

In all seriousness, I like it. The cast of teens, who you can read about in the brand’s press release, are a diverse mix of non-celebs . The music and vibe is upbeat. It plays on AE’s larger campaign themes around creativity and expression. And, oh yea, the jeans are there and the audience will pick up on it. No need to flash features and prices, here.

The lighter fluid on the thing is the appearance of Addison Rae, a TikTok star with a scant 52M+ followers on the channel. A video posted on TikTok announcing her partnership with AE has been viewed over 20M times in six days. More than 3M likes. Over 58K comments. I’m not in a position to say whether this campaign is or was a success, but those numbers are worth a second look.

TikTok don’t stop?