Macy's is drawing on events like the Thanksgiving Day Parade to grow its creator program

"Macy's creator program, which is called Style Crew, launched in 2017 as an internal initiative, with about 20 employees. In 2022, it branched out to include external creators in niches like beauty and menswear. Today, Style Crew has about 600 members - the vast majority of whom are everyday influencers - who promote products, appear in marketing materials and drive traffic to Macy's website. Macy's hopes to soon grow the program to 1,000 people, said Andrea Port, senior director of social media content and influencer marketing at Macy's."

"The goal of Macy's Style Crew, as the department store sees it, is to leverage its members' strengths - whether that's recommending products, spotlighting deals, or filming and editing engaging videos - as a way of embedding influencers directly into Macy's broader marketing efforts. On its own, Macy's Style Crew is not the main driver of "demand sales," Port said. However, it does bring traffic to Macy's.com, and its creator storefronts have seen a 478% year-over-year spike in sales. Now, Macy's is looking to build Style Crew even more, particularly through unique programming, to deepen engagement with its brand."

""Aligning IP events with in-real-life influencer programming is going to be really important for us this year," Port said. "We have a really big year ahead of us. We have our 100th Thanksgiving Day Parade and our 50th Fourth of July Fireworks. Influencer is one of those tactics that will help drive that conversation for us.""

Macy's Style Crew began in 2017 as an internal initiative and expanded in 2022 to include external creators across niches such as beauty and menswear. The program now includes about 600 mainly everyday influencers who promote products, appear in marketing, and drive traffic to Macy's website, with a target of growing to 1,000 members. Style Crew contributes web traffic and saw a 478% year-over-year increase in creator storefront sales, though it is not the primary driver of demand sales. Macy's plans more in-person programming and event-aligned campaigns tied to major IP events to deepen brand engagement while pursuing broader corporate strategy changes.

Read at Modern Retail