Since it debuted in October 2020, the hype has continued to build around the Netflix show Emily in Paris. Produced by Sex and the City executive Darren Star, the show follows Emily Cooper, an American marketing executive played by Lily Collins, who moves from Chicago to Paris to work for luxury marketing company Agence Grateau.But while the plot may pivot around Cooper’s romantic and work misadventures, the character’s over-the-top wardrobe steals the show.And that has created the perfect platform for countless brand collaborations. It seems that almost every retailer, from luxury companies like Malone Souliers, Lancôme and Baccarat, to more accessibly-priced brands including St Dalfour, Revolution Beauty and Häagen-Dazs, wants to get a piece of the Emily in Paris action.What is behind retailers’ love of Emily in Paris?While collaborations with pop-culture franchises are nothing new in the world of retail, Emily in Paris takes it to the next level. It certainly helps that Cooper’s colourful and quirky wardrobe is virtually a character in itself. Her job as a social media and digital marketer, including her instant rise to fame as an American influencer in Paris, also doesn’t hurt.As Melissa Minkow, a director of the retail strategy at CI&T, pointed out, “Emily in Paris was quite meta this season with several product placements”. The retail strategist pointed to a not-so-subtle mention of United Airlines and the wide range of brands, from McDonald’s to Rimowa, that Agence Grateau “works” with. “With respect to the way Agence Grateau taps cultural moments and social trends to create compelling marketing campaigns, many retailers have already been cooking with that [kind of] sauce for ages,” Minkow quipped.A quick look at how brands are trying to be “brat” or “demure” says it all about the power of tapping into pop culture and viral social media trends. Knowing when to hop on a pop-culture bandwagon One retailer that has successfully collaborated with the show is the luxury resale platform Vestiaire Collective.In one episode, Mindy Chen (Cooper’s best friend, played by actress Ashley Park), is seen walking into Vestiare Collective’s Parisian boutique (which is no longer operating IRL) to sell off a haute-couture ensemble. In a sequence of events that seems comedically easy, Chen is wired 3000 euros for the outfit almost immediately after dropping it off. Any fashion expert worth their salt knows that fashion resale doesn’t work quite this efficiently, but it also doesn’t really matter. According to the social media analytics platform Metricool, the luxury resale retailer has gained over 22,000 followers since the episode premiered.In the US, Google searches for “Vestiaire Collective” nearly doubled versus the year prior in the week following Emily in Paris’s season four release, according to the resale company.Even brands like Foreo and Violette FR have received organic social media traction from the show, simply from being placed on Cooper’s vanity. Retail brands need to be selective when it comes to pop-culture partnerships“Given how chronically online younger consumers are, marketing has had to become as quick and nimble as product production,” Minkow said. “We’re definitely now in an era of ‘lean, just-in-time marketing,’ wherein brands have to promptly predict the legs and longevity of a pop-culture reference in order to make the quick call of if they’ll join in full force with their own connected campaign, product line, or quick tweet for signaled relevance.”However, Minkow warned that brands need to be highly selective when choosing which pop-culture bandwagon to jump on. Thanks to the rapidly-paced culture of social media, it’s much harder to determine when a pop-culture phenomenon will have lasting power or will last a literal moment in the minds of consumers.“It’s not always worth the investment to build out a collaboration or marketing campaign,” Minkow mused. “When it does make sense to jump on, the connection to digital channels is imperative since that’s the space driving the urgency for shoppers.”One way that brands can tap into powerful pop-culture moments is by building out online collections, or “store within stores”, of products that align with a show’s aesthetic, creating discount codes that reference the pop-culture moment, or by producing limited amounts of aligned products. Regardless of how they do it — whether it be with an Emily in Paris or Bridgerton-themed product drop or with a curated product selection that appeals to a fan group like the Beyhive — one thing is clear. Brands must tap into the power of pop culture now more than ever.