Lane Bryant, known for plus-sized fashions, suddenly found itself perfectly suited to fitting the average, size 14 woman. However, the old image of matronly clothing clung to the brand. We were charged with relaunching a specialty store that was no longer special. Recognizing there was a brand stigma in which fit was more important than style, our brand catalyst was the introduction of Cacique, Lane Bryant’s sexy intimate line. We introduced a campaign to convey, "Sexy is not a size," but TV Network censors disagreed. They declared the work too sexy and demanded changes. We immediately reengineered our campaign from paid media to earned media. We took our message to the Internet, allowing our customers to hijack the brand and make their feelings known. Millions of YouTube viewings and thousands of news stories and blogs later, we successfully moved the brand from irrelevancy to vibrancy and success.In all, there was over $43 Million in earned media. Due to the social upheaval, Fox finally ran the TV spots, as well as extras at no charge.

When the business trend was -40%, the campaign results were: Web Sales +205%; Magalog Sales +93%; Loyalty Mail +50%; Bra Sales +32%; Panty Sales +19%

Recognizing there was a brand stigma in which fit was more important than style, our initial brand catalyst was the introduction of Cacique, Lane Bryant’s intimate line. Our intention was to convey that sexy is not a size and beauty comes in small, medium and large.Unfortunately, as we sent the TV spots to the networks to air, they were declined multiple times for being...SEXY! Those same networks actually aired Victoria’s Secret ads and often flaunt breasts and bikinis on their shows. We were outraged and our job was to make sure the public was outraged as well. We immediately reengineered our campaign from paid media to earned media. The rejection letters from the TV networks were published on the Lane Bryant blog as a starting point, simply bringing the conversation to the table. From then on, we let consumers hijack the brand and allowed them to speak their minds.

In less than six days, Lane Bryant was on thousands of blogs, websites and programs, including The Today Show, CNN, CBS News, ET, SNL and Leno (twice).

We averaged one Tweet every 30 seconds and our spot became the most viewed YouTube video in the world two weeks running. Over all, there was over $43 million in earned media. Lane Bryant is now enjoying comp sales and consideration lifts that would have normally taken decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to achieve. Here are some key results of the campaign - all at a time when the business trend was –40%.Business Results:Web Sales +205% *Magalog Sales +93%*Loyalty Mail +50%* Bra/Panty Sales +32%*Store Traffic +22% (a 50%+ shift)*Perceptual/Attitudinal Results:Brand consideration +32%*Brand style perception + 28%**Lane Bryant and agency data