At Advertising Week, chief marketer Jack Reynolds explained why the Urban Outfitters-owned retailer ceded control when working with musician Willow.

NEW YORK — Partnering with celebrities for seasonal campaigns is de rigueur for most fashion brands, with brand ambassadors showcasing apparel in high-gloss photography and ad campaigns. Free People saw its fall campaign in collaboration with multihyphenate Willow as an opportunity to go beyond the trappings of traditional campaigns to collaborate with and support the independent musician.

“Willow is an artist with a capital A, so the transactional deals that I think clutter a lot of the brand space weren’t something that we were interested in,” said United Talent Agency’s Samantha Tacón during a Wednesday panel at Advertising Week New York.

Instead, Willow and her team identified the Urban Outfitters-owned lifestyle brand — one of her favorites since she was nine years old, the artist said — and worked together on several elements that required Free People and Chief Marketing Officer Jack Reynolds to cede control.

“It was nuanced. The position we had to take was less about giving something up and more about who we were giving it to, and that piece was important to us: to meet Willow, hear her creative vision, meet the team that she surrounds herself with, listen to the music,” Reynolds said during the panel. “If you give rigid, you get rigid… at some point, you just have to trust it.”

Without a traditional brief, Willow and Free People collaborated on a live performance video and a record release party, in addition to traditional campaign work.

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