American Eagle and Athletic Brewing Co CMOs on how marketers can stage a rebellion

First, the trio was prompted to define rebellious marketing in one word. Berit chose purpose, for rebellion without purpose falls flat. Katz chose impact because marketers need to move the needle. Brommers opted for reset, ie just like the one he’s overseen as the fashion brand.

The panel agreed that brand rebellion without the proper timing simply amounts to noise. As vividly demonstrated by American Eagle, aligning cultural pulse with brand conviction turned provocation into profit.

Brommers and Katz represent two sides of the same rebellious coin: one playing with denim and celebrity, the other redefining drinking culture. Yet both attribute their success to the same rare asset – knowing when to strike.

“So much has to be happening in culture for your idea to resonate,” said Katz. “The best entrepreneurs are great at timing.”

For Athletic Brewing, the pandemic was a cultural reset. Millions re-evaluated their drinking habits, and a new wave of moderation emerged. Katz saw the shift firsthand. “I especially was drinking too much,” he admits. “So Athletic came along at the right time with the right product, with the right proposition.”

The brand’s founders, Bill Shufelt and John Walker, anticipated the coming wave of mindful drinking – a rebellion not against nightlife, but against excess. “Eighty percent of our drinkers also drink alcohol,” Katz adds. “It’s not binary. People mix – a beer with a shot, a night out with balance.”

Timing, though, is more than luck.

To conclude, Katz picked out another favorite from the Rebel 50 list, Ora Ring’s ‘Give Us Your Finger’ campaign, “a very New Yorky thing,” which made the sometimes elitist and inaccessible wearables category accessible.

Across the cultural aisle, Brommers engineered a rebellion of a different kind – one measured in stock price. American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney campaign, divisive to some, polarizing, inarguably effective and a phenomenon.

“Being a rebel can reset the conversation. It can reset culture. It can reset the stock market,” Brommers says.

He reckoned that the work sparked “The Great Jean Wars” with strong campaigns from Levi’s and Gap following.

The brand gained a million new customers in eight weeks, and its share price jumped 38% in a single day, the biggest in company history. Yet Brommers insisted it wasn’t about shock tactics, but conviction. “We had pressure from every direction – social, traditional, even from The Drum,” he laughs. “But our team held the line.”

Then came a stroke of luck that proved his thesis. Days after Taylor Swift rocked the discourse with her marriage to NFL star Travis Kelce, his American Eagle campaign launched.

“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than smart,” Brommers admitted. “But we’d been working with Travis for a year. You make your own luck through preparation.”

WeTransfer’s Block emphasized the importance of long-term thinking. A rebellion doesn’t just occur overnight.

She said: “Stunts are great, but a stunt is a stunt. And so for anything rebellious that you do, you probably need to earn the right within your community to do that in the first place. And you can only achieve that through long-term commitment to that community.

“If you stand for something, then you can start to play in that space and have these stunts. But they have to be part of your long-term strategy.”

The Drum’s Rebel 50, created in partnership with WeTransfer Advertising, can be viewed here. Compiled with input from The Drum’s global editorial team and an esteemed panel of industry experts that included marketing professor Mark Ritson, creative leader Shayne Millington, futurist Tom Goodwin and WeTransfer Advertising’s global marketing director, Berit Block, this list shines a spotlight on the individuals tearing up the old rules and writing new ones.

The Rebel 50: American Eagle’s Craig Brommers on why marketers must learn to take risks