Many millennials and older Gen Zers will remember the smell and feel of an Abercrombie & Fitch circa the 2000s. The music was loud, the lights were low, and the cologne was strong enough to make your mom wait outside. But the overstimulation could not outmatch the thrill of walking out with a moose T-shirt in a torso-laden shopping bag (assuming you found a shirt in your size).

These days, Abercrombie & Fitch looks and feels quite different: Stores are a little less dark, sizing and model representation are more inclusive, and the moose has all but disappeared. It’s all part of a massive rebranding effort that began in 2017, under the leadership of CEO Fran Horowitz, to cast aside some of the brand’s past blunders.

By the numbers: In its latest earnings call, Abercrombie reported that Q4 2021 was its “best social-selling quarter ever,” with sales from social media up “triple digits” from the year before. So how did they do it? Largely by showing their target demo what they want, where they want it: on TikTok.

“Once a brand is kind of buried, it’s very hard for that brand to have a comeback and even harder for that brand to come back and be a leader, which is basically what happened with Abercrombie,” Harley Block, CEO and co-founder of Gen Z consultancy IF7, who works with A&F on its TikTok strategy, told us.

Bye-bye, birdie moosie

Megan Brophy, senior director of marketing at Abercrombie & Fitch, told us the influx of young millennials to TikTok before—but especially after—Covid hit in 2020 inspired them to get on the app.

• “We saw a lot of organic activity start to happen for the brand [on TikTok] and work really well,” she said. “So we moved a lot of our attention over to that space since and had a really kind of fantastic 2021 and 2022 to start on the platform.”
• According to Brophy, A&F’s goal is to project a brand image focused on what she calls the “long-weekend mindset,” primarily targeting young professionals aged 25–29 who haven’t settled down yet and spend their time off traveling or with friends.
• When deciding how to reach this audience, Brophy said it was important for the brand to showcase that “lifestyle, not just a fashion sense.” And so they began working with creators across all walks of life, from comedians to chefs, rather than restricting themselves to just fashion influencers.

“We all well know the previous expressions of the brand were more exclusive, if you will, and what we look to do today is to be incredibly inclusive and be a place where everyone feels like they belong,” she said.

Read more here, including Brophy’s thoughts on if the moose might one day return .—KH

Attention span–shrinkage accusations, be gone: TikTok is rolling out 10-minute videos, and creators have all kinds of feelings about it.

For marketers, Rare Beauty CMO Katie Welch may have summed up the double-edged sword of these Long Bois™ best, saying that 10-minute TikToks could become a great way to educate an audience, as well as an exciting challenge, but…

“It’s not that simple to create a 10-minute story and hold their attention,” Welch told Marketing Brew over email. “It all comes down to the strategy and creative—it’s got to be good.”

*Gulp.* High stakes, no? We talked to three social media managers—you know, the people who will actually be on the ground creating these epic-length ’Toks—about their game plans for the update.

Hands off

Samantha Boures, who manages media and influencer marketing at Book of the Month, told us that she’s taking a hands-off approach to the longer option, letting the influencers she works with guide her strategy instead.

• “We really like to allow our partners to be as creative as they’d like in their integrations,” Boures explained via email. “So it is up to our partners if they would like to take advantage of the 10-minute update.”

Zaria Parvez, social media manager for language learning app Duolingo, isn’t pressing the gas too hard on long TikToks just yet either, saying she’s also looking to influencers for inspo.

• “Personally, I see this feature being adopted by influencers and vloggers, but that’s not to say brands won’t follow suit,” she told us over email.

Click here to see what else they had to say.—PB

Fewer Americans are regularly listening to podcasts this year compared to 2021. Data from Edison Research indicates we might be able to add that to the list of things we blame millennials and Gen Z for.

Monthly podcast listening in the US—or the share of Americans over the age of 12 who said they listened to a podcast in the last month—ticked down from 41% in 2021 to 38% in 2022, the first decline since 2013, according to The Infinite Dial, Edison’s annual report that tracks digital-media consumer behavior. This year’s survey was conducted in January via telephone among 1,502 respondents aged 12 and older.

The decrease appears to be partly driven by Americans ages 12–34, an important demographic for many advertisers as they continue to increase podcast ad spending, which is expected to surpass $2 billion nationally by next year, according to eMarketer.

• That cohort reported a six percentage-point decrease in monthly podcast listening, down from 56% in 2021 to 50% in 2022. They account for almost half (47%) of all monthly podcast listeners in the country.

On the other hand, monthly listening among Americans ages 35–54 ticked up by four points, from 39% to 43%.

Don’t panic: There’s some brighter news in the report. Podcasting continues to expand its reach, with 62% of Americans ages 12 and up, or an estimated 177 million people, reporting that they’ve listened to a podcast at least once. That’s up from 57% who said the same last year.

“Clearly, Americans went back to work and back to school last year, which brought podcasting numbers back in line with pre-pandemic figures,” said Edison Research SVP Tom Webster about the report. “However, the trend line continues to go up, particularly with 35–54 year olds.”

Zoom out: The top-10 podcast advertisers spent nearly $300 million combined on the medium last year, per recent eMarketer research, more than double 2020’s $145 million.—AM

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

IG: Needs Instagram Reels inspo? Here are some trends to try this week.

TT: Why not check out this week’s top TikTok trends while you’re at it?

: Paid search B2B marketing. Find out how the two can live together in and harmony.

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Here’s what Abercrombie & Fitch looked like way back in the day.

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