California Apparel News

Fast-fashion retail giant Forever 21 has traditionally kept a low advertising profile, using low-key methods. But in May, the retailer posted several billboards in the Los Angeles area.

Forever 21 Executive Vice President Larry Meyer confirmed in a brief email that the Los Angeles–headquartered retailer will take a higher profile in advertising. Forever 21 Director of Marketing Linda Chang said the retailer has advertised in traditional media and digital media. “Recently, we have chosen to expand our traditional media presence,” Chang said, but she declined to further illustrate the retailer’s strategy. Chang is the daughter of Don Chang and Jin Sook Chang, the company’s founders.

Most of the billboards were installed in April and taken down recently. They featured model Charlotte Free wearing pink streaks in her hair, as well as the Forever 21 logo and company URL. Free was the star of Forever 21’s Spring/Summer 2012 lookbook and campaign. The model’s name also inspired the graphic for the retailer’s “Love Is Free” tank tops, which have recently been sold at Forever 21.

The traditional billboards had Los Angeles–area locations such as the Centinela Avenue exit of the 405 freeway, as well as another off the 10 freeway at the Santa Fe Avenue exit and a super-graphic billboard at Sunset Boulevard and Alta Loma Road in West Hollywood. U.S. advertising is developed in-house, and the Charlotte Free images offered an opportunity to make a statement, Linda Chang said.

“While we typically do not employ much traditional advertising, we felt that our Spring/Summer ’12 campaign captured the overall essence of our brand,” Chang said.

Forever 21’s experiment with billboard advertising could mean the company is taking pains to differentiate itself from competitors, such as Swedish fast-fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz, and up-and-coming fast-fashion retailers, such as Love Culture, ANGL and Justice.

H&M often advertises on billboards, but Love Culture, ANGL and Justice do not, said Mitesh Solanki, co-founder of the Los Angeles–based Creative Intellects advertising agency. Budgets are always a big factor with advertising decisions, Solanki said.

“Fast fashion does a good job with digital advertising,” Solanki said. “It is more cost-effective. It reaches a wider audience. But fast fashion has pretty slim margins. They can’t operate the business and keep cash flowing if they are spending too much on advertising.”

In recent years Forever 21 has eschewed traditional billboard advertising in favor of non-traditional marketing. In June 2010, Forever 21 introduced an interactive digital billboard at its Times Square store in New York. Developed with advertising agency Space 150, the digital billboard depicted giant images of models taking pictures of people in the crowds outside the Forever 21 store. The retailer then dropped those images onto store shopping bags.  Forever 21 also used the digital billboards in several other locations across the globe, including Tokyo’s Shibuya district; the Capitol Centre in Hong Kong; Antwerp, Belgium; and London and Birmingham in the United Kingdom.—A.A.