DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The words “Be Your Own Boss” lit up the Dubai desert sky last weekend as the brand unveiled its see now buy now spring 2022 collection in a film featuring a choreographed army of celebrities, influencers, and content creators marching across the sand dunes in relaxed sportswear. Actors, sports figures and TikTok stars celebrated together at a camp in the desert, staking their place as the future of the brand once best known for its tailored suiting. Led by the catchy viral new tagline, Boss is quickly reshaping how they are viewed in the marketplace.
“The Dubai event is yet another important milestone in our branding refresh for Boss and in turning customers into true fans for the brand,” said Hugo Boss chief executive officer Daniel Grieder.
Creating new fans was one of the biggest challenges facing Grieder when he took the helm of Hugo Boss last June. The company’s aging customer base stagnated its growth. But Boss started the new year with a bang, unveiling a campaign that flooded social media and global billboards with images of celebrities and influencers in neutral toned hoodies emblazoned with the brand’s new logo.
In a little over three weeks the signature Boss hoodie is nearly sold out and has become the best-selling single style in the history of the company. Net sales for Boss since the brand campaign went live on Jan. 26 increased by 248 percent (from 1.3 million euros to 3.3 million euros), the company revealed to WWD.
“There are brands today that are surviving and there are brands that are thriving. I can say in this moment, we are really, really thriving,” said Miah Sullivan, senior vice president of global marketing and communications for Hugo Boss.
Sullivan, who joined the company a month before Grieder, has been one of the key architects of the change. “We have moved fast. We’re really pushing the gas, creating a lot of momentum and brand heat with the relaunch,” she said.
The strategy to appeal to younger consumers actually goes back to the brand’s heritage, said Sullivan. “Hugo Boss has always been the brand for successful people. But in today’s world success is defined in a different way. It doesn’t mean being the manager anymore. It means writing your own story. A ‘boss’ is a person who leads a self-determined life, by your own rules and finding your own way.”
To reflect the modern definition of a boss, it was critical to emotionalize the brand, said Sullivan. They turned to content creators to develop authentic messaging. “If you are going to be a marketer today you always have to be learning. For example, we are working with a 17-year-old TikTok genius in Miami who lives at home with his parents. We have a proxy photographer for him here in Dubai who he is giving direction on what to shoot so he can create our social 3D content.”
The social media-first approach means working in new ways. “At one point recently I was in bed in my pajamas in Germany taking a video call with six creators between the ages of 17 and 19 brainstorming ideas.”
Boss’ marketing budget increased from 6.5 percent of total turnover to 8 percent with the rebranding, but more importantly, said Sullivan, the way they allocate that has changed. “We are very clever in how we spend.”
For the hoodie campaign, Boss cast 200 of who Sullivan describes as “the biggest bosses in the world” to help them reach a new audience. Some are very recognized faces in fashion – like models Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner. However, one of the hottest young stars for the brand is TikTok sensation Khaby Lame. He first walked for Boss in Milan in September in a social media first show with Russell Athletic. At the time no fashion brand had ever collaborated with him. The event got 15.9 billion impressions on TikTok and over 33 million social media engagements.
“And to think just 15 months earlier Khaby had lost his job and was unemployed, making videos in his free time and now he is the most famous influencer on TikTok,” said Sullivan. “That’s the ultimate boss.
“Because we are measuring everything on social media we could see who consumers were responding to after the show, and then we immediately went into deals and negotiations for brand ambassadorships. Boss also signed Italian tennis champ Matteo Berrettini and German runner Alica Schmidt. We find these unicorns and they become part of the Boss family.”
The partnerships with ambassadors are full 360 approaches. Two capsule collections co-created with Lame are in the pipeline. He and his team also consult on social media content. Boss also debuted a tennis capsule collection co-designed with Berrettini earlier this year. Schmidt’s capsule collection will be out for fall 2022.
Taking a data-driven social media-first approach for Boss has been fruitful. “For our last show in September, five times what we spent came back within two months in revenue,” said Sullivan.
A critical part of their success, said Sullivan, was that they could pivot quickly. “Daniel Grieder has this philosophy of the ‘speed of trust’ so we are able to make quick decisions because we have the resources and permission to sign the contracts quickly once we see the data.
“Even our big event here in Dubai. It was only 20 days ago we decided to do this here. As marketers we used to be so rigid, it was all about planning and forecast and calendar. But since the pandemic hit we had to become fast, flexible and adaptable. You always have a plan, but because of COVID-19 you always have a backup and do what works and get the most out of it.”
Boss brought five different crews to Dubai to shoot. Etienne Russo did the fashion film that unveiled the collection, but simultaneously other crews were shooting social media content, which is slowly being rolled out on the brand’s channels and with collaborators.
For Sullivan, the sales numbers are one part of the measure of success. “The next step is to measure and monitor on how people feel about the brand. Are we moving from heads to hearts? Do they love the brand? We need to do more emotional side data tracking, rather than just the rational side.”
Boss will be rolling out a social series called “Monday Motivations” featuring messages from its brand ambassadors on Mondays. “Because if you’re going to be a boss, you have to take care of your mind,” said Sullivan.