Brands are constantly working to make their marketing, and especially their social media presence, seem natural and authentic.
Influencers have helped brands create more authentic-seeming campaigns but in an online world that is now so over-saturated by influencer marketing, companies are having to come up with new ways to make themselves stand out.
Last winter, Kanye West was preparing to launch his Yeezy Season 6 apparel line with Adidas. Yeezy is known for its neutral, simplistic, but expensive designs that are loved by celebrities and well-off teens and millennials.
For past Yeezy launches, West has had unique fashion shows featuring top models and even some of his famous family members.
Kanye West is famously married to Kim Kardashian who has become the ultimate mainstream style icon for young women. She also very publicly connected to the Yeezy brand and her style has adapted over the years to be more cohesive with West’s minimalistic vibe.
Kardashian and her sisters are among the top social media influencers of our time and any brand would be lucky to have them promote it. Their outfits are consistently copied by others almost immediately after they are worn.
However, West and his team wanted to do something different than have a fashion show or have influencers post about his brand.
The campaign started without anyone even knowing what was really happening.
In November 2017, Kardashian began posting paparazzi pictures of herself on Instagram dressed in clothing such as tight biker shorts, super cropped tank tops, sweats, and oversized sweatshirts, all in typical Yeezy neutral colors. Her images often had the simple caption of “YEEZY” signifying that she might be showcasing pieces from the upcoming launch.
Then, the company did something truly unique. In Feb. 2018, women who looked eerily similar to Kim Kardashian, dressed in the same outfits that Kardashian had worn a few months prior began popping up all over Instagram accompanied by the caption “#YEEZYSEASON6 #ad.”
The images were all paparazzi style of women getting out of cars, leaving restaurants, or walking down the street and were posted via the models personal Instagram pages. The campaign included several levels of influencers from micro to celebrity like Paris Hilton.
Because of the variety and number of models used in the campaign, the brand was able to reach a vast number of people. The fact that the models were basically all clones of Kardashian and that they were popping up all over everyone’s Instagram feeds made the campaign a newsworthy story- a major goal of all campaigns.
Yeezy’s unique influencer marketing idea was a great success and products sold out quickly when finally released to the public. According to the fashion search engine Lyst, there was a 45 percent increase in searches for Yeezy on its website in the week after the campaign launched.
I’ve always been fascinated by unique fashion campaigns and remember this one catching my eye as it was being rolled out.
What is a fashion campaign that you remember seeing in action?
Cover photo by Liam Seskis on Unsplash.