American Eagle Outfitters lingerie brand Aerie launched its Love Your Selfie campaign complete with a hashtag and the world?s largest un-retouched selfie. 

Duff actress Mae Whitman, model Hannah Bronfman and blogger Sincerely Jones posed with more than 1,000 women in Miami Beach, FL, all clad in Aerie swimwear and T-shirts. The group took the world?s biggest unedited selfie on March 7 at Mondrian South Beach Pool in Miami Beach.

?This approach gives AE a way to talk to their primary consumer in ways that consumers use technology to interact,? said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis, Atlanta. ?The mobile devices inform the relationship as well as allowing a faster way to expand the Aerie consumer base. 

?For example, Aerie has under 14,000 Twitter followers, but because this is a cool picture,  Glamour Mag retweeted and sent it to about a million followers, pretty cheap marketing cost,? she said.

With the love your selfie campaign, Aerie is encouraging women to celebrate the real version of themselves and post unedited pictures to social media with the hashtag #AerieREAL. This is promoting Aerie?s "Best Bikinis Under The Sun" swimwear collection in time for the 2015 spring and summer season. 

Largest selfie
Tropical aerial landscape photographer Gray Malin continued the photo shoot with shots of the pool from a helicopter. Aerie models Iskra Lawrence and Elizabeth Khinez were also in attendance. 

Aerie will continue its promotion of the hashtag #AerieREAL along with the takeover of its bricks-and-mortar stores and American Eagle stores.

The swimwear line features various popular swimsuit trends through the years such as reversible suits, hi-rise bottoms, strappy backs, floral prints, tie-dye and mix-and-match sets. It is an adaption of the lingerie brand?s intimate and everyday apparel.

Mobile strategy
In addition to using social media accounts for marketing, American Eagle features an application for Aerie. The app allows you to shop both brands and promotes the #AerieREAL hashtag and #AEOSTYLE. 

The retailer's customers can also receive notifications of sales and events, buy gift cards, locate stores, receive discounts and enter contests. A scanning feature can also be found to see product details.

Aerie's mobile shop app

Women?s empowerment campaigns are a common trend in marketing. It is a smart idea to support women?s issues and raise awareness for the brand. 

Dove?s Real Beauty campaign is one of the most popular social campaigns. Also, Black Opal recently held a similar social media strategy with the hashtag #IDefineMyBeauty (see more).

"In the short term, it may be wildly successful," Ms. Troutman said. "I am not sure what the planned results for the campaign are.

"Getting likes, retweets, followers, actual store sales or any or all of these things may have positive outcomes," she said. "Social media and bloggers can really assist in smoothing out messages and consumer responses. Clearly the emphasis on real or natural has tonal characteristics that humans respond to positively."

Final Take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily, New York