Rather than simply advertise clothes, we chose to break convention and make a statement — celebrating these women in a more singular way than mainstream retail brands have ever had the courage to do. We tapped influential plus size women to elevate our message via their own social media platforms and become the voice of JCPenney’s Boutique+ brand.

We enlisted the help of singer/songwriter Mary Lambert, blogger and designer Gabi Fresh, writer Jes Baker, yoga practitioner Valerie Sagun, and, designer Ashley Nell Tipton to create an unscripted experience where each woman told her unique story.

This approach culminated in a campaign called “Here I am” – a proud statement asserted by our influencers who have been ignored as a result of today’s fashion industry standards. Instead of just launching a clothing line, we stood behind our influencers’ stories and, by extension, stood by the inclusive beliefs on which JCPenney is built.

The national campaign kicked off on June 18th 2016, with an anthem-like online video, featuring five plus size influencers, telling stories that went far beyond how a dress fits. A behind-the-scenes documentary-style web series followed the launch at the end of August, giving people a deeper look into the campaign’s key influencer – Project Runway Winner Ashley Nell Tipton’s – inspirational story and fashion line.

Finally, a live plus-size fashion show was held on September 6th, followed by a media tour and in-store appearances by Ashley Nell Tipton herself, to promote the new line and drive traffic in-store and online as it became available for purchase.

We sparked a conversation never before facilitated by a national mass retail brand. We garnered over 8.8M views across multiple media platforms in less than three months.

The #HereIAm hashtag ignited a movement with over 9K mentions by consumers and media alike. Additionally, we garnered 400,000,000 publicity video impressions through mentions across publications such as Creativity, Adweek, USA Today, US Weekly,

and Latina.

Plus-size outperformed women’s apparel at a faster pace, on average, after the June launch (3.1% above immediately after launch of the campaign). Brand health metrics indicated double-digit increases across the board during nearly 16% increase in awareness, 12% in brand favorability, and 15% increase in purchase intent. Also, shopper scorecard data shows a quarterly increase in advertising persuasion and relevance. All of which indicates that our message broke through the clutter and let our plus size women know that JCPenney is the store for them.