PRETTY LITTLE THING: CELEBRITY STAFF, KILLER COLLABS AND SOCIAL WIZARDS

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What do you get when you cross a great brand with a bunch of superstar celebrities?

Answer: A whole lot of success

Company Overview

Valuation: $1.3 billion (Source)

Revenue: $451 million (Source)

Active customers: 6.3 million (Source)

Let’s let them explain who they are…

Yes, Pretty Little Thing is a fashion brand.

Let me be clear…

This isn’t just any fashion brand.

This is one of the fastest-growing brands in the world.

From a 12 item site in 2012 to a billion-dollar company in 2021.

So, how did they do it?

Breaking Down The Strategy

Innovation.

A word that is usually associated with tech companies.

But when it comes to being a modern company.

PLT is right up there.

No, they don’t have self-driving cars or a store in the metaverse - yet.

What they have is a company that is made to operate in the modern world.

Its structure, its employees, its operations…

and its modern take - and huge focus - on marketing.

Killer collaborations, masters of social media and celebrity staff.

Nobody quite does it like them.

Collaborations:

Kourtney Kardashian, Little Mix, Winnie Harlow, Doja Cat, Molly-Mae, Saweetie, Hailey Baldwin, Sofia Ritchie.

To say the list of people who have collaborated with PLT is stacked is an understatement.

This isn’t just simple influencer marketing. These are people who have worked with PLT to create fully-fledged collections, designed, worked on and worn by megastars.

How effective are they from a marketing perspective?

Let’s take a look at PLT X Kourtney Kardashian.

The collection launched back in October 2017 and was pushed heavily across PLT and Kourtney Kardashian’s socials.

PrettyLittleThing’s google searches rocketed on launch. Creating its most dramatic peak in search volume yet, PrettyLittleThing brand searches rose to a whopping 2.24 million.

The best bit about the collection?

It was accessible to all - one of PLT’s values.

You could get that Kardashian look for as little as £12.

Not to mention Molly-Mae’s first (she’s had multiple since) collaboration collection.

Which caused the PLT website to sell out upon launch!

These aren’t the only collaborations that have been a huge success for PLT, they’ve all been a huge success.

But why?

Because it takes the concept behind influencer marketing to a whole different level.

The reason influencer marketing - in the traditional sense of paid posts, etc - works is because we all want to be a little bit closer to the celebrities we love. We want to wear the clothes they wear, use the make up they use and do the things they do.

PLT takes this one step further. The influencers aren’t just getting paid to promote a product - clearly inauthentic - instead, they work with PLT to bring their own collection to life.

You’re not just buying clothes your favourite celebs like. You can buy the clothes they conceptualised, help design and bring to life.

It’s one of the most intimate experiences you can have with your role model - wearing clothes that they created.

That’s not my favourite part of it though.

It’s the fact they make this experience accessible for all - staying true to their values.

They create an intimate experience with people’s favourite celebs, then drop the barrier to entry to the floor.

Social media wizards:

Molly-Mae recently received a huge amount of backlash for her comments on The Diary Of A CEO podcast.

These weren’t the comments that caught my eye though. It was this one regarding the company HQ:

“There’s two sides to the office, you’ve got the tech side with everyone working away on their computers trying to make sure the website doesn’t crash… then you have the young girls on the other doing the TikTok’s and the tweets and the Instagram’s.”

This may seem like a generic statement. But when you think of it literally, it shows how focused PLT is on their social media game and the youthful minds of the people working with them.

If you want your content to relate to your 18-24 target audience, make 18-24-year-olds the creators of your content. It’s that simple. Yet, so many brands fail to do it.

This is a huge reason why PLT is growing so rapidly and at the front line of innovation in fashion.

PLT doesn’t only make their products accessible to all but they also make roles within the company too. They bring in young employees and let their creative minds roam.

17.3 million Instagram followers and later and it seems like these “young girls” Molly talked about truly are social media wizards.

Celebrity staff:

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably already heard that Molly-Mae recently became the Creative Director of Pretty Little Thing.

This announcement went viral - to say the least.

Not only is this great marketing for the company - bringing Molly-Mae’s 6.2 million followers closer to the brand. But it also shows the genius operations and strategy behind the company as a whole.

Who better to lead the creative front of the company than someone who is on the frontline in the trenches of the exact audience PLT wants to reach. Without mentioning the fact Molly clearly knows a thing or two about fashion with all of her PLT collections selling out up to this point.

Now not only does your favourite “influencer” do collections with the company but they may also have the opportunity to work within it.

Whether you’re a fan of Molly-Mae or not you have to

1. Admit this is an amazing achievement for Molly

2. An awesome strategic move for Pretty Little Thing

They said it perfectly and delivered it equisitley.

So much more than just a brand!

The Lessons

No matter what industry you operate in there is a thing or two you could learn from PLT. In fact, there are heaps of things every reader can learn from PLT. But for me, there are two huge lessons that really stand out.

1. Trust in the youth - If you want to be at the forefront of innovation in an industry like fashion, you have to let those who know best take over. When it comes to innovation, it’s more often than not the younger generations who take that prize. Molly-Mae is PLT’s Creative Director - she’s just 22. Bring in young and enthusiastic employees who know the space. Then let their brilliant creative minds roam and take your company to new highs.

2. Be accessible - My personal favourite thing about PLT is how accessible it is. In what world would someone be able to buy an item from a collection that Kourtney Kardashian worked on for just £12 - in PLT’s world!Not only do they ensure that everyone can be involved in the brand budget-wise, but they also have a wide range of styles and sizes to ensure that truly everyone can be a part of Pretty Little Thing.You don’t have to make your product dirt cheap. You simply have to ensure the barrier to being part of your brand/or community isn’t too high.

How To Implement It

If you want to be an innovative company you have to start within.

PLT’s output is on the frontline of fashion trends because the input (employees) is on the frontline of fashion trends.

The inner workings of the company are innovative and so the product and the brand mirrors that.

If you want to be the next Pretty Little Thing:

1. Take a risk on that enthusiastic grad.

2. Don’t just utilise “influencers” in your space, bring them on board.

3. Make your company as accessible as possible.

As always, it’s easier said than done.

But it has been done and it will be done again.

This has been a breakdown of Pretty Little Thing’s marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy into your business!

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I’ll see you next Sunday!