Depop’s CMO on Why the Brand Has a Natural Place in Culture
“How can we get our brand into culture?” (Said by every marketer, ever, since c. 2015)
It’s become clear that brands and businesses can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines when it comes to what is making and shaping culture. But hijacking and jumping on every meme and trend is not the answer. Consumer expectations mean that brands can’t just respond and react (that’s table stakes, and often dangerous) to what is happening in culture.
Instead, brands must be enduring, meaningful and sustainable.
This is the thought behind Brands & Culture, a conference taking place on November 7th 2024 at London’s Ministry of Sound.
One of the many experts speaking at the intersection of brands and culture is Peter Semple, chief marketing officer of Depop. He’ll be speaking about earning, not chasing, cultural influence and how to shape, rather than attach brands to culture.
The brands that do it best are the brands that play a loooong game. Memes undeniably work in the moment – they can fuel short-term awareness, relevance and sales, but what does a cultural long-game look like? Peter will reflect on the duality of short-term, “transactional” cultural hijacking v. long-term brand transformation.
Ahead of the event, LBB’s Alex Reeves caught up with Peter about why the way Depop plays its role in culture can inspire other marketers.
LBB> How has Depop found its place in culture?
Peter> Through listening to and partnering with its community of buyers and sellers, and through finding ways to create things which contribute to culture or cultural conversation. The people who sell and buy on our platform have been helping to popularise secondhand fashion and drive forward resale culture for over a decade. Our role has always been helping them to do that, and bringing the message to as many people as possible.
There have been big cultural shifts in how people want to buy and own fashion, and engage with brands over the past decade – and our community has been at the forefront of a lot of that: championing circular models and driving a movement that’s made secondhand much more desirable to an ever-widening audience.
A new generation of creators and consumers gravitated towards Depop in its early days because it offered them a new, exciting way to buy and sell, and express themselves in doing so. That energy and creativity and communal spirit still shapes what the marketplace is today, even as we now speak to a much broader audience.
LBB> What are some of the ways that the brand has built its credibility long term?
Peter> We aim to contribute to conversations and to culture through the work we do – we want our input to be additive or provocative, and to give people something valuable to talk about.
There are three areas we’ve focused on to build resonance and credibility:
- Strengthening authentic connections with people, brands and moments that matter for our audience. That includes platforming influential members of our community, forging relationships and partnerships with ideologically aligned brands and talents, and putting our sellers and buyers front-and-centre of everything (from casting them in our ads to helping them build physical retail experiences, to amplifying their voices on social media – and more)
- Showing up in unexpected ways – like in the gaming world, and IRL at events, pop-ups and festivals. Earlier this year we worked with Hypebeast to create a cultural event in Brooklyn, in partnership with local vintage sellers, and before the end of the year we’ll have a couple of other exciting partnerships coming into the world.
- Being a brand that stands for something. Lots of people are drawn to Depop because we represent something different – a fashion system that’s kinder to both people and the planet, and a marketplace that’s inclusive, progressive and champions individual self-expression. So we work to uphold those values as a company across every touchpoint – from tracking how we’re representing and celebrating diversity in our marketing efforts, to helping users understand their own environmental impact through shopping on Depop. We’re clear about our commitments and what we stand for, and we share our impact targets publicly.
It’s important for us that, while we’re pushing forward new ideas in new ways, we’re also making secondhand fashion relevant and accessible to a very broad audience. Everyone should be able to find a version of what they’re looking for on Depop.
Youth culture and energy are core to the Depop brand: people look to youth movements for what’s new and exciting and progressive, but those movements are also capable of sparking conversations and inspiring the actions of much wider audiences.
LBB> And how has that enabled you to get involved in cultural moments that other brands might simply try to hijack?
Peter> Our business model itself – encouraging a new, better approach to fashion consumption and participation – is driving cultural change. And because the Depop brand and experience are made up of the millions of people using it, and the millions of garments they’re buying and selling on the platform, we’re able to meaningfully participate in cultural moments because we almost always have Depop users or Depop inventory that connects to whatever the moment may be. Some fun examples from the last few years:
- Tapping into both modern and retro gaming culture through our collaboration with The Sims. We worked together with top Depop sellers to design clothes to appear in the game and to bring secondhand fashion shopping to virtual retail.
- We teamed up with HBO Max’s ‘Gossip Girl’ reboot to curate outfits and collections of shoppable secondhand garments inspired by the characters on the show.
- We participate in music festival season around the world, as those events are important and inspiring cultural events for our community and wider audiences. Last year, we partnered with AmEx on a number of the festivals they sponsor to spotlight the wardrobes and style inspiration of up-and-coming music artists, and with Apple Music to curate playlists tied to fashion and self-expression.
LBB> Culture is a two-way street, so who are the cultural movers who inspire Depop's tone and messaging and how do you contribute to culture yourselves?
Peter> We look to lots of different people and brands for inspiration, and that reference set is always evolving given there’s always new creativity and innovation emerging. We’re at times inspired by large businesses like Patagonia or Nike, and at other times inspired by a variety of smaller designers and labels or entrepreneurs or musicians and talent. We’re interested to learn from – and, where appropriate, partner with – anyone or any business that engages audiences in authentic and meaningful ways.
LBB> What have been the most impactful moments for Depop recently in its marketing and comms?
Peter> This year we took the decision to completely remove selling fees in both the UK and the US in a move to empower Depop’s growing community to earn more from their wardrobes and encourage a wider audience to try selling. Whilst we’ve always been very clear that Depop is a two-sided marketplace, we’re now making sure that we’re really shouting about the selling side in all our communications. Whether that’s spotlighting more of our amazing sellers through PR in engaging editorial pieces, or ensuring our campaign messaging reflects the seller side, all parts of the marketing mix have seen a shift to align with the removal of fees.
We’ve undertaken an internal brand evolution project to set Depop up to reach millions of new users across generations in the years to come.
In the spring, we launched a Student Brand Ambassador Program – designed by students for students – across 25 US university campuses. For the autumn US semester this is scaling to 100 university campuses, working with some amazing students who are not only designing engaging events and activities to encourage their community to keep fashion circular, but are also gaining real world experience working directly with our marketing team.
Being recognised as one of the 100 most influential companies of 2024 by TIME Magazine was an incredible honour – and a rewarding reflection of the hard work and brilliance of folks at Depop and in our Depop community over the years.
We’re particularly proud of our diverse partnerships over the last year spanning talent, media and brands we love. Highlights included collaborating with Hypebeast to create an IRL cultural event in Brooklyn, working with mega influencer Molly Mae to launch her latest Depop shop drop, seeing our amazing Depop pieces on pop icons Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, and partnering with a wide variety of like-minded brands.
