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Victoria's Secret

Media Planning · Enterprise

VS fixed its message in 2021. Its media budget never got the memo.

UBC Sauder Digital Marketing ProjectMedia Planning / Funnel Strategy

2

competitors (Aerie, Skims) now split the exact positioning VS repositioned toward in 2021

key findings

✓Aerie built growth almost entirely on UGC and community, not celebrity
✓Skims did the opposite: founder-led, product-first, still highly produced
✓VS's own content sits between the two and reads like neither
✓The fix is splitting the funnel on purpose, not one blended message

quarterly channel budget, before → after

before
→
after
TV / OOH55% → 25%
Paid Social30% → 45%
Creator Partnerships15% → 30%
VSvictoriassecret

4,812 likes

victoriassecret Fit isn't one size doing all the work, it's the right size doing its job. Every body, the right fit. #RealFit

why i chose this

Victoria's Secret spent decades as the default. Then Aerie and Skims made "default" the problem, not the strength. I wanted to practice budget allocation at a scale where the answer isn't "post more," it's "post the right thing, on the right channel, at the right funnel stage."

the challenge

The brand's 2021 repositioning fixed the message. It didn't fix the media mix: legacy spend still leans on the channels that built the old brand, not the one they're rebuilding. The real question: how do you reallocate an enterprise media budget without starting from zero?

research

Mapped the competitive set (Aerie, Skims, Savage X Fenty) by channel presence and content tone using Meta Ad Library and TikTok Creative Center, and reviewed public reporting on VS's post-repositioning brand tracking against Aerie's community-first growth model.

what i noticed

Aerie built its growth almost entirely on UGC and community, not celebrity. Skims did the opposite: founder-led, product-first, still highly produced.
VS's own content sits between the two and reads like neither: not community enough to feel authentic, not product-forward enough to convert.
The audience isn't gone. It's watching two other brands prove the positioning VS is trying to claim.

the strategy

Split the funnel on purpose: founder- and product-forward paid media for mid-funnel conversion, competing with Skims' strength, and UGC/community content for top-of-funnel trust, competing with Aerie's strength, instead of one blended message trying to do both jobs.

execution

Built a sample quarterly channel budget split, reallocating spend from broad-reach TV/OOH toward paid social and creator partnerships.
Drafted a UGC brief for a "real bodies, real fit" creator campaign, framed around VS's core lingerie and fit expertise rather than lifestyle, plus a mid-funnel retargeting sequence using product-demo content styled after Skims' founder-led ad format.

success measures

Share of voice vs. Aerie and Skims on owned and paid social
Mid-funnel conversion rate on the retargeting sequence
Brand tracking movement on "authentic" / "for me" attributes

reflection

At enterprise scale, the angle already exists somewhere in the budget. You're just fighting to move dollars toward it.

Media PlanningBudget AllocationFunnel StrategyCompetitive AnalysisEnterprise Marketing
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