Aerie launched its #AerieREAL campaign to promote a "love yourself" message using real women with diverse body types and healthy images as models. Prior to this campaign, the women's underwear industry typically featured young, perfect-bodied models. This led many women and teens to feel dissatisfied with their own bodies due to unrealistic social media and advertising pressures. In contrast, Aerie's campaign featured real women of all shapes, sizes, ages, and backgrounds to promote inclusion and body positivity. This approach resonated strongly with customers and increased Aerie's sales by 20% in one year.

1. Aerie launched #AerieREAL campaign to promote
“love yourself” concept with the real role models
with the diversity and healthy body images
COURSE NAME: DIGITAL MARKETING
SECTION: MKM915
PROFESSOR: KADIA SHRIRAM
DATE: 13/03/2020
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Hsu-Tien Lee
162235188
hlee233@seneca.ca

2. Even the fashion brands tried to improve to have more ethnically brand images, the
results are not significant, including the women’s underwear brands
• The improvement in the women’s underwear
industry was not obvious
• The traditional women’s underwear campaign
images
o Showing perfect body shapes
o Sexy women images
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In the ’90s and early 2000s, fashion and beauty brands began to include more ethnically diverse models
in their imagery and runway shows.
But the models were still young, in the pink of health, and without the slightest blemish in the
magazines.
The
Market
before the
AerieREAL
campaign

3. Young adult women felt more dissatisfied with their bodies
Influence on
the Teens
Consumers perceive that women should be sexy and have perfect body shapes to
be beautiful and part of adults and teens are feeling depressed about their body
images
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• Every beautiful woman should have the same body shape as the models in the ads
• Women should be sexy and appeal to men
• Only the body shapes that fit the social standard (as shown in the ads) could be proud of to show
Perception
of Audience
• 50% of women and 37% of men compare their bodies unfavorably
• 30% felt stressed by body image
Influence of
Media
Compare their bodies to images
on social and traditional media
"It's important to think about the sexualization of
things. People post sexual pictures of themselves
and objectify themselves.” --Gracie, 17
“I think that social media platforms hurt because young
people are now having their bodies judged online in
addition to being judged in person, which causes them to
feel trapped.” --Jen, 17

4. Aerie, an underwear brand, launched the campaign #AerieREAL to
turn the negative trends to be positive and brought the issue to be
seen and discussed
• Product: Intimates, apparel, activewear and swim
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Every single piece is designed to make every girl feel good
• Target Audience: Female Teenagers
• Campaign to change the body depression situation and raise the issue
awareness: AerieREAL
o Features real and influential women—as in non-professional models but
famous—wearing Aerie products
o Show the diversity, including different body shapes, ages, racial, sexuality
o promoting messages of inclusion and body positivity
“#AerieREAL Power. Positivity. No retouching.”
Iskra, Body Positivity Activist
Brenna Huckaby, Paralympic Medalist
Busy Philipps, Actress and Author
Jameela Jamil, Actress and Activist
Cleo Wade, Artist and Poet
Aly Raisman, Gold Medal Gymnast
Samira Wiley, Actress and Activist
Molly Burke, YouTuber and Motivational Speaker

5. The promotion was focused on the social medias and generated significant results
• Promotion platforms: (with hashtag #AerieREAL)
o Owned blog
o Facebook
o Instagram
o Twitter
o YouTube
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• The platforms that generated the most
significant reaction and engagement
o Instagram: 45.5K view of the video
o Instagram: 226K #AerieREAL
o YouTube: 17K view
Aerie grew 20% of the sales in a year

6. AerieREAL campaign differentiated
the brand from the competitors
strongly
• Compare Aerie to the most famous women’s
underwear brand: Victoria’s Secret
o Images of Aerie’s Instagram page
 Healthy
 Normal women being models
 Diversity
 Young
 Happy and self-confident
o Images of Victoria’s Secret’s Instagram page
 Sexy
 Pink tone
 Traditional models with perfect body shapes
 Mature women
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7. AerieREAL campaign was successful because it achieved many benefits
which were what customers are looking for
• Strongly resonate to the customers
• Encouraged numbers of women to embrace their bodies and to have more self-confidence
• The idea shared by many consumers which increased the awareness of the issue
• More and more women asked to be the role model for AerieREAL to give support to other women
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Brand Value matches the Customer’s Needs and Wants
• Emotional connection with audience to make them more loyal
• Increase the brand awareness with positive perception
• Increase the engagement rate on social media
• Generate the social issue to be noticed and discussed

8. Bibliography
• TYT Network. 2020. Backlash Over Victoria's Secret 'Perfect Body' Campaign. [online] Available at:
<https://legacy.tyt.com/2014/11/01/backlash-over-victorias-secret-perfect-body-campaign/> [Accessed 13
March 2020].
• #AerieREAL Life. 2020. Introducing Your New #Aeriereal Role Models - #Aeriereal Life. [online] Available at:
<https://www.ae.com/aerie-real-life/2019/01/31/introducing-your-new-aeriereal-role-models/> [Accessed 13
March 2020].
• Themarysue.com. 2020. Aerie’S New Lingerie Campaign Is A Beautiful Smorgasbord Of Representation &
Inclusivity. [online] Available at: <https://www.themarysue.com/aerie-real-campaign-representation/>
[Accessed 13 March 2020].
• King University Online. 2020. The Link Between Social Media And Body Image | King University Online. [online]
Available at: <https://online.king.edu/news/social-media-and-body-image/> [Accessed 13 March 2020].
• National Eating Disorders Association. 2020. How Does Social Media Affect Your Body Image?. [online]
Available at: <https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/how-does-social-media-affect-your-body-
image> [Accessed 13 March 2020].
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