Curalate: Visual Content Monetizationlearnmore@curalate.com

For some fashion brands, building an audience

through social media is a struggle, and enticing

people to share photos of your merchandise is

like pulling teeth. Then there’s American Apparel,

with a social media presence that’s one of the

most enviable in the field. Its primary Instagram

account has a whopping 1.6 million followers and

#AmericanApparel has generated 934,000 posts

from people all over the world. Meanwhile, the

brand’s most loyal fans have posted more than

78,000 times with the hashtag #AASelfie.

So how does American Apparel capitalize on all the

attention it’s getting on Instagram? It partners with

Curalate to make its Instagram accounts shoppable,

and to easily identify and utilize the most compelling

user-generated content.

This spring, American Apparel launched Fanreel,

which pulls in fan photos from #AASelfie and

#AmericanApparel. Each image is actionable —

meaning people can click on the photo to reveal all

the products within the image and easily click through

to the product pages to find out more information.

The company’s mission for launching Fanreel is

simple: Show people that they’re not just customers,

they’re part of the brand.

SUCCESS STORY

American Apparel Wants Your Selfie. Here’s Why.

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#AAHALLOWEEN

Halloween is a special time for American Apparel.

The retailer sells everything from bodysuits to basics

to form-fitting disco pants — making it a hugely

popular Halloween costume destination. Whether

they’re going for funny or sexy, people love to use

AA merchandise as part of their costume designs.

American Apparel has hosted a Halloween costume

contest for years, but wanted to kick it up a notch

in 2015, so it offered this super-sweet silver 1987

Cadillac Allantè with Italian leather as its top prize.

To enter, the company asked fans to upload a

photo to any social platform with the hashtag

#aaHalloween.

After gathering thousands of awesome entries,

American Apparel wanted to show them off, so it

partnered with Curalate to create a Fanreel of all

the best entries, which is now displayed on the

American Apparel site.

But it’s no secret that Halloween can get racy, so

American Apparel wanted the ability to moderate

the content. With the Curalate platform, Katrina’s

team easily filtered through the entries to find

the best content, ask for user permissions and

remove any inappropriate material. Without it, social

contests at American Apparel — and all the fun that

comes with them — could have become things of

the past.

“We couldn’t continue to run social contests in the

way we had been running them historically. We

needed a tool like Fanreel to help us moderate the

content, but also a rights management tool to satisfy

our legal department,” said Katrina.

“We’re hoping to see our products on

as many diverse individuals as we can

— and we hope to share that content

to help engage our audience.”

learnmore@curalate.com

“We’re hoping to see our products on as many

diverse individuals as we can — and we hope to

share that content to help engage our audience.

We’re inspired by our customer’s relationship to

our brand and clothing. It’s a natural step to create

a space where we can share the content they are

creating” said Katrina Reynolds, Digital Marketing

Manager at American Apparel’s Los Angeles HQ.

“It’s important we let our community know they’re

part of the brand in a very real way. Sharing UGC

on our social channels, and now online through

Fanreel, becomes instinctual.”

Katrina has high expectations for the new AA

Fanreel. “It’ll be great for our executive team to see

what kind of content is being created by our social

community,” said Katrina. “The millennials on staff

are used to seeing a high level of interaction on

social media, but I think our executive team will be

excited to see how engaged the follower base is

and the quality of content they’re creating.”

Curalate: Visual Content Monetization

Curalate: Visual Content Monetization

#WEARBODYSUITS

Another social campaign centered around a very

American Apparel product — bodysuits. AA asked

people to share photos showing how they styled

bodysuits, and offered a wide collection of them as

a prize. Katrina tempered her expectations for the

campaign because it targeted a pretty narrow subset

of the AA fan base. I mean, how many people really

feel strongly about bodysuits? A lot, apparently! The

contest generated more than 4,000 entries in just a

few weeks.

“People were massively engaged,” said Katrina. “To

get that many responses on such a narrow category

showed that we were reaching the consumer with

products they liked and were excited about — and

showed they wanted to interact with our brand.”

A big reason for the high engagement was in-

store promotions, with signage in fitting rooms

encouraging shoppers to a contest hashtag.

“It prompted instantaneous action,” said Katrina.

Instead of delaying or complicating the way

people entered contest, it also got staff at the store

level engaged.

“Most of our staff is younger and they’re already

taking these actions on their own,” said Katrina. “They

usually participate on their own accounts and use the

#AAemployee hashtag. It’s really natural for them.”

Running social contests of this magnitude takes a lot

of work, and the AA team says Curalate helped them

save serious time.

“The Curalate tool is really intuitive to us, which I

appreciate. I’ve used other platforms and if the tool

itself is not user-friendly, you just don’t end up using

it,” said Katrina. “Everybody that has access to the

tool finds it intuitive and helpful in their daily work.”

learnmore@curalate.com

Curalate: Visual Content Monetizationlearnmore@curalate.com

KATRINA REYNOLDS Digital Marketing Manager, American Apparel

“THE TRICKLE-UP EFFECT”

With 50 regional Instagram accounts, employees

can create compelling content at the store level

and then submit it to the corporate staff for

reposting on the main account.

“It has a trickle-up effect where the best

content gets back to us at HQ,” said Katrina. In

fact, they were so impressed with the folks at an

American Apparel store in Israel, that they

actually hired the photographer and models for

a brand-wide campaign.

“Accessing talent from all levels within the company

has always been part of who we are as a brand,”

said Katrina.

After partnering with Curalate, American Apparel is

armed with shoppable photos from fans and store

associates, an even more engaged fan base, and the

ability to easily launch new contests in the future.