From Dream to Reality With Buzz Marketing Group

Client: Aerie, the intimates sub-brand of American Eagle Outfitters

Goal: Introduce the Aerie brand to college-aged girls with money to spend.

Plan: Create a dynamic brand ambassador program that introduces the brand to college campuses that are in close proximity to Aerie’s 180 stores.

Challenges: Laura Hopwood, the 23-year-old senior marketing associate, said the biggest challenge was finding the right young women to market the brand. “Aerie is looking for the perfect girl. Ideally, they wanted a female college student with money to spend and someone whose fashion and style choices influence her friends, said Hopwood, who just joined Buzz Marketing Group in January of 2010. “We created a survey and through that survey, we were able to find 150 young women to become brand ambassadors. They are amazing!  We have a great group.”

The Work: In addition to creating  the brand ambassadorship program, the Buzz Marketing Group launched a password-protected micro-site for the 150 brand ambassadors. The site allows the young women to create blogs, take surveys and document the work they have done.  The young women actively promote Aerie on their college campuses by passing out discount cards, hosting game nights with Aerie products as prizes and creating fan pages on social networking sites.  Michele Nieberding, an 18-year-old hotel administration major at Cornell University said she spends about three hours a day doing something related to promoting the brand and has even designed rainboots for the company. “There is nothing I love more than being able to feel responsible for others learning something new, especially when that ‘something new’ is a new company or product that I am very passionate about!  Not many girls at Cornell knew about Aerie before I started holding all my different Aerie promotions and events,” said Nieberding who plans on hosting an Aerie fashion show.

The current Aerie campaign ends in May 2010.