#9 have the marc jacob's tiktok influencer collabs gotten out of hand?
Time and time again, marc jacobs have shown they understand their Gen Z audience, but are they going to burn out?
Take a scroll on Marc Jacobâs TikTok page. Does it look like a luxury brand's TikTok account? The answer is a 1000% no. From collaborations with Rahul Mehmi singing in his mundane bedroom ringlight setup in full bedazzled Marc Jacobs, Wizzie the masked and costumed wizard in 10 inch tall Marc Jacobs heels to Nates.Vibe dancing their TikTok famous dance to the trending sound, âIâve Been a Nasty Girlâ by Tinashe.
The New York City based label owned by the luxury conglomerate LVMH has turned to influencers to promote its products on their social media platform and undoubtedly, it has been a roaring success with their Gen-Z audience. Many influencer partnership videos have garnered more than 300,000 views, and five have surpassed the one-million mark. By contrast, several videos on the account that do not feature influencers have less than 30,000 views. There have even been comments and video commentary on the Marc Jacobs marketing team, applauding the person responsible for all the influencer collaborations. So much so, the account dueted a video asking for a raise.


Safe to say, Marc Jacobs has nailed it.
But havenât they always?
Letâs look at Heaven by Marc Jacobs, theyâve always shown that they understand their young audience. The subsidiary brand is a âgateway into the sprawling and enigmatic omniverse of the Marc Jacobs subversionâ. To put it more clearly than Jacobs, Heaven is a collection aimed at teens. And by god have they aimed with precision. While the grungy Y2K glamour of the collectionâs clothing is not to be ignored, it doesnât take a genius to tell you thatâs not all theyâre selling.
Heavenâs instantaneous popularity is outrageous in of itself, but especially so within the context of Marc Jacobs history. In just 2018, the New York Times claimed Jacobs had fallen âout of fashionâ and âno longer understood what customers wantâ. After spending a few years conducting what can only have been the most intensive customer feedback ever produced, Jacobs smugly returned with Heaven.
Since its inception in 2020, the line â inherently linked to â90s grunge and rave, with a modern twist â has managed to carve itself a unique space in a way few retailers have managed in the era of TikTok. Even the curation of the London store is paradigmatic of a 90s bedroom, from the iconic movie posters, fluffy rugs, and 90s memorabilia.


Is this type of marketing sustainable?
While Marc Jacobs encourages employees to drive sales and engagement on TikTok, Farah Maloof, the platformâs head of fashion and luxury partnerships, sees advertisers using the social app to rebrand themselves, drive omnichannel awareness and reignite âcreator led commerceâ an âoldie but goodie.â
Instead of trying to hawk products and markdowns on TikTok, brands should focus on clearly communicating their story. âYouâve got to build awareness for your product across the entire ecosystem,â Maloof said. She added, âYou have to lay that foundation to familiarise people with your brand at a fairly high frequency so that theyâre inspired, they love the vibe, and then theyâre eventually making that part of their overall discovery journey to eventually purchase.â
But is it sustainable? Yes and no.
The tactic of itâs marketing might just die as quickly as it rose to fame. Despite it being successful right now, itâs hard to imagine their TikTok account to continue to be dominated by just TikTok influencers doing whatever they do but just wearing Marc Jacobs. Letâs face it, Marc Jacobsâ videos are so successful BECAUSE of those influencers and it doesnât necessarily mean its views will convert into sales. Of course, it raises more brand awareness among the younger generation, but at the end of the day, clothes sell because they look good, and consumers want to shop on the runway. Their videos are trending because all the influencer collabs are just a bit unexpected.
However, naturally as people may get bored of seeing these videos, Iâm sure the brandâs marketing team will be ahead of the curve to find tomorrowâs trending tactic.