#KnowYourMIV: Addison Rae x American Eagle

Welcome to the latest installment of #KnowYourMIV! This month, we analyze our first TikTok campaign to understand the impact of specific influencers on a platform that has taken the world by storm in 2020. For this analysis, we have decided to track one of the most well-known creators on TikTok – Addison Rae – and her ongoing partnership with American Eagle. Addison is a comedy, fashion, and beauty creator, who rose to fame on the platform via trending dancing videos and has since amassed 71.5M followers.

Addison Rae regularly works with a range of mass-market brands through sponsored videos on her TikTok channel. One such brand, with who she has had a long-lasting, consistent partnership, is American Eagle – a US-based mass market fashion brand celebrated for their high-quality denim. To gauge the impact that Addison Rae generated for American Eagle, we applied Media Impact Value™ (MIV®), our proprietary data algorithm for the time period between 01/06/2020-01/12/2020. Read more about how it works in this article.

#KnowYourMIV: Addison Rae x American Eagle

Overall, Addison generated an impressive $4.26M in MIV® for American Eagle across the six months we tracked, being one of the highest results we’ve seen across our #KnowYourMIV series thus far. The average MIV® per post was equally impressive, standing at $6.9K across 618 publications. This high-performing result is something we are likely to see with future TikTok campaigns, as the platform allows for extremely wide reach, at a mass-scale. Discoverability is also different, as videos are suggested to users based on their interests and interactions with other, similar content, meaning videos are a lot more tailored and targeted, which could play into brands’ favors. Let’s take a deeper dive into the top posts from the partnership.

The Mickey Mouse Holiday Collection 

The top-performing post overall saw Addison go back to the ‘root’ of how she became so successful on TikTok in the first place – dance trends. In this video, the TikTok creator danced alongside a cartoon Mickey Mouse as she promoted American Eagle’s new collection in partnership with Disney. The post initiated a new dance trend that was easy for her followers to replicate and share, as well as tag the brand using their hashtag and music track. If anyone tries to recreate the trend after seeing Addison’s vide0, their followers will see that the soundtrack was created by American Eagle and Disney which is an added benefit of increased visibility should the trend go viral. Overall, the video currently has 5.2M likes and 44.3M views – the music track has been used an additional 657 times after Addison posted.

@addisonreMickey Mouse & I are celebrating the @disney x @americaneagle holiday collection the only way we know how…dancing! #aepartner♬ Disney x AE Holiday 2020 – addison rae

Total MIV®: $673,761

‘Mom Jeans With Mom’

Addison’s Mom is a firm fan favorite on her feed and this clever video which played on the Mom jean trend was no exception. The duo flicked through their favorite Mom Jeans from American Eagle in a fun, lookbook style video that featured the branded hashtags #AEJeans and #AEPartner and accumulated 8k shares and 33.1k comments.

@addisonreI got it from my momma. We’re both wearing our favorite Mom Jeans from @americaneagle . Check them out at www.ae.com! #AEJeans #AEPartner♬ I Wanna Know You – BLVKSHP

Total MIV®: $613,865

If Jeans Could Talk

Addison seamlessly integrated this product placement with TikTok’s features, by comparing transitions on the platform to swapping ‘sweats with jeans’. The platform became famous for its transitions and how users incorporated these into their videos, which is what makes the content relatable to most TikTok users. The key to virality is creating content that most people can connect with as it increases the likelihood of shares and engagements.

@addisonreTransitions as smooth as swapping your sweats back to your jeans 😎 @americaneagle #AEPartner #AEJeans♬ If AE Jeans Could Talk – AE x RichCaroline

Total MIV®: $284,017

Finally, we analyzed the top Voices that shared content around the Addison Rae and American Eagle collaboration. Media publication Forbes was the highest MIV®-earner, generating $244K across 4 publications. The most efficient Voice, however, was Footwear News, whose average MIV® per publication was $7,689 (over 21 publications). American Eagle’s Owned Media also appeared on the list in the third position, as they created 5 mentions of the collaboration with Addison.

American Eagle’s Ashley Schapiro, VP Brand Acquisition noted:

“Youth are not just our customers they are our inspiration, and we want to be present where our kids are spending their time – today more than ever that is on social media. We continue to lean into innovation to stay connected with Gen Z, and partner with real kids who are authentically showing up and inspiring others. TikTok is a focus platform for us and Addison Rae quickly stood out as someone who would resonate with our customer in a meaningful way. Our partnership with Addison has exceeded all internal benchmarks for social engagement and directly driven sales on styles Addison loves including our Mom jeans. Addison continues to inspire others through her platform and prove that there is power in the optimism of youth.  We look forward to continuing our relationship with her into 2021.”

In order for brands to be successful on TikTok, they need to integrate with popular creators to translate to a mass audience. Often, brands have been criticized for being inauthentic on TikTok for their failure to create content that fits in with the platform. Already popular creators are a great vessel to promote products to an existing, dedicated audience who may watch a video featuring someone like Addison Rae and immediately see that fashion item or beauty product fitting into their own lifestyle. Due to the nature of the virality of the platform, utilizing TikTok as part of a social media strategy is likely to deliver results and high rewards, so it’s essential for brands within fashion, luxury, and beauty to become well versed and well-connected with successful TikTok strategies.

Want to learn more about how to track TikTok as a fashion, luxury or beauty brand? Explore Launchmetrics’ Brand Intelligence Solution: