American Eagle
Driving community engagement with a SoundOn Hashtag Challenge
The objective
Celebrating music and jeans
American Eagle believes that music, like jeans, is a form of self-expression. Eager to position itself at the center of youth culture for the Back-to-School season, American Eagle partnered with TikTok to create a campaign that would inspire Gen Z to pair the jeans they love with the music they love — any style, any genre.
The solution
Tuning into TikTok with a SoundOn Hashtag Challenge
As an early adopter of TikTok's business solutions, it's no surprise that American Eagle was the first brand to partner with SoundOn, TikTok's promotion and music distribution platform that enables artists to grow their fanbases, harness their creative voices, and get their music heard worldwide.
Using SoundOn, American Eagle partnered with TikTok artist @katherine.li to create an AE version of her upcoming release "Happening Again," which served as the anthem for the brand's campaign. Collaborating with one of the most popular SoundOn artists among Gen Z enabled American Eagle to position themselves alongside youth culture. To boost their SoundOn partnership, American Eagle hosted a Live Shoppable Performance on TikTok where Katherine performed 3 songs, including her new AE anthem, for fans. American Eagle used this opportunity to put their brand front and center for Gen Z, reaching potential shoppers by adding direct links to AE jeans in the live performance.
American Eagle leveraged the anthem to create a Branded Hashtag Challenge, sparking community engagement by turning audiences into active participants. Using #AEJeansSoundOn, Gen Z users were invited to throw on their favorite AE jeans and make a short TikTok music video set to Katherine's "Happening Again" anthem track. American Eagle amplified the reach of their Branded Hashtag Challenge with In-Feed Ads that drove awareness of the SoundOn Hashtag Challenge.
Ultimately, TikTok's innovative ad offerings enabled American Eagle to engage the community in an expressive, creative way. This SoundOn Hashtag Challenge put American Eagle at the center of Gen Z, motivating this generation to tap into their creative spirit, embrace their individuality, and express their personality through music and jeans.
The results
Music to our ears
American Eagle's SoundOn Hashtag Challenge activation speaks to the power of sound and music, demonstrating how audio can shape a brand's story and message. This campaign was the most successful Branded Hashtag Challenge America Eagle has ever run. It was featured in The New Yorker as well highlighted in their 2023 Annual Briefing as one of their successful tentpole moments of 2022.
The Branded Hashtag Challenge outperformed American Eagle's goals, garnering 3.1 billion views (18% above goal), 402 million likes (21% above goal), and 1.5 million creations (14% above goal). #AEJeansSoundOn is American Eagle's most viewed, most liked, most shared, most created, and most commented Branded Hashtag Challenge to date. Katherine Li's re-versioned American Eagle track amassed 10 million streams and over 5,500 hours of listening time. With the success of this campaign, American Eagle will continue to tune into TikTok, eager to champion the platform's innovative and creative ad solutions.
Being the first-ever brand to utilize the innovation of TikTok's SoundOn platform was a natural evolution for American Eagle. Championing the individuality of young musicians [Katherine Li] and amplifying their talent to an engaged community is something we are passionate and proud to have accomplished together.
