Episode 142 - Lululemon Dupe Swap Reviewed by Equifax Marketing Services and Breville | Sage
On this week’s Advertisers Watching Ads, we review a brilliant activation by popular brand Lululemon, who’ve allowed their fans to swap dupes of the Align leggings for the real deal, for free, in LA.
The Lululemon Dupe Swap, chosen by Contagious, is endearing the activewear brand to fans, while also being a clever piece of experiential marketing. But does the quick TikTok video convey enough of the on-site experience? Is there more they could have done to enhance this?
Watch the ad and hear from our guests Ian Wright (Chief Insights Officer at Equifax Marketing Services) and Dan Murace (Global Digital Communications Manager at Breville | Sage) on the latest episode.
Episode 142 - Lululemon Dupe Swap Reviewed by Equifax Marketing Services and Breville | Sage
Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!
Dan Moseley 0:00
Welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. The weekly show where we invite brands to review and look at other brands' ads.
Dan Moseley 0:34
This week we're looking at Lululemon Dupe Swap, and I am going to introduce this week's guests.
Ian Wright 0:40
Hello, Ian Wright. I am the Chief Insights Officer at Equifax Marketing Services. No, I'm not the former Arsenal footballer.
Dan Murace 0:47
And I'm Dan Murace, Global Digital Communications Manager at Breville | Sage.
Dan Moseley 0:52
The ad that this week's poll has chosen, thank you to our partners, Contagious, is the Lululemon Dupe Swap. So I'm going to play that right now.
Dan Moseley 0:52
So I would like to offer you to give us a vote out of five for this activation. Oh, okay.
Dan Murace 1:28
As a brand and as a, as a company, they haven't ignored the fact that there are dupes out there. Leading with TikTok and leading with the dupes have allowed them to be quite flexible with what they were doing and show off what the activation was. I think the activation within itself was super smart to sort of bring their creative from their recent ad to life and then having your consumers there being able to video it, take photos, and share the brand. And then I think from just being able to swap and get new products is pretty amazing. Lululemon, I know a lot of my friends are avid Lululemon wearers and adopting a whole new audience or a whole new user into the brand was, is quite a smart idea. What this has shown is they care about their products and they care about the people who buy their products. So it's smart and it's definitely a nice way to get people into the brand.
Ian Wright 2:24
It's very experiential. Kind of any time you can make a touchpoint with your customers. The way they positioned it into acknowledging like, "Yeah, we don't have competition, we've got dupes out there. There's Lululemon, there's everybody else." And you're not educating people on, "Wait, wait a minute. There are dupes out there?" So I think it really played well into their overall brand image. As you said, as being a movement, being something that's experienced and being something that's beyond, you know, a brand label on clothing, but something that people gain excitement about and then doing it through TikTok as well.
Dan Murace 2:57
They are confident in their product and it shows. They didn't call out any other dupes. They didn't call out any other names. They pretty much said, "Give us what you have and we'll replace it with what we have."
Ian Wright 3:10
I think they were kind of making a bold statement that, you know, we are the market, we are the best in the market, but not to do so in an aggressive manner to kind of invite people who aren't part of the Lululemon family right now to be able to experience them. So, yeah, I think it was a great step.
Dan Murace 3:24
And I think another thing to add is when it comes to activations, there's brands like Skims, like Kim Kardashian, she does it incredibly well when she activates Kim's pop ups and you get the live. And I thought that takes a lot of the media presence and a lot of people speak about that. Whereas that, Lululemon coming in the way they did it. It's a different type of activation, but it works and it works so perfectly for Lululemon that I think it's great.
Dan Moseley 3:50
Was there a thing that you didn't like, or you thought wasn't quite doing it for you?
Ian Wright 3:56
I think it was a great that they walked us in and this dance that gave us that store experience and everything. Maybe a little bit more in the excitement of the people who were there? So I could associate myself as being part of that crowd and wanting to be part of that event, if it comes to my city, I'm going to make sure I am.
Dan Murace 4:12
Yeah, I agree. And I think that was and it was very TikTok-focused or TikTok-first. So it was very get to the point. But I think the first time that I saw that on TikTok, it took me a minute to do some research and understand what it is. But I guess if I was within that, if I was part of the target market, and I knew about all the dupes around the Lululemon leggings, I probably would have understood in the moment, firsthand. And with TikTok as well, that algorithm knows who they're speaking to. So the people who saw the content on TikTok would probably be all over it, which would be great for Lululemon.
Dan Moseley 4:51
You know, almost since they began, they've had this approach where creators or, you know, in-store ambassadors, they've got this army of people who kind of advocate for them and they used that to their advantage. It almost felt like in this activation, you know, if you were a brand who had just done brand equity work where you didn't have this mobilization of people to talk on your behalf like this activation, maybe wouldn't be able to happen? You've got it very localized in L.A. if you're not then having the ripple effect of everyone in-store, come here and feel this. So everyone talking about how it feels. You've got that word of mouth engine that's Lululemon have cultivated as a strategy over years and years and years and actually some brands have just gone for the two or three big influencers and not necessarily like that wider spread base. Is that something you kind of feel when you're interacting with Lululemon or just them as a brand?
Ian Wright 5:45
I think they're definitely one of the best sort of implementations of that. You know, you hear lots of brands want to have a relationship with the customer that goes to experience and everybody wants to do experience marketing and tell a story that brings you in and makes you seem more than a transactional exchange. But you develop a relationship and your identity becomes part of that brand. But I think it's very difficult to do, and I don't think there are a lot of brands who actually, can execute it well. There might be some direct-to-consumer brands who try to do that, but it's a small sliver of brands that I think can do it because consumers are wary and they're being kind of told all of those stories over and over again. So they're only going to be something that can really be authentic with it.
Dan Murace 6:25
And I think where Lululemon has taken advantage of this is all those people who did go and did replace their dupes are now or could now act as in micro, micro-influencers for the brand. So they would then or could be posting and comparing and showing and discussing and talking and honestly if you paid $20 for a product and then you just got the real deal for $100, for free, you're going to want to talk about it and you're going to want to post it and show it, and I think that was a really smart move on Lululemon's part because rather than putting all the money into influencers, these are actual real people who have dupes, who can compare and who will talk about their experience with the products.
Ian Wright 7:05
And that'll lend to the authenticity, right? Because I see a friend post that it's just going to be compelled to believe it more and would want to also make that purchase.
Dan Moseley 7:14
The more brands who are trying to convince audiences away from fast fashion or lower cost but high volume items into this, like slightly more quality ecosystem, do you think we'll see more of these activations or campaigns? Do you think they'll be successful in trying to move fashion or younger buyers into that higher price point versus the ease and the convenience of more fast fashion, quick turnaround, those kind of brands?
Dan Murace 7:45
I think the younger consumer is definitely more aware in the products that they're purchasing and the effects that it's having on the environment. All these fast fashion companies are trying to do something about it. I think, as we said before, Lululemon has taken that activation and made it their own. Any brand that is going to be activating poses that risk of what... How is this activation supporting or helping the environment? Or what's this doing? Or how are you actually going to be making change? So I think it's a bit of a fine line between is it just a campaign, an ad campaign that shows this is what we're doing and this is how we're changing it? Or do you then take it to the next level then activate it and bring it to life and, and actually have people touch, feel, and experience what you're doing to change.
Ian Wright 8:31
Yeah, it seems like that the reaction has been very positive to it or for the most part, positive. So I think you will see other brands evaluating whether they can do this but I think it'll be a small number that can. There's so many ways you can misstep on it or if you've got not that very, very kind of influential and committed consumer base who loves your brand and will forgive maybe some missteps because overall you're doing the right thing.
Dan Murace 8:59
It would be interesting, though, to hear if they are going to be scaling this beyond L.A. And also what, what is happening with all of the products, all of the dupes? Where are they going? That sort of has been lost in the whole process.
Ian Wright 9:14
And also how they evaluate the cities that they want to go to next. You know, they concentrate at fan bases or are there more opportunity there? Or is the location also have sort of an image and industry around it?
Dan Moseley 9:25
We are going to see a quick thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs in the middle if you're not quite sure, would you have signed this off in its current format?
Dan Moseley 9:35
Big immediate thumbs up. Brilliant. All right. Well, gents, thank you so much for your time this week. Brilliant activation from Lululemon. So thank you very much, and we will be back.
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