Urban Outfitters - PRNewser

10 of the Best Brands on Vine

Patrick Coffee — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:59:22 +0000

Twitter’s Vine short video sharing service is the new thing. You’ve probably heard of it–you may have even seen what was supposed to be the world’s first Vine press release. And you’re going to keep hearing about it, because six-second video loops are quick, impressionistic and perfect for our social media age.

Laugh if you must, but some brands have already proven this newest buzzy toy to be a worthy tool for spreading the (branded) message around social media. We searched the Internet high and low to find some examples of brands using Vine to get their names out there in creative ways–along with a couple that don’t quite make the cut.

1. General Electric: We don’t even care whether GE’s “six second science” series directly promotes the company’s products. It is awesome.

What happens when you combine milk, food coloring and dish soap? #howto #6secondscience vine.co/v/bXJAmFLBaat

— General Electric (@generalelectric) February 28, 2013

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Girls, Urban Outfitters Want to Pay Your Rent for a Year

Patrick Coffee — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:22:26 +0000

This week marks the return of HBO‘s Girls (and the many, many articles telling us why we should love it, hate it or stop complaining about it). We don’t really have too many feelings about the show one way or the other, but we would like to point out the creative promo contest dreamed up by HBO and Urban Outfitters:

The two brands, which happen to have similar Millennial (and, let’s face it, largely female) target audiences, will provide one lucky winner with a full apartment makeover and a year’s worth of free rent–all fans have to do is follow both accounts on Twitter and tweet Instagram shots of themselves in their totally awesome apartments along with the hashtag #UOxGIRLS to enter! (We would mention that said “makeover” is really just a $5000 gift certificate to Urban Outfitters, but hey–ironic t-shirts might double as wallpaper.)

Jezebel reminds us that the Girls themselves are way too concerned with “authenticity” to shop at UO and that HBO’s various product placement and promotional deals go against the show’s hyper-realistic, anti-consumerist tone.

This is probably true. But it’s still a pretty good idea for a campaign.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

5 Great 2012 Instagram Branding Campaigns

Patrick Coffee — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:55:40 +0000

There’s been a bit of drama on the social media photo-sharing front recently, hasn’t there? We didn’t spend too much time following the playground Twitter vs. Instagram “filter fight” that had tech bloggers wondering which property would come out on top or the recent outrage over new privacy policies–and we still think Instagram will be the visual branding tool of choice for the foreseeable future.

On that note, we thought we’d highlight a few successful Instagram projects from 2012 via brands that know how to do visual PR.

(Quite a few brands have great Instagram accounts, but for the purposes of this post we only considered theme-driven branding campaigns.)

Five names that stood out in 2012:

Click through for some notes on each:

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What the F*ck Is Urban Outfitters Thinking?

James F. Thompson — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:23:29 +0000

For retail brand Urban Outfitters–which targets the edgy, insubordinate teen demographic with such classic subject lines as “We’re having a FLASH SALE! And that seriously NEVER happens!”–pissing off the Christian “culture warriors” at One Million Moms should be considered collateral success. The two groups clearly have little in common, except for one odd thing:

The chairman and founder of Urban Outfitters is 68-year-old conservative Richard Hayne, who once donated thousands to former Senator, uber-Republican and failed presidential aspirant Rick Santorum. Yes, this is where the semantics get complicated.

All PR professionals know that successful brands are built on a foundation of values, promises and attributes that collectively comprise brand identity—including individuals who run or work for the brand. For example, when the public thinks of Virgin Airlines we see the flowing white locks of unfettered free spirit Richard Branson.

Sure, Mr. Hayne may not be the face of Urban Outfitters, but he is a vital part of the brand’s internal workings. So the public can be forgiven for asking “What the f*ck was he thinking?” when this year’s Urban Outfitters holiday catalog featured a “Let’s F*cking Reminisce” book and a “Merry Christmas B*tches” mug among other profanity-emblazoned offerings ranging from candles to T-shirts.

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More Poorly Executed Hurricane Sandy PR

Patrick Coffee — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:35:06 +0000

Add Gap to the list of brands criticized for releasing Sandy-themed marketing messages during the storm. First there was American Apparel‘s “Sandy Sale“; then there was the Urban Outfitters email blast reading: “This storm blows (but you know what doesn’t?)” Yeah, that would be free shipping on all orders.

On Monday, Gap’s official Twitter feed earned negative feedback (and a full Mashable post) for trying to do the impossible: making statements of support for hurricane victims while simultaneously performing its primary purpose and promoting the Gap brand. Here’s the offending message:

OK, is this message insensitive? It could be seen that way, considering the fact that many who live in the affected area are currently without power and others suffered damage to their homes during the storm. Is it dumb? Certainly, because we can’t imagine too many people counting the hurricane lockdown period as a perfect time to buy chinos online. Was it “on brand”? Absolutely. Again, the purpose of the feed is, above all else, to promote the Gap.

Should we be offended by it? Come on.

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Summer is Off to a Crap Start for Urban Outfitters

Tonya Garcia — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:39:53 +0000

I heart California from the truche jewelry line

Urban Outfitters might not be enjoying the Memorial Day weekend as much as the rest of us now that a jewelry copycat caper is ping-ponging all over social media.

Earlier this week, a jewelry designer simply known as Stevie with a Tumblr account, i make shiny things, and an Etsy store called truche wrote a post about how Urban Outfitters stole her design. Everything right down to the name of the line of trinkets. “The World/United States of Love line that I created is one of the reasons that I was able to quit my full-time job,” wrote the designer.

Her story is getting major pick up, with some commenters calling for a boycott.

*Update after the jump.

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Social Media in Vogue at Fashion140 Conference

Nancy Lazarus — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:33:51 +0000

Anne Hathaway’s character in The Devil Wears Prada might have thought twice about tossing her cell phone at the end of the movie if Twitter and mobile apps had been available then. How these platforms and the real-time web are reshaping the fashion industry were the topics discussed at the Fashion140 conference in New York last week.

Many of the speakers agreed that fashion is a natural fit with social and digital media since it involves visually-oriented brands in a taste-based category where the opinions of one’s peers count. As Lauren Indvik, associate editor at Mashable commented, “Shopping is rarely a solo endeavor.”

Digital media advances have impacted many aspects of the fashion world, as evidenced by five key takeaways from the day:

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