Kate Spade tests TikTok with cheery summer campaign

Dive Brief:

Designer brand Kate Spade New York is dipping its toes into TikTok with a monthlong digital and social campaign that starts this week. The new creative shows masked New Yorkers going about their business before breaking out into dance to Judy Garland's "Get Happy," twirling about the city and ending in Washington Square Park.
Kate Spade's energetic summer campaign intends to express appreciation for New York City and its performing artists, many of whom have lost work over the past year during the pandemic. Beyond TikTok, Kate Spade is running paid social on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook, along with connected TV, a YouTube takeover and out-of-home (OOH) placements throughout New York City.
The new upbeat campaign aligns with Kate Spade's broader push toward associating its brand with joy, an approach initiated around the holidays last year. The current effort to promote Kate Spade's 2021 summer collection includes donating $100,000 to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, which provides mental health education and resources to New York artists.

Dive Insight:

Kate Spade's new dance-focused campaign marks the designer brand's first major push into TikTok. It posted for the first time on the popular social video app in early May and has since seen a jump in views on the platform.

This time around, Kate Spade collaborated with choreographers Todrick Hall, Kelli Erdmann and Dylan Pearce to create a dance routine to complement the choreography in the campaign's anthem spot, weaving in some creative tools that TikTok users may already be familiar with. Tapping these well-known figures from the Broadway scene could help to amplify the campaign and reach a broader network of consumers, especially with the campaign tied to a hashtag challenge that encourages people to share their own dances on TikTok. The hashtag #KateSpadeNYHappyDance has generated 2.8 billion views as of press time.

The upbeat dance-driven effort also aligns with Kate Spade's broader push toward associating the brand with joy. During the holidays last year, it hosted a "9 Days of Joy" sale. In early May, it debuted on TikTok with a video clip described as a love letter to the brand's hometown of New York, set to a tune called "Happy Music."

Since January, Kate Spade has seen three user-generated videos go viral on TikTok, helping to sell out the products featured and potentially encouraging the brand to lean into the platform popular with its customers.

The summer campaign arrives after a strong second quarter, according to earnings results released in February. Kate Spade attracted about 500,000 new customers in the quarter through its digital channels while reengaging existing customers at a rate of 40% more than in 2020's second quarter, Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO of parent company Tapestry, said on the earnings call. Tapestry also reiterated plans in March to grow Kate Spade to a $2 billion brand.