Hanes has been around for decades and had a famed partnership with Michael Jordan spanning over 30 years. Despite the brand’s visibility, it faces serious competition: Brands like Nike and Under Armour sell undies and other clothing, while newer ventures like Skims and Parade have successfully profited within the industry.
To stay relevant, Hanes employs a multi-pronged advertising strategy, which includes heavily advertising across Amazon ad offerings, Dawn Hedgepeth, CMO of HanesBrands Innerwear and Hanes Apparel, told Marketing Brew. The messaging strategy focuses on leveraging Hanes’s reputation to build awareness of its newer products, while also experimenting with a broad array of advertising mediums.
It’s even active on Amazon Freevee, which was supposed to be sunsetted earlier this year, according to Adweek, after Prime Video debuted ads.
Spread the word: Since ads on Prime Video debuted in late January, it’s significantly influenced the ad ecosystem: Scores of brands have bought ads on the new offering, which can reach over 200 million monthly viewers. Prime Video ads have been so attractive that Netflix has dropped its ad rates compared with last year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
While Prime Video ads may be the talk of the town, Hanes still sees value in activating on Freevee, Hedgepeth said. Hanes wants to reach a large segment of consumers with affordable products, and Freevee is accessible to a larger audience outside of only Prime users.
“It’s free to any Amazon customer, not just people who have Amazon Prime,” she said. “It’s an audience extension for us, but it also fits nicely with our brand, and it felt like a good space to test.”
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Hanes’s embrace of advertising opportunities within Amazon doesn’t end there: The brand is also experimenting with ads on Amazon-owned Twitch, as well as working with Amazon-focused creators, according to Hedgepeth.
And yes, Hanes also buys ads on Prime Video.
The brand recently undertook a full-funnel marketing campaign on Amazon for a new product, Hanes Comfort Fit Scrubs, she said. The brand was looking to build a full-funnel campaign to drive awareness of the clothing.
“We wanted to make an entrance into a new category, and a key piece of that was to create awareness for the product and to tell our story to the right audience early on,” she said. “As you might imagine, the Hanes brand has a very high level of awareness.”
Hanes bought ads across Amazon’s ecosystem to drive consumers toward purchase, including online video and display ads like Freevee ads, which supported retargeting and contextual targeting, Hedgepeth said. Given that consumers can purchase products on Amazon after seeing an ad served on its platform, Hanes sees Amazon as a valuable tool for testing consumer responsiveness to campaigns.
One leg at a time: While Amazon may be attractive to Hanes, it’s by no means the only platform where Hanes is experimenting, Hedgepeth said. The brand is leaning into a mix of paid and organic influencer partnerships for its products, and recently debuted a campaign with singer Victoria Monét for one of its lesser-known brands, Maidenform.
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