The thinking behind it.
| Moment | Job | How often | Led by | Measured by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cultural / brand | Create desire, conversation and fashion authority | 4 seasonal narratives a year, one per quarter, each living 10–12 weeks; two launched from the Paris shows | Aje: campaign film, PR, house ambassador, music partner, Paris Fashion Week, Aje Table | Branded search, earned media, follower growth by market, full-price demand |
| Product | Make every drop desirable as a chapter of the narrative | Fortnightly, across the three brands; one brand leads each fortnight | Site editorial, organic social, creators, CRM, store windows | Full-price sell-through in the first 14 days |
| Commercial | Drive traffic, conversion and revenue through the occasions in her life | 8–10 occasion moments a year, each led by the brand that fits it, plus always-on search, shopping and the 24/7 programme | Paid media, occasion search, CRM, stylists, stores | Revenue, new customers, cost per new customer, conversion |
| Promotional | Sale, VIP and Black Friday without eroding equity | 2 end-of-season windows, member events, Black Friday as a members' event | Membership, CRM, a separate archive edit; never the homepage | Full-price mix, gross margin, member growth |
The year at a glance (for the slide visual). Confirm the narrative names against Aje's real collection calendar; the occasions are those that drive demand in each hemisphere.
| Quarter | Cultural / brand moment | Commercial moments (lead brand) | Promotional moment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan–Mar | Narrative 1 (e.g. a Resort chapter) | Australian Open and New Year reset (Athletica); back to work (Studio); Valentine's and autumn weddings (Aje); Lunar New Year for Asia | Summer end-of-season sale, members first |
| Apr–Jun | Narrative 2 (e.g. Winter) | Mother's Day (all three); Northern Hemisphere wedding season begins (Aje, international); Euro summer packing (Aje international, Studio) | End-of-financial-year clearance, members first |
| Jul–Sep | Narrative 3 (e.g. the Resort show in Paris) | Euro summer and resort travel (Aje international); spring wardrobe launch (Studio); spring reset (Athletica) | Winter end-of-season sale, members first |
| Oct–Dec | Narrative 4 (e.g. the Summer show in Paris) | Spring Racing (Aje); spring and summer weddings (Aje); work-to-weekend summer (Studio); party season and gifting (all three) | Black Friday as a members' event; Boxing Day end-of-season sale |
Ramadan and Eid are major dressing occasions for the Gulf and should become a Tier 2 moment as Dubai develops; their dates move each year.
Why four cultural narratives? Three narratives across 26 fortnightly drops stretches each story over almost nine drops. Four gives a quarterly rhythm, about six drops per story, and makes the three-month calendar exactly one narrative. A hero campaign every month would spread brand investment too thin; product and commercial moments supply the monthly freshness.
Indicative investment split (starting point to test): about 40% of brand marketing behind cultural moments, 10% behind product moments (mostly owned channels), 40% behind commercial moments (occasions and always-on) and 10% behind promotional moments (mostly CRM). Long-term effectiveness research (Binet and Field) supports weighting brand-building above short-term activation; calibrate the split for Aje with incrementality testing.
Rules that make it work:
- Every drop is named as a chapter of the narrative, never as "new arrivals".
- One brand leads each fortnight's main moment; the others support it, so customers aren't hit with three launches at once.
- Sale is never on the homepage or in the main navigation; it lives in a members-first archive.
- Multi-buy offers (Aje Athletica 2 for $130, Aje Studio 2 for $100) stay inside those brands' pages and CRM, never on Aje or occasion pages, and move over time towards member benefits.
- Black Friday becomes a members' event (early access and a gift with purchase), not a sitewide percentage off.
- Paid media always carries narrative creative at the top of the funnel; product ads sit underneath it.