📢 Shoutouts From Last Week’s Event 📢

Thank you to everyone who joined us! For those who couldn’t make it this time, don’t fret – I have plenty more events in the pipeline.

Last Wednesday marked our most successful event to date! With 60 attendees, 20 creators boasting a combined following of 25 million, and an incredible rooftop venue at citizenM hotels, it was truly a night to remember. Even with the rain, we had a fantastic turnout, proving that people want to connect with others in this space.

What made it special wasn't the numbers, but the quality of connections. I aim to cultivate a space where marketers and creators can forge meaningful relationships. I’m ensuring that everyone in the room is part of the social media or creator community. Throughout the evening, I dedicated myself to facilitating introductions, ensuring that almost everyone met someone new who shared their interests, content style, or industry focus. I wish there were more of me so I could make as many intros as possible!

If there’s anyone you met but were not able to share contact information with please let me know and I will connect you via email!

Over the next few months, I’m cooking up some thought-provoking events to help marketers navigate the world of social media and guide creators in transforming their platforms into sustainable businesses. It’s not the wild west - there are very practical strategies to succeed. I’m also excited to plan more intimate brand dinners.

Want to relive the magic or grab some photos from the night?

As we scale our Social4TheWin events, I would be incredibly grateful if you could share our newsletter and events with your marketing pals and creator friends. I can only reach so many people on my own, but together, this group nearly reaches 100 million people. Your help in spreading the word would mean the world to me, even if it’s just to a few people.

Marc Jacobs is now considered one of the hot TikTok brands, at record speed, but why? Below I share more details about how Marc Jacobs is approaching TikTok, and other social media platforms, and a few small adjustments they can make to their overarching strategy.

I wish you could share music in an email. Cause I have Tinashe’s Nasty Girl stuck in my head.

Marc Jacobs TikTok Strategy

Setting The Scene: When Marc Jacobs launched on TikTok the strategy was very Instagram-esque. In classic Marc Jacobs fashion (yes - that was a pun) they showcased their namesake, some models, and celebrity partnerships. It was easy to see from the get-go that it was not working. Outside of three posts, one with Sofia Coppola, another with Uzi-Vert, and a video of Marc Jacobs blowing out a fire (literally) the content did not perform. There was an activation where Marc Jacobs produced 4 videos in a unique style (shared below) that was fairly successful. I’m actually pretty surprised they haven’t made more of this content considering that it is a low effort production.

Marc Jacobs' TikTok strategy has evolved significantly. Now they are focusing on creator-driven content, highlighting hyper-relevant that are either the developers of certain trends or have a unique content style. This is more UGC-focused, where the brand is working with creators to develop content for the brand’s channel, while the brand tags the creator involved afterward.

Key Collaborations:

• Enya Umanzor and Drew Phillips: Interviewing models on the runway. Which they need to activate more of on set.

• Creators: Tara Yummy, Fausto Elizalde, MainlyMannie, Carlos Manuel, Hugo Hilaire, Gina Lynn, Ratattcks, Will Mahony, Sister Bryana, Akia and Koichi, Rahul Mehmi, Pluto Griffon, Lovecatswilltearusapart, Antonyn Luc, Michael & Seby, Irene Lee, Laundry Dry, The Teletubbies, Grant & Ash, Payton King, Olly, Wizzie, Sylvaniandrama, Raymonte Beabadoobee, Dax Flame, Amira Mbappe, Natas Vibe, and Deez.

  • Check out the Marc Jacob’s TikTok page to see the content.

But some of these partnerships are just plain weird. They’ve partnered with numerous puppet creators, the Teletubbies, and just some of the most in-demand mem’d-out creators on TikTok. It must be “A Beautiful Mind” situation because I don’t understand where the dots connect from one creator partner to the next.

Insights from TikTok Data:

• Rough Creator Collaboration Videos: 30 🎥

• Views: 55M 👀

• Likes: 8.22M ❤️

• Saves: 332,000 📌

• Comments: ~56,000 💬

• Shares: ~610,000 🔄

• Engagement: 16.64% 📈

The average piece of content, outside of celebrity partnerships, and the few previously mentioned videos barely has a 2% engagement rate on average. The views, engagement, and interests of the general consumer speak for themselves.

Estimated Costs: While I don’t know the exact figures, partnering with well-known creators can be costly. Since a handful of these creators have momentary success due to their memeability the partnership costs, at least initially, may not be that high. However, the investment in UGC-style content with these creators is likely to yield significant returns in brand visibility and engagement vs. the cost.

Breakdown of Cost:

Spend: $1M → 30 videos → $33K / video → 55M Views → $18.00 CPM

Spend: $500K → 30 videos → $16.6K / video → 55M Views → $9.00 CPM

Spend: $150K → 30 videos → $5000 / video → 55M Views → ~$3.00 CPM

Depending on what Marc Jacobs was able to negotiate the individual creator cost per video could be an incredibly worthwhile way to develop content. The only two things I’d be concerned about, are the time intensiveness of these negotiations and if the team will burn out, because that also happens to the brand teams just as much as an individual creator.

Long-Term Strategy: In terms of strict 1:1 sales it’s impossible to determine whether this content today is making an impact (at least from my end), but I think this strategy will pay off long-term if the goal is building goodwill with a younger audience. In a competitive space like high fashion, where most brands have a one-note traditional view on content, Marc Jacobs is standing out. You don’t and probably won’t see Gucci, Tom Ford, or Prada approaching social media like this. I think because Marc Jacobs is a brand and the man is the brand himself it just adds to the ability to be flexible given Marc’s style and personal content.

Marc Jacobs Instagram Strategy

Setting The Scene: Marc Jacobs' Instagram boasts 12.3 million followers, presenting a highly curated and luxurious brand image. This to me is the classic high-end luxury fashion brand content style. If you look at the account all posts before August 2023 are hidden. Maybe that’s because like fashion trends, you only get the channel’s content for “the season.”

I honestly feel like Instagram pages should have a walk-up song that you listen to as you scroll through the page because I heard Madonna’s song Vogue (yes I know that’s a different brand) when I was checking out this this Instagram page.

It’s giving The Devil Wears Prada but in a good way. (?)

The account's content distribution is essentially four things:

• 60% Models/Celebrities: Posts featuring well-known personalities and models. This also includes products in the content.

• 30% Product Showcases: High-quality images and videos of Marc Jacobs products.

• 5% Unique Content: Behind-the-scenes, founder highlights, and brand stories.

• 5% Mark Jacobs: The man, myth, and legend himself.

Engagement Metrics: Based on industry standards, Instagram typically has a 1-4% engagement rate. Analyzing the posts, we can estimate:

• Average Likes per Post: Organic content performance has a wide range but it seems like the average grid post gets roughly 10K likes.

• Estimated Views per Post: Assuming that engagement rate percentage it’s safe to assume Marc Jacobs is getting roughly 1M views per post.

Top Performing Content:

• Strong TikTok Content Performance Is Directly Correlating To Strong Instagram Performance: What I mean by this is that the content that has succeeded on TikTok is the strongest performing content on Instagram Reels, at least for this brand. While that’s not necessarily the case for every brand or piece of content, this could be a good indication of what a brand should showcase on Reels. Test and Learn with one platform while placing the best content on another.

  

  This video has 35M Insta Views and 3.5M on TikTok.

  TikTok Partnership Content: I think that the content from TikTok would most likely have similar results to the video above. Although maybe not to the same scale, if Marc Jacobs can negotiate cross-platform usage it seems like an easy win.

Marc Jacobs Twitter (X) Strategy

Marc Jacobs has over 8 million followers on X but hasn't posted since October 2023. The platform previously showcased some of their collaborations and averaged about 40,000 views per post. Reactivating this platform could be beneficial for reaching a different audience and I’d be curious to see what percentage of their following is still active on X.

But c’mon 8 million followers and nothing on there?

Get 👏🏻 To 👏🏻 It 👏🏻 Marc 👏🏻 Jacobs 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Marc Jacobs Pinterest Strategy

Quite simply Pinterest is underutilized by Marc Jacobs. For a female-focused fashion brand two stats that clearly showcase why the brand needs to be here:

• 70% of Pinterest users seek style ideas weekly

• 75% of Pinterest users are women.

Pinterest is not a hard platform to win on for Marc Jacobs:

1. Take all the photos from the 10s of photoshoots they have quarterly and post them on the platform. The more UGC content that people can put on their Pinterest boards that direct users to the brand the better.

2. Repurpose Content - which is what I’ll say on YouTube as well.

Marc Jacobs YouTube Strategy

Marc Jacobs' YouTube presence is minimal. If they can build out a strategy for YouTube there are only two things that make sense.

1. Put a videographer on Marc Jacobs all day every day. Give him a reality show. Behind-the-scenes designing, events that he’s attending, dinners that he’s hosting. While they might have to hire a couple of people to get this done, it more predominantly builds the narrative of Marc Jacobs the human, not just Marc Jacobs the brand.

2. Repurposed Content. That’s a maximum 5-minute activity that should be done.

The Final Breakdown

Marc Jacobs is undeniably succeeding on TikTok, creating significant buzz and engagement through this relevant creator-driven approach. This strategy has clearly revitalized their presence on the platform. However, it's essential to consider the long-term impact of these views. The key question remains: how will this TikTok success translate into sustained brand growth and consumer loyalty?

While Marc Jacobs enjoys traditional success on Instagram with a luxurious and highly curated image, the overall social media strategy still has room for improvement. Several gaps need to be addressed to build a cohesive and effective presence across all major platforms:

1. Twitter (X): Despite having over 8 million followers, the brand's inactivity since October 2023 represents a significant missed opportunity. Reactivating this platform could help Marc Jacobs reach a different segment of their audience and capitalize on its previous success with collaborations.

2. YouTube: The brand's YouTube presence is minimal, yet it holds potential for substantial growth. Developing a strategy that includes behind-the-scenes content and repurposing successful TikTok videos as YouTube Shorts could enhance visibility and engagement.

3. Pinterest: Given the platform's predominantly female user base seeking style ideas, Pinterest is an underutilized goldmine for Marc Jacobs. Regularly posting photoshoot content and UGC could drive significant engagement and brand discovery.

Using TikTok's success as a foundation, Marc Jacobs can effectively repurpose content across other platforms, ensuring a consistent and engaging brand presence. By addressing these gaps and leveraging the strengths of each platform, Marc Jacobs can build a more comprehensive and robust social media strategy, ultimately driving long-term brand growth and consumer loyalty.

Mark Pollard is hosting a strategy masterclass in the Lower East Side on Thursday, May 30, from 1pm to 5pm. I’ll be attending, but he wanted to share with a few folks in our community.

He's offering 10 tickets to creators and members in this community for free - which is normally a $495 ticket. No catches, no content - just show up and learn. 

You can find more details here. If you’re interested in joining, please let me know and I’ll share with Mark! If we get a small group together for the event we can also grab a drink afterwards near the location.