Anthropologie’s strategy raises the bar with focus on imagery and user-generated content

Not many companies would put Instagram at the center of a content marketing strategy, but apparel retailer Anthropologie knows that its customers are all about the picture. Even the home page of its blog is configured tile-like, looking more like Pinterest than a blog, appealing to that hunger for visuals that customers bring to Anthropologie’s various channels. 

The strategy derives from a desire to connect with current and prospective customers daily across all of the brand’s properties. This means not only pushing content out, but inviting content back in: A page dedicated to images that customers share of themselves decked out in Anthropologie clothing pairs those photos with images of the same items worn by models, making customers part of the picture. 

The content the company posts is vetted for a number of factors, including its shareability, as well as its timeliness; the company brings a newsroom mentality to its content, reviewing all material scheduled for publication on a daily basis to ensure it’s timely, relevant, and interesting. Feedback of all kinds is collected and shared across the entire brand, not just the marketing team, creating an even deeper connection between company and customer. 

Overall, we haven’t seen many content marketing strategies that hit all the right notes, are planned so meticulously, and are executed with such class and style. Our congratulations go out to the entire Anthropologie communications and content team, as well as the art direction and photography team, for their win of the Grand Prize for Best Content Marketing Strategy in Ragan’s 2014 Content Marketing Awards.