The Follower Is Dead—Urban Outfitters Adapts to New Social Era

This post was created in partnership with Dash Social.

Urban Outfitters recently went viral on TikTok for identifying a pair of popular boots that were being gatekept—when someone refuses to reveal information about something they don’t want to get popular.

It was easy for the apparel company to figure it out: It was a pair of Azalea Wang cowboy boots sold in the store. Urban Outfitters commented on the post, and created its own video. And, it sent an SMS message to its subscribers letting them know that “there’s no gatekeeping here,” said Cyntia Leo, head of brand marketing and communications at Urban Outfitters, on stage at ADWEEK’s Social Media Week event.

Within 20 minutes of posting the video, the clip had more than 500,000 views. Further, the boot cracked the list of the 10 top-selling products that week, according to Urban Outfitters’ internal data.

It’s part of the retailer’s strategy to lean into comments and content on TikTok to keep the brand top of mind.

“We want to be reactive,” Leo said. “We’re out there, we’re constantly listening, we’re commenting.”

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One of the challenges that Urban Outfitters is facing is that Gen Z no longer follows brands’ social media accounts like millennials and older generations did in the past.

“The era of the follower is dead right now—this is really a time about the algorithm,” Leo said. “Creators help us be in the algorithm, not just being in the platform.”

Urban Outfitters is particularly focused on Pinterest, which Gen Z uses for style inspiration, and Reddit, whose users are highly engaged, to connect with consumers, Leo said.

Working with creators

Urban Outfitters works with a wide range of creators from celebrities, musicians, and customers through user-generated content, Leo said. The strategy is a mix of working with creators to crank out social content and also responding to comments and chatter on social media.

“We do drive a very proactive, planned offense. But we drive a really reactive defense,” Leo said. 

The strategy seems to be working. Ryan Sasaki, chief product officer at Dash Social, helps Urban Outfitters with its social strategy.

During the first quarter of this year, Urban Outfitters doubled its TikTok video views year-over-year. Instagram Reels views tripled over the same time period. And views of Instagram Stories quadrupled. 

By contrast, followers on brands’ social accounts have grown only 1% across all verticals, so brands now have to prioritize metrics like engagement, Sasaki said.

Brands with fewer followers have to work harder to get content discovered in algorithms. But those algorithms can also provide brands with infinite reach, Sasaki said. 

“It’s not just about posting great content on your own feed—it’s about embracing the community,” Sasaki said.