Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

Retail Brew

Jeena Sharma

retailbrew.com

A Chipotle burrito and a storefront on top of a smartphone 

How Chipotle is experimenting with BeReal, Gen Z’s new favorite social platform

With 7.5+ million downloads this year alone, the app is exploding. But what’s a brand doing there?

Katishi Maake

Pinterest rolls out new shopping features for merchants

Merchants using the Pinterest API tool for shopping saw 97% accuracy for price and availability data, the company said. 

Julia Gray

Ear-piercing brand Studs talks social media strategy

The company sees YouTube as fit for storytelling and TikTok as better for trendsetting.

Chat bubble with a retweet symbol in the middle on a light background

Social Media

Andrew Adam Newman

Controversy over American Eagle’s new Sydney Sweeney campaign is dominating headlines, but social media posts about the campaign have been mostly positive, according to data provided exclusively to Retail Brew from 

 of the campaign on July 23 through August 1, 63.7% of posts that mentioned American Eagle across TikTok and X combined were favorable, while 29.4% were unfavorable and 6.9% were neutral.

Molly Dwyer, director of insights at PeakMetrics, told Retail Brew that she found the results “slightly surprising,” but not inexplicable, considering the way the campaign has found more voluble defendants on the right than critics elsewhere.

Critics of the campaign, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” 

 to the double-meaning of the actor having great genes in the genetic sense, with some seeing eugenic undertones.

As recently as July 28, favorable and unfavorable mentions about American Eagle on the platforms were “roughly even,” Dwyer said, adding that shifted when “the right-wing media ecosystem got a hold of this.”

The New York Post dismissed critics of the campaign as a “

 on Fox News. Then conservative politicians, including 

, spoke out in defense of American Eagle, but no comparable cadre of high-profile Democrats raised objections to the campaign.

“Basically the favorable [to the campaign] side kept up the volume,” Dwyer said. “They kept their foot on the gas, drawing this into the Fox News discourse, drawing this into the White House discourse, and there is nobody on the anti-American Eagle side” who is as impactfully “keeping this conversation going.”

In other words, the backlash was trumped (and 

“The trajectory of all this is well rehearsed at this point,” Charlie Warzel 

about the online reaction to the campaign. “Progressive posters register their genuine outrage. Reactionaries respond in kind by cataloging that outrage and using it to portray their ideological opponents as hysterical, overreactive, and out of touch.”

American Eagle did not respond to a request for comment.

Retail Brew asked PeakMetrics to compare mentions on X (irrespective of sentiment) of both American Eagle and a rival for Gen Z and millennial consumers, Abercrombie & Fitch, for the year to date.

Since January, daily mentions of Abercrombie mostly modulated between 25,000 and 75,000, with American Eagle well below that, but with the campaign, American Eagle has soared much higher than Abercrombie, reaching more than 170,000 mentions.

A recent analysis provided exclusively for Retail Brew from 

, an analytics firm tracking corporate reputation, aggregated the sentiment of mentions of American Eagle from both mainstream media outlets and social media.

With news outlets in the mix, negative mentions far outweigh positive ones, but the positive mentions after the campaign began still dwarf 

 mentions of the brand before the campaign started.

Overall, before the campaign American Eagle averaged 67 daily mentions in media outlets and on social media, but since the campaign broke, that average has escalated to 33,000 mentions, per Maps.

Google Trends tells a similar story. Since 2004, which is as far back as Google Trends goes, Google searches for “American Eagle” reached an 

But what do all the numbers mean for American Eagle’s bottom line? Plenty of the American Eagle coverage is negative, and the notion that all publicity is good publicity—paging 

—doesn’t really hold up in the social media era.

Still, PeakMetrics’s Dwyer predicts it’s “going to be good for American Eagle” because the brand has struck a chord with conservatives. 

“The data volume that we’re looking at shows more people in defense of” American Eagle, Dwyer said. “And I think that they’ve successfully coded themselves now as a wink-wink nudge-nudge right-wing brand.”

Sydney Sweeney in an American Eagle ad with the copy "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans."

Most social posts about American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ads favorable

On TikTok and X, 63.7% posts about the campaign are positive, per PeakMetrics.

Exclusive: Most social media posts about American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ads are favorable

A new American Eagle campaign featuring actor Sydney Sweeney is going 

, but not necessarily in the way the brand had hoped.

As evident in the wordplay of its tagline, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” the campaign plays on the idea that both her American Eagle denim and her genetics are exemplary.

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color,” Sweeney purrs in one 

, the camera lingering on the blond and blue-eyed actor. “My jeans are blue.”

For some, who took to social media to object to the campaign, the message seemed to echo the dark legacy of eugenics and “

A TikTok from rapper and singer Doja Cat mocking the campaign had more than 20.2 million views at the time of publication.

“What it communicates to people is that there is a prototypical standard for good genes: white, blond hair, blue eyes,” Dr. Marcus Collins, 

 and marketing professor at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, said in a 

 he posted to LinkedIn. “Considering the political and social, cultural backdrop that we’re in right now, that could seem like some pretty bad dog whistling.”

While Collins stressed he had no idea of American Eagle’s intent, “it certainly makes sense that people will see it as such.”

The backlash drew coverage from media outlets including 

. Some coverage defended the campaign, with the New York Post characterizing critics as a “

.” (“Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women,” Senator Ted Cruz 

 about the controversy on the platform. “I’m sure that will poll well.”)

Retail Brew asked American Eagle to respond to criticism of the campaign, and whether it planned to respond to critics on social media and elsewhere. American Eagle did not respond.

After 14 consecutive Instagram posts over three days featuring Sweeney, American Eagle 

 an image of a woman of color wearing denim that said, “AE has great jeans👖✨.”

Many of the top comments to the post were dubious.

“Just like clockwork. Damage control,” responded @acolortheory. Added @cinddyy.liz, “Quick let’s add a poc so we don’t get hate.”

 on LinkedIn as the campaign was launching, American Eagle’s CMO Craig Brommers wrote, “A massive thank you and CONGRATULATIONS to our internal teams and external partners - and SYDNEY herself - for this defining moment 🙏🙏🙏.” But a few days later, as critical comments far outnumbered positive ones, comments to the post were turned off.

Similarly, Ashley Schapiro, VP of media, performance and engagement at American Eagle, turned off comments on her LinkedIn 

 about the campaign (“The ⭐️ star power of Sydney and the double meaning behind the campaign has a culture shaping power beyond anything I could have ever imagined being a part of,” she wrote) following critical comments.

Responsible Marketing: How to Create an Authentic and Inclusive Marketing Strategy

, told Retail Brew that she thought the new campaign by American Eagle is “pretty overtly referencing” eugenics and called it “egregious.”

Bakare was disappointed that American Eagle had not directly (at least not before this article was published) addressed the controversy—aside from 

 some of its ads from its social campaign, per Ad Age.

“They still have time to turn it around, but I am losing faith that they will,” Bakare said.

Bakare said American Eagle should at least address the criticism, even if it doesn’t pull the campaign.

“‘We really appreciate that our loyal fans are letting us know that there’s some issues that many see with our recent creative,” would be a good start of a message from the company to critics, Bakare said. “‘We hear you, we’re listening, and we’re working really quickly and getting together to see how we can make sure you know everything that we put out continues to do what we always care about most, which is respecting our fans.’”

Sydney Sweeney in an American Eagle campaign for jeans

Why American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney campaign is facing backlash

Critics say the tagline evokes eugenics.

Erin Cabrey

Every other TikTok seems like it’s selling something these days, so getting a product to cut through the mindless scrolling and pause consumers’ thumbs for 

 a second isn’t as easy as it sounds. Videos of appliance company SharkNinja’s constantly viral innovations, whether it be mixing at-home treats with the Ninja Creami or achieving on-trend blowouts with the Shark FlexStyle, have repeatedly managed to do just that.

The latest to take over TikTok is its TurboBlade fan, with a 

 of it oscillating in front of a bed—soundtracked by Anna Nalick’s Y2K classic “Breathe (2 AM)”—amassing more than 32 million views since April, becoming its most-viewed product of all time, Lana Sanleandro, global CMO for Shark Home, told Retail Brew. Its 100+ million impressions on TikTok have translated into strong sales for the product, its CEO Mark Adam Barrocas said in May.

The company is what Sanleandro calls a “social-first organization,” prioritizing storytelling and marketing in tandem with product innovation. It sells in 37 categories, launching 25 new products annually, so it certainly has a lot of fodder for the FYP.

And its strategy is paying off across categories. SharkNinja’s net sales rose 14.7% in the first quarter thanks to growth across all four of its segments—cleaning, cooking and beverage, food prep, and beauty and home. Ninja Slushi, FlexBreeze fans, and CryoGlow face masks have also been among its most popular products as of late, the company said.

Sanleandro, a consumer tech vet with former roles at Amazon and Samsung, shared how SharkNinja is using social media to drive and sustain demand for its premium gadgets.

SharkNinja spends $700 million annually on advertising, 70% of which is digital, with 40% of that digital spend going to social, Sanleandro said.

Staying on top of the trends is, of course, core to SharkNinja’s strategy. The company “inspects our business every week” through meetings called “Obsessed with Winning,” Sanleandro said. And the company moves quickly to turnaround content, with its in-house creative led by Chief Creative Officer Linus Karlsson, who filled the newly created role in February after holding the same position at Ikea. 

“Some places go, ‘Oh, I’ll have a monthly business review on that, or we’ll go and figure that out next week.’ We’re on the same day,” Sanleandro said.

She described its social media content as “relatable and not necessarily super polished,” focusing on how consumers are using the products, which has inspired how products like the Ninja Creami were marketed. The social media comments have also inspired new iterations of products, whether it be its vacuums that clean in both forward and reverse, or the Ninja Swirl, the next generation of its viral Creami released earlier this year.

Celebrity and influencer partners for the company have to “genuinely be product advocates,” Sanleandro said, pointing to SharkNinja’s partnership with Courteney Cox, known for playing the obsessively clean Monica on 

, as having a “natural synergy.” Other recent partnerships include the dirty-soda-loving stars of reality show 

The company also partnered with influencer Alix Earle earlier this year as it launched the 

 in the US. Not only did the company do a 

 with Earle for social content, but Earle also later organically posted herself using the product 

 chronicling her travels from Coachella to Harvard, Sanleandro noted.

“You have partners who then really not just endorse your products, but become a fan themselves,” she said, noting that seeding the products (the industry term for product gifting) and educating them on the tech is an important step. “The best marketing comes from real people doing real things.”

Barrocas said in May the company seeded influencers with the Ninja Swirl for 30 days, and they were making content two weeks before launch to build anticipation. When the product launched, it sold one unit every eight seconds, he said. Earle’s CryoGlow paid post also included clips of her using the product throughout the previous month.

Influencers also support its R&D strategy, Sanleandro said, as the company hosts influencer summits to test out new products and get their feedback not only on the product themselves, but also elements like naming conventions (“It’s important to think about what’s ownable,” she noted).

SharkNinja’s products are priced at a premium—the TurboBlade fan is just shy of $300, for example—and several comments on its viral video alluded to the high price tag and seeking out dupes. But Sanleandro believes its brand-building efforts on social media and beyond have ultimately given it a leg up with consumers.

“The products that might be around the corner won’t necessarily have the brand to back up what the product will do,” she said. “We believe we have both.”

SharkNinja CryoGlow Alix Earle, TurboBlade Fan, Courteney Cox vacuum

Inside SharkNinja’s “social-first” marketing strategy 

From giant fans to LED face masks, how the appliance giant is driving demand online. 

We spend more time on TikTok than we’d like to admit, so we’re putting our excessive screen time to use by spotlighting the emerging brands and intriguing trends crossing our FYPs.

“I’m opening a candy shop in the West Village,” is the first line of nearly every TikTok Elly Ross (@ellybellyeats) has posted since July, a simple hook that’s drawn in millions of viewers to loyally follow the opening of her NYC shop Lil Sweet Treat.

The pick-and-mix candy store—featuring gummy candies imported from Spain, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, and more—opened its doors just a few days ago, but Ross has already amassed a community of “candy connoisseurs” who’ve followed the equal parts sweet and sour journey of opening a retail store, from location

Ross grew up in a “very Korean household,” immigrating to the US as a young child, falling in love with sweet treats by trading snacks from different cultures with her classmates, she told Retail Brew. But with the importance of financial stability “ingrained” in her, she’s since worked in tech (she’s currently head of product at e-commerce startup ChaChing). That was until the Swedish candy craze 

, especially in New York City, revealing to Ross a gap in the market for a shop offering unique international sweets she felt she could fill.

“A lot of the skill sets that I’ve honed and grown as being a product manager have really helped me think about critically, ‘What is the user journey for someone coming to get candy, and how do we make every single step in that journey the most magical it can be?’” she said.

Many of those questions have been answered by the candy connoisseurs on TikTok—a platform she’d used for food reviews before shifting it in July to chronicle the opening of Lil Sweet Treat—who are helping not only build hype but inform decisions she’s made along the way.

With her videos, Ross set out to detail the ups and downs of her journey, aiming to foster excitement and inspire other founders. In one 

, she shares that she forgot to put a call to action on the “coming soon” poster hung in the shop’s window, amassing 1.9 million views. She’s talked about the shop’s outside wall being 

, and running through the city in her pajamas to sign for a delivery.

“If me documenting my journey and sharing not only the successes but the failures and the setbacks and the iterations that we’ve had to do can help some other founder in their journey, or inspire someone else to take the leap to follow their passion or their dream, to me, that’s everything,” she said.

The responses to her videos, especially the seemingly mundane ones where she 

 from her shop windows, “shocks me every single day,” Ross said. Her TikToks have garnered more than 600K likes, a 

’s Barbara Corcoran, and a community that’s acted as a sounding board for many of the shop’s details. The candy connoisseurs have offered their insight for the bag

 offered at the shop (they wanted small and large options) and 

 (they wanted it to be free, and pay off relatively quickly, like Dunkin, many said.)

“If you’re not listening to your customers, you’re not building something for the community, you’re building something for yourself,” Ross said. “And that’s not something I want to do.”

Her TikTok presence has also helped her find an artist to create a 

 on the brick wall outside the shop, secure hundreds of email subscribers, and find brands like Poppi and Swoon to partner with for the shop’s opening. Ross and her husband are bootstrapping the business thus far, and thanks to the word spread on TikTok, have no plans for paid marketing efforts.

Now, a search on TikTok for Lil Sweet Treat yields not only Ross’s videos, but a slew of consumers chronicling their trips to the store and taste testing and reviewing the candies they picked. Next, Ross plans to open a Lil Sweet Treat e-commerce store, and aims to integrate treats from additional countries, she said.

When it comes to TikTok, Ross said “your voice and your perspective is really the main thing that differentiates you” on the platform, and she’s found a sweet spot being “vulnerable” and “transparent.”

She’s also found that TikTok has helped her keep the customer in mind constantly, especially as she’s answering questions about the business decisions she’s made in her comment section.

“If someone asks, ‘Why’d you do this as opposed to this?’ there’s a response, there’s a lot of thought that goes into everything,” she said. “Being able to share that is probably, in my opinion, one of the most important things that you can hear from a founder.”

How Lil Sweet Treat built a community of ‘candy connoisseurs’

Elly Ross has garnered millions of views as she’s taken consumers on the ups and downs of opening her NYC candy shop. 

Tok of the town: How Lil Sweet Treat built a community of “candy connoisseurs” on TikTok 

 that Spirit Halloween was advertising to hire 50,000 seasonal employees, what seemed newsworthy was its staffing up four months before the holiday. We had no inkling, however, that a summer variant of the holiday was right around the 

On TikTok, videos on how to put a summertime twist on the October holiday have proliferated, including one from @sheri_wilson_ about her essentials for a Summerween party on June 22 that garnered 5.6 million views.

The video includes elements of the newly minted tradition that are turning up in 

, including grilled cheeseburgers with sliced cheese in the shape of jack-o-lanterns, a pumpkin-colored float with orange soda and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and the coup de grâce, a watermelon carved into a 

Michaels was early with Halloween merch this year, which started arriving in stores the week of June 24, compared to July 7 last year, Rachel Peterson, head of corporate and product communications at the retailer, explained in an email to Retail Brew. Michaels issued a July 23 press release about its offerings with the headline “Summerween is in full swing.”

 announced—this may sound vaguely familiar—“summerween szn is in full swing.”

On Amazon, Summerween items popped up quickly, including one T-shirt featuring a ghost riding a flamingo that first appeared on July 5, and another that says “Happy Summerween” with a jackomelon that was added May 31.

, when an episode of the Disney animated series 

Google Trends, which goes back to 2004, shows virtually no searches for “Summerween” in the US until that month in 2012. But the interest in the term 

 when, compared to that first burst 12 years ago, there were more than three times as many searches for Summerween.

If this all rings a bell, maybe you’re thinking of Chrismukkah, the blended holiday popularized in an 

 in 2016, it also spawned merch, including 

, a fluffy Santa Claus hat in the shape of a yarmulke.

Stills from TikTok users of jack-o-lantern made from a watermelon and a drink with orange soda and ice cream, both suggestions for Summerween celebrations. 

Summerween is exploding on TikTok

What, you haven’t carved your jackomelon yet?

It’s Summerween, and retailers are jumping on the bandwagon

 to Tinx, TikTok creators at Cannes Lions this year were, well, 

, a signifier of the strong presence TikTok and its users have established in the world of marketing, particularly for retail brands.

That’s why Sofia Hernandez, global head of business marketing at TikTok, told Retail Brew her top priority is to help brands show up on the platform in a way that the app’s community will embrace.

When Hernandez joined TikTok four years ago, she said the video sharing platform was considered “experimental” and “still trying to get brands’ attention.” Then, there was a pivot around 2021, she said, when brand CMOs started really thinking about the importance of utilizing TikTok for their businesses. It hasn’t been easy for CMOs, she noted, who are being asked to “be really creative again” rather than follow a data-driven approach that they’d grown accustomed to.

But it could be worth it: When brands take a TikTok-first approach, their purchase intent rises 37%, and brand favorability jumps 38%, according to the app, and 79% of users say they want to see brands on the platform. That’s only if they “do it right,” Hernandez said, so she broke down how brands can become the main character of the For You page.

That bump in TikTok’s popularity ultimately “democratized creativity” by giving everyone, including brands, the chance to connect with consumers and take a fresh look at how they’d been targeting them (like not making assumptions simply based on demographics), Hernandez said. This in turn changed consumers’ expectations for brands.

“People just started demanding more of brands, especially retail,” she said. “‘Yes, of course, I want to know what the product does. I want to know that it works. I want it to be at a price that I want to pay. And I’d love to know about any promotions.’ That’s not enough anymore. That’s just table stakes. Now, I actually have to feel like I like you as a brand, I believe in you as a brand, and I want to feel like I’m part of what you believe in, what you stand for.”

Creator partnerships have moved far beyond “influencer marketing…1.0,” where brands essentially hand a creator a script, she said. Now, brands have to find which creators will resonate with their consumers.

“The biggest concern is creativity. For most brands, what I hear is, ‘It’s a little scary to put ourselves out there,’” she said. This often requires marketers to throw out their advertising rulebook, whether that be the belief that the creator with the most followers will get them the most engagement or that videos need a standard beginning, middle, and end (one of TikTok’s 2024 trends for marketers is “storytelling unhinged,” Hernandez noted.)

Hernandez pointed to Procter & Gamble, a company which has taken to TikTok with its menstrual care brands, tampon maker Tampax and pad brand Always, as an example. She noted P&G has taken risks in depicting its menstrual care products on the app, like showing a man using a maxi pad to clean up a mess.

“It was so great to watch them be creatively brave,” she said. “You have to be okay with the level of risk. We just haven’t done that in the past. We’re so risk averse in the marketing industry. We’ve seen some brands go down for some missteps, but on TikTok, there’s a high tolerance for brands experimenting.”

In brand marketing, the word “authenticity” is thrown around a lot (Alix Earle’s 

 was literally called “Now trending: #Authenticity”). For Hernandez, the most authentic efforts from brands are those that step outside their comfort zones. She pointed to Chipotle, whose popular TikToks over the past few years have simply shown behind-the-scenes of workers in the kitchen making the food—once a rarity in the food world which typically relies on food styling to create a picture-perfect appearance.

“You’re engaging the community,” Hernandez said. “The community is falling in love with you because they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re being real. You’re being authentic.’”

And one last piece of seemingly obvious advice: Ultimately, to understand what kind of content will connect with TikTokers, senior level brand marketers need to, well, be on TikTok, and not just have their agencies tell them what’s going viral, Hernandez said.

“There are a lot of CMOs like, ‘Oh yeah, my teenager is on TikTok.’ And I’m like, ‘But 

 not. How could you possibly know what it’s about and build a marketing campaign if you’re not actually in it?’”

TikTok logo surrounded by shopping carts and pixelated boxes.

TikTok exec on being ‘creatively brave’ on the platform 

Global head of business marketing Sofia Hernandez reveals why CMOs have to throw out the rulebook to create successful campaigns on the platform. 

TikTok exec shares how brands can be ‘creatively brave’ on the platform 

If you head to the social media profile bios of Selena Gomez, Robert Downey Jr., or even the President of the United States, you’ll see a link to Linktree, the link-in-bio tool employed by 50 million users that allows them to consolidate a slew of links into just one.

But more and more, the tool is being utilized by content creators, particularly on TikTok, as a “viral army of Get Ready With Me girlies,” has been driving commerce, Lara Cohen, VP of partners and business development at Linktree, told Retail Brew, influencing consumers to buy the products they use across beauty, fashion, and lifestyle. The company said it sees 240 million commerce clicks monthly, accounting for $300 million in spend, and produces a 50% higher conversion rate than the e-commerce industry average. It also accounts for 2% of Amazon’s storefront traffic.

Cohen calls the link in bio space “the most valuable real estate on the internet,” and now Linktree, originally created to support musical artists who had multiple projects to promote, is leaning into this commerce use. It’s introducing a storefront offering allowing creators to sell products directly from their Linktree, helping “cut down on friction,” Cohen said, as the company partners with brands and retailers catering to Gen Z shoppers with viral products.

According to Linktree’s 2023 Creator Report, links to shopping platforms Shopify and Spring on Linktree have garnered 38 million clicks since 2022. And with one-third of US shoppers saying creators influence their buying decisions, per Deloitte, Linktree is working to make those purchases more seamless, with the belief that fewer clicks leads to more conversions, Cohen said.

 an alpha phase of its new social commerce offering, which lets users add shoppable storefronts to their link-in-bio links (there is a toggle between links and their “store”). Creators can create curated collections of products from brands and retailers partnered with Linktree, displaying a product photo and price that, once clicked, directs shoppers to the product listing from which to buy it. Creators receive a 12%–15% commission for sales converted through the page. Linktree co-founder and CEO Alex Zaccaria told The Information at the time that the move was “the first step into new revenue streams.”

For this phase, it partnered with Sephora, Urban Outfitters, and Revolve—retailers that are “in the zeitgeist of Gen Z,” Cohen said—and a small group of creators. With this test, the company found that participants had a 12% traffic uptick after setting up their shop.

“We’re just really bringing the sales much closer into the journey, which I think is the secret sauce,” Cohen said.

Its beta phase now includes thousands of brands and over 20 retailers like Net-a-Porter, Shopbop, Lululemon, New Balance, and Adidas, capitalizing on more viral products like the Adidas Samba, Cohen noted. It now allows users to integrate user-generated content from any social platform onto the storefront. With these partnerships, it continues to focus on the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle space, categories where products tend to go viral. Cohen noted it could expand into electronics, parenting products, or even travel next.

With consumer shopping data, Linktree can share insights with its retail brand partners in terms of what products are trending and which social media platforms are driving the most sales (Spoiler alert: it’s TikTok). The tool can especially be helpful for small retailers who haven’t been able to allocate funds to establish their own creator program, Cohen noted.

On the flip side, beyond the commission creators earn with sales, with the future of TikTok uncertain, the Linktree storefront also offers them “a space that they can own, and now a space that they can monetize.”

“We really believe that creators are the storefront of the future, and actually, the storefront of now,” Cohen said.