Facebook Deals to come with £50,000 media spend

Brands in the UK hoping to provide Facebook users with access to special offers through the site’s new deals service are going to have to spend £50,000 on banner advertising to do so, according to Brand Republic.

Facebook Deals, which launched in beta in the UK in January and was originally free, already has the likes of Debenhams and Mazda as partners.

It enables users to check in using the social networking site’s location feature, Facebook Places, and find nearby offers.

Facebook declined to comment.

With the surge in deal marketing at present (see my post from yesterday), it seems like quite an odd move to me – brands could easily turn to Foursquare or the forthcoming Groupon Now instead. Having said that, Facebook’s userbase is now over 600m, Foursquare’s is perhaps more like 6m; perhaps that’s worth £50k after all?

Louis Vuitton’s insider experience goes live

As previously reported, Louis Vuitton was set to offer fans the chance to gain exclusive insider access to its recent autumn/winter 2011/12 show -   the experience is now live.

Check it out at fashionshow.louisvuitton.com, as well as via the iPad or iPhone.

Deal or no deal? Tech companies dive deeper through location, brands approach direct

I spent a great deal of my weekend catching up on stories from SXSW. There were a lot.

Particularly fascinating was the read on “deals” as this year’s buzzword. Check out this article from Advertising Age about Groupon influencing a whole host of other services – new deal-orientated projects from Google, Loopt and SCVNGR are all mentioned as well as upgrades to those belonging to Facebook and Foursquare.

It’s fair to say the paths of location networking and deals have truly collided (though it’s arguable whether they were ever actually distinguishable in the first place). What’s perhaps more interesting, is the further news of Groupon’s real-time mobile service.

Groupon Now, which will launch in April, will help people find deals nearby to them based on two different options: “I’m Hungry” and “I’m Bored”.

Or in other words, where location was going into deals, now deals are going into location.

Adding to the mix no less, is the fact it’s not just tech companies working out how to benefit in this world. Brands are bypassing these third party apps and reaching out to consumers directly too.

Last week, Gap, which hit the headlines with its sellout Groupon offer last summer, launched its own deals initiative.

Through gapmyprice.com, consumers could name how much they wanted to pay for a pair of men’s khakis. By clicking on “let’s make a deal”, they made an offer for one of 18 styles retailing for between $49.50 and $59.50. Gap then presented its deal in return which shoppers could either accept or counter before receiving a final price.

According to the site’s winners tab, offers tended towards $35-$45 for a $49.50 pair. All rather along the lines of TV game show Deal or No Deal (as pictured), albeit without the £1m prize balancing the other end. Of course, gaming is another area so intrinsic to this world, as I wrote about here.

Chris Donnelly, an executive partner in Accenture’s retail practice, told AdAge: “You get to this space we’re in right now where, even though the economy is picking up, consumers still expect things to be on sale. That leaves the retailer to come up with ways to give discounts without completely eroding margins.”

“[Gap’s deals initiative] is a better way of price discrimination, because you’re trying to tailor the price to each individual. A coupon is a very blunt tool. If I give everyone a 30% off coupon, some would have bought full price and some still won’t buy,” he said.

Does it have staying power? Potentially. But if you ask me, it’s sites like Groupon (it’s also worth checking out this chart documenting its rise to potential $25bn IPO) and Foursquare that are the ones to watch most closely.

Digital snippets – 18/03

Sam Taylor-Wood for Louis Vuitton

Some more great stories from around the world surrounding all things fashion and digital over the past week:

• Louis Vuitton’s new film project Double Exposure, which uses the mercurial collodion process requiring the sitter to hold a pose for 12 seconds, to reveal the two sides of a subject’s life. Sam Taylor-Wood stars [Louis Vuitton]

• A fashion film created by White Lodge @ Blink, The Mill and MPC to showcase the event sponsors of the 2011 British Arrow advertising awards, held in London last night [The Inspiration Room]

• China’s answer to Twitter, Weibu, captures the attention of leading fashion brands around the world including Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci and Burberry [BoF]

• Wrangler’s spring/summer campaign for its Bluebell line lets users control model Tony Ward as he travels both forwards and backwards at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs [Ad Rants]

 

 

Sam Taylor-Wood for Louis Vuitton's Double Exposure

Digital snippets

Some more great stories surrounding all things digital and fashion from the past week:

 

Louis Vuitton’s new digital film project Double Exposure, which uses the mercurial collodion process requiring the sitter to hold a pose for 12 seconds, to reveal the two sides of a subject’s life. Sam Taylor-Wood stars [Louis Vuitton]

http://www.facebook.com/LouisVuitton?sk=app_151031461622622

A fashion film created by White Lodge @ Blink, The Mill and MPC to showcase the event sponsors of the 2011 British Arrow awards for the ad industry, held in London last night [The Inspiration Room]

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/british-arrows-jelly/

China’s answer to Twitter, Weibu, captures the attention of leading fashion brands around the world including Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci and Burberry [BoF]

http://www.businessoffashion.com/2011/03/fashion-2-0-brands-experiment-with-weibo-chinas-answer-to-twitter.html

Wrangler’s spring/summer campaign for its Bluebell line lets users control model Tony Ward as he travels both forwards and backwards at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs [Ad Rants]

http://www.adrants.com/2011/03/wrangler-gets-weird-again-with-new.php

BoF – AW11, the season that was

Imran Amed of The Business of Fashion always provides a great overview from an industry point of view on the catwalk season that was.

Just a week post Paris, and his autumn/winter 2011/12 round-up is in.

With the Galliano story dominating headlines around the world, both within fashion circles and out, it’s unsuprising Amed’s intro starts with somewhat of a “bitter” note. “Looking back, several of the most salient themes from this round of fashion weeks involve unsavoury behaviour, gossip and highly unprofessional comments from some of the industry’s most important figures,” he says.

He does however go on to highlight  the clothes (focusing on outerwear and prints), the growth of consumer participation and high profile clients in shows, the role of immediacy versus exclusivity (one of my personal favourite debate points at present), and the growing intensity of street style “paparazzi”.

“Think before we tweet”, is a particularly relevant point for this blog. It reads:

It seemed like just another fashion month, and then, with the high-profile meltdown of John Galliano, everything changed in a matter of hours. Soon, the fashion gossip mill was in a frenzy, turbocharged by Twitter which made the whole situation more ugly as the days went by and speculation about Galliano’s successor intensified after he was first suspended, and ultimately dismissed by LVMH.

A tweet by Derek Blasberg from backstage at the Katy Perry concert in Paris, citing an anonymous source which ‘confirmed’ the widespread rumour that Riccardo Tisci would be named Galliano’s successor set off further speculation on websites and blogs, who sometimes took Mr. Blasberg’s comments as though they had come straight from an official Dior press release. I found at least one website that took the Tisci rumour and reported it as fact, without any mention of the source at all.

But Mr. Galliano wasn’t alone. Rumours about the futures of Stefano Pilati, Hannah McGibbon, and Christophe Decarnin dogged designers and lit up the internet throughout Paris Fashion Week, creating a virtual feeding frenzy of immense proportions. We were an industry feeding on ourselves.

So dear fellow members of the fashion Twitterati, let’s think before we tweet. Careers and businesses can be impacted by what may seem like an innocent bit of speculation on Twitter, but can quickly turn into boldfaced headlines on major fashion websites, a hugely destabilising force at the most critical moments during the fashion calendar. We are all still learning how to use this powerful tool responsibly.

Check out the rest of the BoF post, here: Autumn/winter 2011 – the season that was

Elle Collections launches iPad app

A preview of the latest issue of biannual catwalk title Elle Collections has been released as an interactive iPad app.

Launching this week it offers an insider’s guide to the top 10 shows of the spring/summer 2011 season, as well as a detailed image gallery of the collections and a round-up of the best accessories.

Video footage from backstage is also offered, alongside films of the Elle team commenting on the shows and providing insights into the key looks of the season.

Elle editor Lorraine Candy said: “For the first time we talk readers through the top shows, take them back stage and into the world of the catwalk, giving them access in a way no other magazine could. We wanted to give readers an understanding of what inspired the designers and an idea of what they’ll be wearing this spring/summer. The iPad gives us the tool to do this in a truly, interactive, tactile way that we’re sure our readers will love.”

The app also offers an interactive front row feature where users can click on individual personalities to find out who they are and then opt to read their blog or follow them on Twitter.

Download it from iTunes here.

SS11 Mulberry campaign comes alive through visual effects

 

Mulberry has used its spring/summer 2011 ad campaign images shot by Tim Walker and starring models Lindsey Wixson and Nimue Smit to create a short film.

Through animation, rotoscoping and repainting visual effects, the six shots have been weaved together to produce a 1m23s spot that sees the models blinking, the featured piglet moving and the hydrangeas blooming.

The result is a living montage that aims to capture the “romantic, ethereal and decadently floral” spirit of the season.

The project was created by ad agency House and Holme in collaboration with Park Village’s director Luke Losey and visual effects company Framestore.

See the full film at www.mulberry.com/ss11film

Vogue’s Shulman takes to Twitter

British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman is set to take control of the magazine’s Twitter account this evening, March 15.

From 6-8pm (GMT), tweeters will be able to ask questions about everything to do with the past month of catwalk shows and the autumn/winter 2011/12 season.

What are the key trends? What was the most unforgettable moment? Who was her favourite even?

Those ahead of the game can send in questions early to VogueQandA@condenast.co.uk or submit them via Twitter with the hashtag #VogueQandA.

Some of the questions flying in already surround John Galliano, as well as queries about how to proceed in fashion and her overall views on the future of the industry. It will be interesting to see what she decides to reply to…

The Vogue Twitter handle can be found at: @vogue_london

Making of: Blake Lively for Chanel, plus new Keira Knightley teaser

Despite the fact Karl Lagerfeld told delegates at the International Herald Tribune’s Heritage Luxury conference back in November last year “there is no [social] marketing” at Chanel, the news page of its website is often a treasure trove of insight into the brand that frequently goes viral by itself.

The latest post shows a behind-the-scenes video of Blake Lively’s shoot for the Mademoiselle handbag line, photographed, of course, by Lagerfeld.

In it, the Gossip Girl actress can be seen posing with various different pieces from the collection (a good way of getting more seen than those chosen for the final images of the campaign I might add), while Lagerfeld directs her positioning and rearranges her posture.

An earlier post, as the picture above shows, also features a series of images from the shoot.

Meanwhile, a teaser has also been released of Keira Knightley’s new Coco Mademoiselle fragrance ad, called Gabrielle. Directed by Joe Wright of Pride & Prejudice and Atonement fame, the 40-second clip sees the British actress dressed in a beige one-piece alongside a coordinating motorcycle.

Her voiceover can be heard to say: “Nobody said exactly what it was going to be like. But I knew that it was something about a motorbike, and I knew that it was going to be beige, and they said, ‘Sort of catsuit,’ and I went, ‘OK.’ It was completely unexpected. It’s a Chanel superwoman, I think.”

The full ad is set to debut on the Chanel site on March 21st.

Vente Privée launches video campaign

Discount private shopping site Vente Privée has linked up with Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf to create a short film designed to capture the essence of its service.

Based on a story of desire, it sees a glamorous 1960s feel combined with vivid photography, as an attractive delivery boy carrying a VP parcel gathers the attention of women throughout the neighbourhood.

“For me desire is a very poetic emotion, generating either drama, tragedy or from a more positive perspective sensational feelings, like when you fall in love for instance,” said Olaf. “The story was simple but effective, funny and romantic. I immediately visualized what I could do and I thought everybody would understand it.”

A teaser version of the spot is featured above, while the full-length version can be seen on the members’ site. There is also a series of behind-the-scenes images and video; a page dedicated to Olaf featuring his biography and an interview with him about the project; and the opportunity to download the music from the film.