American Eagle’s marketing has been a lightning rod for conversation lately, but some of the retailer’s most interesting moves aren’t necessarily the ones dominating the group chat.
One of the more experimental plays has been happening away from the endless scroll, in a place that feels almost old-fashioned by today’s standards: the inbox.
In May, the brand launched a subscription-based Substack newsletter called Off The Cuff, with the first issues guest-edited by After School writer Casey Lewis. It may not be a Sydney Sweeney-level cultural moment, but that’s partly the point.
The concept is a signal of how retail brands are testing new ways to leverage creators in the chase for authenticity – while also trying to stay sharp as new media channels emerge and consumer attention splinters.
A deliberate step away from “snackable” video culture
What makes Off The Cuff stand out isn’t just the platform choice – it’s the format and intent. The newsletter runs counter to the trend toward ultra-short social video in the TikTok mould, choosing instead to analyse the style zeitgeist through written editorial delivered directly to customers’ email inboxes.
It’s slower, more considered, and less dependent on an algorithm deciding whether the work deserves oxygen.
That tension surfaced publicly earlier this month at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show, where American Eagle’s vice president of marketing, media, performance and engagement pointed to what feels unusual – and therefore valuable – about Substack-style engagement.
The executive highlighted the long-form nature of the channel, describing how readers are consuming content below the fold, top-to-bottom, in a way many marketers rarely see on social feeds anymore. The subtext was clear: in a world of skimming and swiping, uninterrupted attention has become a premium asset.
NRF’s Big Show reveals a wider retail movement
At the annual industry gathering, it wasn’t difficult to spot that American Eagle is not alone in exploring platforms like Substack to sharpen brand voice in 2026.
Retailers are increasingly interested in editorially driven ventures that can deepen identity, create habit, and speak with a tone that doesn’t feel like an advert wearing a trench coat.
This shift also aligns with a reality creators know too well: on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, engagement is increasingly algorithm-dictated, and raw follower counts don’t carry the same weight they used to.
Even for successful creators, there’s a sense that building a community only on-platform is like building a house on rented land – the rules can change overnight.
Creators are diversifying – and retailers are following
During NRF discussions, the head of content, influencer and commerce at Walmart pointed to creators widening the aperture of where they build communities beyond social platforms.
The comment landed because it reflects what many marketers are seeing in the wild: some of the most engaged creators are building communities on Substack, Discord, Reddit and similar spaces, where connection can feel more direct and less performative.
NRF offered further evidence that the creator economy is not a side quest for retail marketing – it’s becoming a central strategy. Total U.S. ad spending on creators was on track to hit $37 billion in 2025, representing a 26% year-over-year increase, according to a November forecast from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Nearly half of marketers surveyed by the IAB identified creator content as a must have, underscoring how quickly influencer and creator partnerships have moved from nice-to-have to boardroom priority.
H&M’s positioning echoed that momentum. The head of brand PR and talent relations at H&M Americas suggested that when something becomes a business priority internally, it will typically come with large-scale influencer strategy backing.
In other words: if the organisation cares, creator strategy follows.
Why Substack (and Beehiiv) suddenly look attractive
So why would retailers lean into channels like Substack and Beehiiv when TikTok Shop and short-form video can drive instant awareness – and sometimes instant sales?
The answer is balance. “Snackable” video is powerful for reach, trend participation, and commerce-enabled conversion. But it’s not always built for depth, nuance, or a long-term narrative.
Subscription-based models open a different door: repeat engagement, routine, and the ability to weave together a brand story that’s hard to accomplish in a six-second clip. Long-form can be compelling precisely because it asks the consumer to slow down.
From a behavioural standpoint, it’s about diving deeper, unpacking ideas, finding information, and establishing a new rhythm – the kind of “I’ll read this with my coffee” habit that social feeds rarely create reliably.
For American Eagle, the Substack experiment stretches the bounds of what influencer marketing can mean. It also nudges against a lazy assumption about Gen Z: yes, they live on smartphones, but many have also expressed interest in ways to slow down and unplug.
An editorial product that lives in the inbox can feel like a calmer corner of the internet – more intimate, less noisy, and arguably more trustworthy.
Building credibility, not just clicks
After the initial issues in collaboration with Casey Lewis, American Eagle enlisted Tariro Makoni, author of the Trademarked newsletter, for additional installments of Off The Cuff.
The rationale, as framed in the wider discussion, is that not everything meaningful happens on a social feed anymore – and the inbox offers an intimate space for perspective and conversation.
Strategically, this kind of work serves a different purpose than traditional influencer marketing. Rather than aiming solely for quick spikes in reach, the goal is credibility, trust, and long-term brand building.
The stated ambition is to engage the current audience in a new way, while also reaching a new consumer who is looking for more in-depth storytelling – a subtle shift from “look at us” marketing to “come think with us” marketing.
The AI factor: community as a hedge against disappearing search visibility
Beyond storytelling, some retailers see community-oriented platforms as a safeguard against artificial intelligence reshaping how brands show up in search.
On Google, AI is increasingly deprecating traditional SEO as attention shifts to AI Overviews – summarised answers that condense information from an array of sources into a single text box.
In that environment, brands that do the heavy lifting to embed themselves in the sources feeding those AI Overviews stand to benefit, according to experts. The CMO of marketing platform Klaviyo pointed to a critical nuance: many forums aren’t producing content in the brand’s own voice, but in the voice of its extended community – and investing in that community can drive more discoverability in search.
That thinking surfaced elsewhere at NRF. An executive from Abercrombie & Fitch described a push toward human-powered brand building, encouraging regular customers and creators to advocate on behalf of the brand to boost visibility.
The approach prioritises editorial content and copy in spaces like FAQs, Substacks and Reddit, rather than relying solely on social video. Abercrombie’s chief digital and technology officer framed this type of content as increasingly important in a world shaped by GEO/AEO – where optimisation is less about keywords and more about being present in the knowledge systems that generative engines pull from.
Content “authority” matters more than keyword crawling
Panelists at NRF broadly agreed that Google’s AI Overviews amplify the need for retailers to become authorities on subject matter relevant to their business. That doesn’t mean abandoning video – it means being intentional about formats that build trust and demonstrate expertise.
Lowe’s is a prime example of that pivot. The home-improvement retailer is capitalising on formats like how-to videos while putting less priority on keyword crawling, and it’s making bigger efforts to strengthen creator capabilities.
Last June, Lowe’s rolled out a creator network to deepen its connection with young consumers, with sign-on from top names like MrBeast.
The retailer’s senior vice president of omnichannel and e-commerce technology summed it up with a familiar phrase and a modern twist: content has always been king – but trusted, authentic content is where generative engines are headed.
Creator content is being repurposed as “working media”
Another theme cutting through NRF panels was how creator content is increasingly being converted into paid media – not just for social campaigns, but also for digital placements, email and even out-of-home.
Several brands argued that creator-led assets, when repurposed as working media, deliver better results than more polished, traditional ads.
The reasoning was blunt: creator content tends to outperform branded assets every single time, and not by a small margin. The implication for retailers is uncomfortable but practical – glossy isn’t always persuasive, and real often wins.
The measurement problem: when ROI gets murkier
Of course, the proliferation and fragmentation of creator channels creates a growing headache: measurement.
CMOs are under increasing pressure to prove marketing supports the bottom line, but return on investment can be looser in emergent channels than it is through direct paid clicks.
That’s where attribution came roaring back into the conversation. Multi-touch attribution – a term marketers love to roll their eyes at until they desperately need it – was framed as more important than ever.
The idea is simple: if measurement focuses only on the last touch (often paid media), it misses how people actually experience brands today, through a web of touchpoints that includes creators, community, editorial and search discovery.
Conclusion: long-form experiments, brand fundamentals, and the danger of shiny objects
For now, initiatives like Off The Cuff may remain what they are: experiments. But they point to something bigger than a single newsletter launch.
Retail marketing is expanding beyond the scroll, leaning into creators as strategic partners, and rediscovering the value of depth – whether that’s in inbox editorial, community platforms, or content designed to be trusted sources in an AI-shaped search world.
At the same time, the caution from the stage feels worth holding onto. The marketing landscape is full of shiny, flashy new things, and chasing every trend can derail even well-funded brands.
The smartest retailers appear to be the ones balancing curiosity with discipline: testing long-form and community-driven channels, yes – but keeping fundamentals at the centre, and remembering that the next big thing is rarely as predictable as the loudest voices claim.
