Aime Leon Dore, a luxury lifestyle brand from Queens, New York, teamed up with automotive powerhouse, Porsche, for their latest collaboration on Porsche’s 993 Turbo. The car was coupled with ALD’s product line, featuring highly coveted pieces ranging anywhere from 100 to over 1000 dollars. Despite the high sticker price, ALD and Porsche managed to sell out their shared collection within minutes, making it one of the most successful projects for Aime Leon Dore’s 11-year history. But how did ALD and Porsche perfectly timed their latest campaign, and what marketing strategies helped make this campaign unlike anything we have ever seen?
This marketing case study breaks down Aime Leon Dore’s newest collaboration with Porsche, their refined marketing strategy, and how its european-inspired appeal demanded worldwide attention while generating millions of dollars doing it.
Since the brand’s founding in 2014, Aime Leon Dore has pushed the boundaries on what it means for companies to collaborate with each other, and more importantly, to create a project so good that its audience can’t help but eagerly wait on the edge of their seat. For the past four collaborations, Aime Leon Dore has mastered exactly that.
Aime Leon Dore and founder, Teddy Santis, began the partnership with Porsche in 2020, when they came together and created an ALD-inspired Porsche 911 Carrera 4 (type 964). The blend between luxury, fashion, and automotives went hand in hand, and unsurprisingly, the project was an instant success. Santis and Aime Leon Dore would expand on their work in the upcoming years by creating spin offs of Porsche’s favored models: the 911 SC (in 2021) and the 356 B (2023). These projects not only showcased the high quality both brands treasure, but also integrate key color palettes that are often used in Aime Leon Dore’s branding, products, and marketing campaigns - what could beat this?
With their fourth collaboration, Porsche and Aime Leon Dore pulled out all the stops for its latest project, and it was - without question - their most impressive and successful to date. What was once an eye-catching sports car has been revolutionized as a work of art that car enthusiasts, ALD customers, and everyone in-between can appreciate.
The car is overlaid in a mulberry green, providing a soothing, sophisticated contrast to its caramel-leather, lambswool accented seats and interior. The gear knob, the undoubted centerpiece, is a custom gold unisphere symbolizing Queens, New York, and is coupled with the gold text accented along the door sill that reads “A team from outta Queens with the American dream.” Put it all together, and you have a show stopping vehicle that’s not just known for its timeless look, but its timeless, luxurious feel. Porsche expanded on this description of its 993 Turbo by stating,
“Sophistication abounds inside the Porsche x Aimé Leon Dore 993 Turbo, characterised by dark brown leather, lambswool accents and hardback seats. Its monochromatic aesthetic is extended to dark brown carpets, floor mats and seats as well as its instrument cluster. The steering wheel and seat headrests, meanwhile, feature a custom Porsche and Aimé Leon Dore logo.”
In addition to the Porsche 993 Turbo, the collaboration features a shared product collection that spans from leather jackets, sweaters, to hats, and even key fobs. With a release date of November 22-23, it’s most likely that the collection sold out by the time you’re reading this. Should there be any availability, the collection is available on ALD’s website or on after market platforms like StockX and eBay.
Behind every great campaign, there’s an even greater marketing strategy. While it’s common to dive right into the results and visuals that are seen by the public, the real success is rooted within meticulous, thorough planning and research. With that said, here are the key metrics for both Aime Leon Dore and Porsche that helped make this campaign go from 0 to 100.
With nearly one million website visits in the month of October with an average site time of two minutes, it goes without saying Aime Leon Dore is one of the premier luxury lifestyle brands. From its latest collection with Porsche, to its projects with New Balance and the New York Yankees, ALD offers premium consumer goods that anyone can enjoy. Aime Leon Dore’s primary audience is relatively split between men and women, and has most of its audience spread across the US, UK, and Australia.
A dominant global presence certainly goes a long way, and Porsche’s 11.8 million website visitors in October, 2024 reflects exactly that. Not only does Porsche attract millions of visitors, but more importantly, they also retain their visitors with the average site time lasting over four minutes, equating to over 785,000 hours of site time in the past month. Unlike Aime Leon Dore, Porsche’s ideal audience is widespread, having a more even distribution across financially abundant countries.
Despite selling high-ticket products, Porsche’s primary audience is similar to that of Aime Leon Dore - which plays a pivotal role in the campaign’s performance. Nonetheless, Porsche’s expanded network also reaps many benefits, like its expansive social following of over 35 million, but more on that soon.
In addition to market research, Aime Leon Dore and Porsche’s campaign featured several marketing principles that helped make this project the most viral, discussed, and successful out of the four in their shared archives.
With holiday and end-of-the-year bonuses starting to roll in, Aime Leon Dore and Porshe managed to expand its target audience by a considerable margin by debuting its collection right in time for the holiday season. This collection is one of the more expensive projects ALD has released; however, the shared project still managed to sell out without fail due to timing, urgency, and scarcity - now that’s a triple crown.
Aime Leon Dore and Porsche went all in on their social media strategy for this campaign, spread across YouTube, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn. Their combined 35 million followers casted a perfect net that gathered in customers from New York, Europe, and all over the world.
Editor’s Note: This project had a smaller social net by design. Could they have invested more in Facebook (Meta) and other platforms? Yes. However, both companies share a primary audience of 25-34 year olds, who spend most of their time on newer platforms like those above. In turn, allocating a greater budget towards ineffective networks would give a negative return on their investment.
As shown in this promotional video, Aime Leon Dore coupled their old-school aesthetic with the Scottish countryside, creating a elegant atmosphere that not only screams luxury and high status, but also one that mimics a scene out of the James Bond movie, Skyfall. The mulberry green and caramel brown interior of their 993 Turbo glides seamlessly along the road through the rolling hills - that is until it reaches a herd of sheep.
They heard and they delivered. Aime Leon Dore and Porsche have spoiled its audience with highly cherished projects and coveted pieces since their beginning in 2020. Now, with four collaborations under their belt, the brands continually pursue excellence in every piece they release. From their prized leather jacket, wool scarf, and even their $120 badge, ALD and Porsche stop at nothing when achieving excellence for their brand image, product portfolio, and customers.
As shown on their website, Aime Leon Dore introduced its product collection alongside its Porsche 993 Turbo at their London flagship store. Revealing the car to the public at one of their prominent European locations was a guaranteed strategy to get more foot traffic into their store. However, the downside with this reveal was that it was not available to the public to purchase. Despite 95 percent of its audience not having the ability to drop six-figures on a car, the other five percent has more than enough money to do so. This could have been an additional layer to the shared collaboration, creating additional buzz surrounding their latest campaign.
However, there is something to say about not wanting to commercialize their coveted 993 Turbo. Aime Leon Dore is exclusive. Its brand image is derived from silent elegance and wealth - creating an elevated status that most companies fail to replicate. Should they have put their shared collaboration into production, their aura of exclusivity would be slightly tarnished, jeopardizing the sales of its smaller-ticket items. Is it worth the risk? Most would say yes - but that’s not the call that was made.
Aime Leon Dore and Porsche created one of the most beautiful marketing strategies that combined old-school aesthetics with new-school deliverables. The story of their campaign not only showcases the vehicle’s versatility, but also how prized their product collection is. The shared collaboration found incredible success with this project because of their ability to show value without revealing any sticker prices, and based on how history has repeated, it won’t be any surprise to see their 2025 campaign outshine the rest.