American Giant Playbook_Sample

AMERICAN GIANT“don’t get comfortable.”

1THE CLIENT

HOODIES. SWEATS. TEES. TANKS.

American Giant is purely an online venture that focuses on ELIMINATING THE EXTRA LAYERS - getting rid of the big advertising budget, fancy retail stores, and traditional marketing and selling strategy. Why? To limit unnecessary expenditures experienced by its American clientele.

Founder Bayard Winthrop started up American Giant in 2012 to break the current retail trend of poorly made basic-wear from outside the U.S.A. With U.S.-made products of ultra-high quality, AG focuses on creating and strengthening the connection between consumers and the products they use every day and the people who make them.

The brand is about items of clothing AS TOUGH AS THE PERSON WEARING IT. It is the rebirth of American ingenuity and the beginning of the malcontents – of striving TO SATISFY A

GENERATION THAT IS NEVER SATISFIED.

2THE AUDIENCE

Hard work. Extra effort. Achieving the American Dream.

American Giant initially focused on 30+ men. It has since expanded to provide the durable, the tough, the best products for women as well.

How it’s made. How it fits. The quality. The price. This is what is important to American Giant’s audience.

It is for the established generation, the locals that continue to strive toward creating, maintaining, and exceeding the best. It’s not about the all-American. It’s about those always pushing to achieve the dream. For the laborers, for the grinders, for the burden-bearers. These are people who are in the workforce or working to get there.

This is the denim audience. They are looking for something for the every day, for any situation, for the active, gritty lifestyle. They have settled lives, but they aren’t settled.

For the durable.For the tough.For the giant.

THERE IS A GIANT INSIDE OF EVERYONE.

3CORE

MESSAGES

These are products as tough as the person wearing them.

American Giant is always striving to satisfy the generation that is never satisfied.

Those who wear American Giant apparel are durable, tough, giants.

American Giant will work as hard as the people that work hard to move this world forward, to keep this country great, to change lives for the better.

American Giant has designed a hoodie that can’t be killed.

4TONE &

PERSONALITY

HARD

INDUSTRIALRUSTIC

HARD-WON

SOLID

TOUGH

“for us, good enough is the enemy of great.” 5

CHANNEL MAP

Expand channels.

American Giant is great at reposting, retweeting, showcasing where it is mentioned and the recommendations about the apparel. There are beautiful ads on Instagram and Facebook, the apparel is popular in magazines like GQ. Take that further and open up content to the users.

The images American Giant creates are sleek, clean, simple. Take to Tumblr – a platform geared toward the visual audience. American Giant is an action-packed brand for the audience in motion. Let people recycle those images, as high-quality as the products – from Flickr, Instagram.

“we cut no corners. we did this the hard way. we do things the right way.”

THE SOUND- Industrial ("loud pipes," ratatat)

- Solid ("finally moving," pretty lights)

- Rough ("fortune days," the glitch mob

THE FEEL- Known for burnt orange color. Use for bigger, bolder ideas.

- Basic colors with mild variations. From blue to navy. Red to burnt orange. Grays. Whites.

- Natural prints and textures. Wood, steel, linen.

- Simple backgrounds. Not too busy. Clean. Simple. - Sewn right here. Bare hands. Skin. Knuckles. Forearms.

6

LOOK & FEEL

hard

rustic

industrial

THE LOOK

“for us, good enough is the enemy of great.”

USER STORIESLet people see the quality, the strength, the durability in action.

For all that American Giant focuses on the people, there isn’t much content about those people. Showcase the audience. Highlight the achievements and the challenges overcome. Post user-generated content, videos. Hone those down into professional media, compiled by American Giant to showcase the greatest giants. Allow people to strive to become one of those giants – an American Giant.

You can do more than just say that achievements are hard-won. You can show how the people have achieved their goals. Shatter the delineation between the clothing worn and the person wearing it. Make it a partnership. Make it bout how one allows for the other to be great, to demonstrate strength.

7ANCHOR

CONTENT

CREATE THE ACTIONKeep the apparel – and the brand – in motion.

Don’t just record. Don’t just watch. Don’t let the world pass you by. Create the action.

Host a run. American Giant is not a runway type of brand. It has a different type of catwalk. It’s the road, the field, the factory. Film that. Photograph that. Broadcast the audio like an old baseball game.

Break the barriers between actions. Host a race, a group drive, a sprint - not where one might typically think of either. Take to the corn fields, to the warehouses, to the backyards. Make it open, but exclusive. For the locals. Take it to the extreme. In the heat. In the cold. In the desert. In the ocean.

“a cotton set of armor”

LOCAL GIANTSShowcase local heroes, like a community spotlight. Recognize the unsung. Put into practice the idea that there is a giant in everyone – everywhere.

8

LIGHTWEIGHT/SOCIAL

CONTENT

ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTSEven the giants look up to someone.

American Giant has partnered with celebrities, sports stars. Rather than just showcasing their abilities, allow them to honor their mentors, teachers, idols.

What: User-generated contest. Cotton armor for the local hero. Have people send in photos, videos, narratives of who their humble giant is. Who: The community is the audience. The giant is the local hero. When: When the contest closes, the giant is recognized – on the site, on social media platforms, to the American Giant nation.

What: A sports star – an interview, old home videos, quotes from the giant he/she looks up to.Who: A loved one, a coach, an idol, a place. The giant here is not the celebrity, but whoever and whatever it is that helped them become a giant too.Where: This can be showcased across all platforms.

9PAID PLAN

“I liked the image of the humble giant with its sense of power and optimism. I think America's best days are ahead of us, so it felt right to me.”

- Bayard Winthrop

SEARCH PRE- & RE-TARGETING

Focuses on audiences by demographics and search/purchase behaviors. This is active, casual, and comfortable wear. Hone in on the audiences previously and currently searching for similar items. Allow the brand to draw them in.

SPONSORED ADS/CONTENT

Promote ads and tweets on social media platforms. With such visceral images and popular idols showcased in visual ads with great quotes, American Giant’s content is incredibly shareable. Get that content out there and watch it move through platforms, newsfeeds, to different audiences.

MONITORING- Track mentions, year-to-year sales, competitor articles- Create a manageable scale- Analyze

10MEASUREMEN

T PLAN

MEASURING- Public opinion- Media reporting on events, individual campaigns- Target group awareness- Analyze