Syd for Short-form: American Eagle Gets Social Right

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Social media still presents a major effectiveness challenge for brands, with the average Star Rating for US social ads standing at a low 1.7-Stars. With attention on social media so precious, scrolling so fast and ads in cut-throat competition with all other short-form content, making a social ad that entertains and drives attention is more than tough.

American Eagle’s solution to this is to lean into celebrity, relevance and a spot of mystery. They recruited current ‘It Girl’ Sydney Sweeney for their short-form video ad promoting their jean shorts range. Sweeney asks the viewer what brand she’s wearing, and a series of rapid cuts show her in the jean shorts before she reveals the answer, along with a pun on her name: SYD FOR SHORT.

Picking Sydney Sweeney for American Eagle’s ad is a good choice – she’s a celebrity with cultural heat, already highly popular on social media and the subject of a lot of speculation around her life and opinions. If she’s going to be showing up in people’s feeds anyhow, all the better if she’s advertising your brand.

As we describe in our The Long And The Short (Form) Of It report, social media is all about personalities, from influencers to celebrities. Picking the right creator or celebrity spokesperson can help a brand cut through in the fierce battle for viewer attention.

For American Eagle, that’s borne out by the second-by-second attention stats we record on Test Your Ad Social. At 10 seconds into the 15-second ad, 93% of viewers in our sample are still paying attention, versus the average of 84%. The question-and-answer format “Syd For Short” uses keeps the audience’s focus.

There’s also a big emotional difference in response to this versus the average social media ad. Positive emotions – Surprise and Happiness – jump from a combined 45% to a majority 60% for American Eagle’s commercial, which helps drive up Star Rating to 3.0-Stars. Remember that social video ads have a low average – a 3-Star ad in this format lands in the top 10% of all social video work.

Where the ad underperforms for now is Fluency, which is low, reflecting that “Syd For Short” relies on its star more than its brand. But Fluency at 72% is still only slightly below the social video average, and the brand is already in the top 3 associations viewers have with the ad. With the mystery of what Syd’s wearing resolved, future work in the campaign can use stronger branding from the start.

“Syd For Short” is relevant and resonant to a social media audience, catching a cultural moment well and turning it into a mysterious but effective ad. In a channel where effective work is still rare, it’s a short but sweet exception.