How Skims movie star campaigns received the web

Earlier than hitting the stage at this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present, R&B singer Usher graced the duvet of Vogue’s 2024 Winter Digital difficulty. It wasn’t completely apparent, although, that he was meant to be the publication’s visitor of honor.

The styling is tasteful sufficient, with Usher wearing a cream-colored autumnal outfit like a fashion-forward sports activities dad. Nonetheless, not solely is he upstaged by a gaggle of school-aged soccer gamers on the duvet, he’s joined by supermodel Carolyn Murphy. Critics on X and TikTok rapidly expressed their frustration over the route of the shoot, which appeared intent on minimizing Usher’s presence. Together with LeBron James and Kanye West, he’s one in all solely a handful of Black males to be featured on US Vogue covers. (Possibly not so coincidentally, the three talked about share their cowl shoots with white ladies.)

Then a couple of weeks later got here a steamy underwear advert for Skims, Kim Kardashian’s shapewear and loungewear model. Social media customers praised Usher and Skims for the well timed collaboration. The straightforward shoot featured the “U Remind Me” singer decked out in chains, holding a peach, and flaunting his six-pack abs whereas sporting briefs. It was acquired as a extra rewarding press cease than the Vogue cowl by a lot of his followers.

It’s protected to say that there’s no actual challenger to the 131-year-old establishment that’s Vogue. Using elite photographers and A-list designers — to not point out editor-in-chief Anna Wintour’s unwavering dominance within the vogue business — the journal has remained one of many final curators of movie star picture. Nevertheless it’s onerous to not discover that Skims’ star-studded advertisements generate the type of constructive buzz that Vogue and different legacy journal covers have steadily failed to attain — and which might be usually met with controversy relating to poor pictures, underwhelming styling, and a scarcity of variety.

In the meantime, Skims shoots have seen a extra constantly constructive reception. Earlier than Usher’s marketing campaign, the e-commerce model set social media ablaze with its annual Valentine’s Day marketing campaign starring singer Lana Del Rey. And the vacation shoot the 12 months earlier than featured Beatrice Grannò and Simona Tabasco, two Italian actresses from the hit HBO collection The White Lotus.

Extra lately, Skims recruited Name Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper for a bridal lingerie marketing campaign, capitalizing on her huge listenership. And pop lady du jour Sabrina Carpenter is the model’s newest spokesperson, donning the brand new lace lingerie assortment in a ‘90s-inspired shoot.

The advertisements have additionally arrived at a time when movie star endorsements and influencer sponcon have change into an integral a part of the web expertise. It’s perhaps not so stunning that the mastermind behind all of that is Kim Kardashian, a contemporary pinup with a penchant for opening our wallets and making issues go viral.

Skims put a “cool” stamp on shapewear

Since launching Skims in 2019, Kardashian’s juggernaut of a enterprise (at the moment valued at $4 billion) has managed to provide shoppers a brand new outlook on body-sculpting innerwear.

Main as much as its debut, Kardashian and her influencer sisters have been controversially shilling waist trainers on social media. Presumably, the media moguls’ seal of approval helped shed a few of the not-so-marketable associations with basis clothes. For many of the 2000s and 2010s, shapewear was largely a punchline, even with its not-so-secret widespread use all through Hollywood and the style business. Spanx have been for imperfect ladies attempting to hide their love handles on a date. The phrase “girdle” nonetheless brings to thoughts an older demographic of ladies. Possibly probably the most telling signal that Spanx and different body-cincher merchandise have been “meant” for older ladies was an early cosign by Oprah Winfrey.

Because the body-positivity motion has made strides over the previous twenty years — infiltrating advertising and marketing for almost every thing, from courting apps to cleaning soap — the usual of bodily perfection that made using body-cinching merchandise embarrassing has began to dwindle. By the point Skims launched its first set of stock, it appeared like shapewear was one thing younger ladies weren’t solely comfy admitting they owned however sporting as outerwear as properly. It definitely helped that stylish labels like Mugler, Charlotte Knowles, and Rui Zhou (and their fast-fashion dupes) have repopularized slimming, paneled bodysuits and underwear-inspired garments. The shapewear fad is outwardly so big that forecasters predict a market share of $3.8 billion within the subsequent seven years.

The impetus for Skims Solutionwear — initially controversially referred to as “Kimono” — isn’t that completely different from shapewear founder Sara Blakely’s story. Blakely minimize the legs off her control-top pantyhose to take care of a cinched look beneath her pants, creating what would primarily be the groundbreaking product Spanx. Kardashian equally claims she was compelled to chop her shapewear to enhance her cutout and high-slit attire. A extra vital promoting level for the corporate was that Kardashian additionally mentioned she couldn’t discover shapewear to match her olive-y tan pores and skin tone, main her to go as far as to dye her undergarments with tea and low.

“For me, I used to be simply on the lookout for an answer to the truth that I like to put on shapewear,” Kardashian mentioned on the Time 100 summit final 12 months. “There wasn’t a coloration tone that match my pores and skin tone, not to mention most of my pals’.”

Just a few years prior, Rihanna’s make-up model Fenty Magnificence proved that inclusivity — particularly when paired with A-list movie star branding — sells. Likewise, Skims relied closely on the message of variety, with the slogan “options for each physique.” Its 36-piece debut assortment supplied bras, underwear, shorts, and numerous bodysuits in 9 shades from sand to onyx. Considerably, the model supplied an in depth measurement vary, XXS to 5X, and used fashions representing that spectrum. In its first couple of minutes after launching, the model made $2 million.

After all, branding shapewear designed to make the physique look slimmer as “inclusive” is a bit ironic, if not completely regressive. Nonetheless, it’s clear that millennial and Gen Z ladies felt extra embraced by Skims and different direct-to-consumer firms, like ThirdLove and Savage X Fenty, than legacy model Victoria’s Secret by the late 2010s. Since about 2015, the lingerie retailer has seen a cultural and monetary decline resulting from public controversies, reducing gross sales, inside points, and a basic incapacity to maintain up with the instances.

Issues in the end took a flip for the more serious in 2018, when Edward Razek, former chief advertising and marketing officer of L Manufacturers (which owns Victoria’s Secret), defended excluding plus-size and transgender fashions from the yearly televised Victoria’s Secret Style Present. Since then, the corporate has tried extra inclusive messaging, expanded its measurement vary, and retained high-profile spokesmodels. Nonetheless, gross sales, significantly its in-store efficiency, have continued to plunge.

Superstar Skims advertisements have stuffed a void in popular culture.

Other than the inclusivity angle, Skims has remained a dominant pressure within the vogue world because of its internet-breaking collaborations. In a brief period of time, the model has linked up with high-fashion label Fendi for a capsule assortment and sports activities organizations just like the US Olympic crew, the NBA, and the WNBA.

Campaigns that includes a few of the web’s most beloved celebrities have made Skims a premier platform for viral picture shoots. You possibly can liken the web response when a high-profile actor, athlete, or musician seems in a Skims advert to older generations seeing their popular culture idols in a government-sponsored “Bought Milk?” advert or perhaps a beloved athlete on a Wheaties cereal field. Commercials for Calvin Klein within the ’80s and ’90s, starring then up-and-comers reminiscent of Mark Wahlberg and Brooke Shields, generated related pleasure, if additionally controversy. Within the social media period, when everybody is continually self-promoting, movie star picture shoots have misplaced a little bit of their novelty. Nonetheless, Skims has managed to harness social media and the zeitgeist to ship capital-M Moments.

Adrianne Pasquarelli, particular tasks editor and senior reporter for Advert Age, notes that timeliness is one side that works in Skims’ favor. She emphasizes that being a DTC model helps Skims roll out these movie star advertisements extra rapidly.

“As a direct-to-consumer model, they’re capable of be very nimble with their advertising and marketing,” she mentioned. “[Kim Kardashian] handles numerous the inventive and might end up that stuff on a dime, particularly for a digital marketing campaign. It’s tougher to be as versatile and as quick with advertising and marketing for heritage firms with a bunch of brick-and-mortar shops and simply many years of retailing.”

It looks like Skims is doing one thing that legacy manufacturers have struggled to ship within the age of the web: spotlighting various expertise in the appropriate method on the proper time and creating the type of impactful pictures that followers need. Whereas Vogue has tried to function extra folks of coloration in and on the duvet of their magazines — albeit at a gradual tempo — and Victoria’s Secret now caters to a bigger vary of our bodies, these manufacturers haven’t been capable of completely shed the below-par status they developed prior to now or produce branding work that resonates with shoppers.

A few of Skims’ illustrious spokesmodels embrace SZA, Cardi B, the Mahomes household, Ice Spice, PinkPantheress, Kate Moss, Lana Del Rey, Snoop Dogg, Brooke Shields, and Rosalía. Some of the eye-catching picture shoots was appropriately named “Icons” and featured vogue and lingerie fashions reminiscent of Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks, Candice Swanepoel, and Alessandra Ambrosio, all earlier Victoria’s Secret Angels. Apparently sufficient, Skims consumers referred to as out Victoria’s Secret for allegedly copying the marketing campaign with its “Icons Assortment,” which equally forged ’90s supermodels.

Thus far, in contrast to Calvin Klein’s advertisements of yore, there’s hardly any controversy concerned. For probably the most half, Skims’ picture shoots have but to stir an overwhelmingly damaging response. The corporate was briefly in scorching water for that includes San Francisco 49ers participant Nick Bosa in a Skims Males advert final 12 months after some problematic tweets resurfaced. Nonetheless, a short-lived, largely forgettable scandal is paradoxically a feat for Kardashian, whose identify is virtually synonymous with backlash.

The shoots are all tastefully attractive and, in some circumstances — like with the Mahomeses — family-friendly. Relatively than leaning right into a hypersexualized, male-gaze aesthetic like Victoria’s Secret shoots, they depend on magnificence, model synergy, and the cultural local weather and don’t try to actually shock or titillate — properly, besides perhaps within the case of a few of their males’s advertisements.

A lot of Skims’ splashier movie star advertisements have additionally featured and focused older adults. Sorilbran Stone, head of content material advertising and marketing at influencer advertising and marketing firm the Shelf, notes that older millennial and Gen X shoppers have a extra conventional, “old-school” concept of movie star that Skims’ advertisements usually stumble on.

“I feel Skims focuses on content material for younger shoppers and campaigns for older shoppers, which makes it accessible for everybody,” she mentioned.

For instance, in a single sensible 2020 marketing campaign, Kardashian unveiled Skims’ velour loungewear assortment with the assistance of her greatest pal, Paris Hilton. The girly, tabloid-style picture shoot exhibits the pair exiting a grocery retailer and strolling by way of a parking zone, harkening again to their early socialite days being adopted by paparazzi. The informal shoot wasn’t simply leaning into Y2K aesthetic developments. It was additionally capitalizing on Hilton’s reemergence as a foregone cultural determine that millennials have been starting to understand once more and Gen Zers have been presumably changing into aware of.

Stone says Skims has managed to mirror the pursuits of a variety of shoppers with its various casting.

“In case you don’t hearken to hip-hop, then you definately’ve obtained Kim Cattrall,” Stone mentioned. “In case you don’t know who SZA is or no matter — there’s somebody standing within the hole who can loop you into that world.”

We’re residing in peak movie star endorsement tradition

It might probably’t be overstated that Skims is a billion-dollar enterprise due to extraordinarily well-known founder Kim Kardashian, who’s continually posting Skims merchandise on Instagram to her 364 million followers. However the firm has additionally been a word-of-mouth success, with many reluctantly praising the standard of its merchandise. After all, there have additionally been detractors, relating to its alleged unsustainability.

“It does must do with the in depth attain of Kim Kardashian,” Pasquarelli mentioned. “She simply instructions a celeb that numerous others don’t. ”

It’s honest to counsel that Skims’ advertisements additionally thrive due to the panorama of movie star branding and sponcon that she helped foster. After all, the Skims founder isn’t completely accountable for influencer advertising and marketing as an idea. Superstar commercials within the Eighties and ’90s actually set the stage for a lot of what the scene seems to be like at the moment, with Michael Jordan’s myriad model offers and Pepsi and Coca-Cola commercials starring big pop stars.

Nonetheless, in 2024, there’s a noticeable degree of pleasure on social media when a celeb collabs with a well-liked model and the partnership feels good. Ben Affleck and his long-running, closely memed relationship with Dunkin’ is a primary instance. Sarcastically, his trilogy of Dunkin’ advertisements, the third installment of which aired at this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl, seems like the most important cinematic occasion he’s partaken in lately.

“I feel the enchantment of Ben Affleck for Dunkin’ is due to how a lot it performs into meme tradition,” mentioned Vulture author Rebecca Alter, who writes about movie star endorsements. “We’ve all seen pictures of Affleck wanting exhausted fetching his Dunkies, and I feel folks discover it actually endearing and amusing when a celeb performs into the meme picture of themselves, as a result of it’s a picture that followers helped create.”

Usher’s Skims marketing campaign leaned into the attractive picture he’s all the time projected himself however definitely amped up in recent times because the singer went viral for serenading his largely feminine company at his Las Vegas residency. The identical may be mentioned about Lana Del Rey, who was a considerably stunning spokesmodel. Del Rey is extra of a non-public determine and never significantly recognized for shilling something other than her albums and poetry books. Nevertheless it appeared like her followers appreciated the route of the shoot, a callback to the Nineteen Sixties pinup look she’s embraced all through her profession. The picture shoot even earned Skims a whopping $13.7 million in media publicity.

Finally, Skims’ success formulation for promoting is admittedly easy; it’ll all the time have the flexibility to impress so long as different legacy manufacturers are getting it flawed. Time will inform whether or not it could possibly adapt to ever-changing developments in vogue and physique picture. However for now, it’s confirmed to be extra agile and forward-thinking than your older sister’s lingerie store or the shiny editorials resting in a pile in your mom’s nightstand.