Dior focuses on savoir faire with documentary look at J’adore fragrance

Dior has released a 20-minute online film showcasing the creation of its J’adore perfume.

“Le Parfum – The Film”, as it’s called, documents everything from the sourcing of the scent’s raw materials to the blowing of its glass bottle. To do so it travels from Paris to Murano via Provence and India.

All the while, the Parfumeur Créateur of the Maison Dior, François Demachy, carries the story – albeit in French (a three-minute subtitled version lives on jadore.com).

The write-up reads: “This wayfaring film demonstrates that the birth of a perfume is due as much to the talent of its creator, as to the quality of its raw materials.”

It continues: “Timeless images show the expert techniques of those who cultivate and harvest. Astonishing moments reveal the know-how of those who obtain essences and absolutes from the rarest flowers. This beautiful escapade takes us into the splendour of regal, generous and respected nature.”

Claude Martinez, president and CEO of Parfums Christian Dior, told WWD: “For us, the wish was to [have people] really rediscover the art of perfume and creative passion that animates all the creators working around a fragrance. In a world where fragrances seem to be more and more marketed, more and more ephemeral, I think it’s important to have generations and future generations rediscover that perfume is a true savoir faire. It is a métier of art, a métier of artisans and it’s not recipes from a computer. But it’s voyages, it’s people who grow flowers, it’s people who mix them after, glassmakers.”

The documentary is complemented by a 60-second spot narrated by J’adore face, Charlize Theron. Released on TV in the US on Saturday, it has already received nearly five million views on YouTube.

According to WWD, it is slated to roll out on TV globally through December, as well as in cinemas in France and China. The Jadore.com microsite also hosts more information about the flowers, the creators and the bottle.

Watch both the 60-second and 20-minute version of the film, below:

 

Infographic: millennial shoppers and their online influences

Forewillow*, a new Ohio-based ‘re-commerce’ start-up, has just released an infographic about millennial shoppers that’s sprinkled with some interesting facts. It outlines that 28.5% of the US population, or those classified as millennials (born from the early 80s to early 00s), will have more buying power than any other generation by 2017.

It also suggests they are 16% more likely to explore brands online than non-millennials (top clothing labels include Forever 21, H&M, Gap, Levi’s, Express and Nike), and that 64% of them want brands to offer them more ways to share their opinions online.

Already, 60% of them spend time creating user-generated content such as reviews, compared to just 29% in other generations. And 42% of them say they’ll share positive and negative feedback via social media channels before going directly to the company themselves.

See the whole thing, below…

*Forewillow invites users to sell bundles of clothes to others who share their size and style – doing so enables them to earn virtual currency to buy their own bundles from someone else. It aims to target millennials who are “fashion conscious but not designer obsessed”, and help them “live in today’s ‘one and done’ fashion mindset without breaking the bank”. Find out more here.

Shoppable films: fad or future?

You might remember I posted a comment piece from Marketing Magazine about shoppable videos last week. Well, the extended piece was published on The Huffington Post UK’s tech pages today. Here it is in full:

If there’s one keyword at the centre of the burgeoning fashion and tech scene at the moment, it’s ‘shoppable’. Just as retailers and brands get a grasp on how to handle content, it’s commerce that begins to drive the sector forward again – undoubtedly the effect of greater need for ROI within the social space.

What’s resulted is a lot of experimentation with multiple great ideas, numerous not so good ones, and a handful of indications as to what the future might bring.

Video has proved one of the most thought-provoking and headline grabbing methods; click-to-buy moving images, as the industry tries to cash in on the increasing appetite for highly creative and beautiful films.

ASOS did so imaginatively with a campaign called Urban Tour last year that pulled together street artists from around the world to drive men towards its site. And Danish denim brand Only Jeans did so as well with what it called a “fashion catalogue, movie, game, music video, and the world’s first on demand, online, video, retail environment”. Both won awards at Cannes Lions this year.

The stats were impressive too – ASOS saw 14% of viewers purchase within seven minutes. Accordingly, it’s launched another series, this time for women for the holiday season under the #BestNightEver tagline. Starring hip-hop artist Azealia Banks, model Charlotte Free and singer Ellie Goulding, it’s sure to be another runaway success.

And yet, despite that, I remain to be convinced these highly interactive, not to mention big budget options, are the best answer if we’re talking about scaled commerce.

As pointed out by Lauren Sherman, executive digital editor of US Condé Nast shopping title, Lucky Mag recently, most consumers actually don’t want to watch videos (especially those any longer than 30-60 seconds) if they’re trying to get something out of it – in this case items to buy. There’s a disconnect between viewing for entertainment and for purpose as yet.

Yes today’s tweens are growing up on video, but equally expecting them to sit through lengthy creative film work is not so suited to their on-the-go, real-time behaviour. There are brand identity pieces and then there’s the type designed to encourage consumers to buy. The first often inspires the second, but trying to make them one and the same is a big ask.

Case in point: a luxury brand (that shall remain nameless) attempted a similar interactive film last year, but the functionality proved so poor you couldn’t move your cursor to the item being advertised in time before the frame changed. Juicy Couture meanwhile just launched a new initiative thanks to YouTube’s beta external annotations technology (as reported by AdAge). It works wonderfully, but to view the items featured you’re pulled away to another tab on your browser. Do that a few times and you’ve lost the point of the narrative – a Terry Richardson-directed tale about supermodel Candice Swanepoel and her Juicy Couture-fuelled dream sequence.

Not a great case for engagement you could argue.

And that for now is where the main issue lies. Shoppable content aims to capture consumers at the point of inspiration and the moment of intent, but to do so, it has to work, and more intuitively so.

Target’s new short film series, Falling For You, perhaps provides a better example by merely hinting at the idea of shopping with a column running alongside the content featuring items from its new collection as they hit the screen. As you watch, you can “heart” things that pop up; a digital update on product placement if you will.

It’s that idea that seems more exciting, applicable across media and likelier to scale. But even then, the process to buy consists of several, almost clunky, click throughs.

Video undoubtedly plays an enormous role in driving consumers to websites, but shopping from them directly still needs some work. As Darrell Whitelaw, executive creative director at IPG Media Lab, told Fast Company: “This is the Sony Walkman of ecommerce and video. The thinking is spot-on, but the execution is just awful.”

Which is why I return to the ASOS holiday example. Although it likewise uses the new YouTube technology, it recognises the fact there remains a gap for consumers between entertainment (in this case, music videos) and commerce (it’s transactional site). It has therefore tried to fill it by placing additional content around the campaign. Yes you can click on items Ellie Goulding is wearing as you watch her sing, but so too can you see behind-the-scenes images, the whole collection on one page and an interview with the star. You can even win certain pieces by connecting via other social media platforms.

It’s not about the technology in that case, it’s about the content. Yet so too is it ultimately about the product.

With the concept of shoppable film still novel, there are column inches to be gained in encouraging consumers to interact, but in the long run it has to be fast, seamless and closer to the nature of online user behaviour for it to have true and lasting cut through.

Chloé unveils final letter in digital archive, invites sharing with bespoke invitational tool

Chloé sent its fans a symbolic kiss with the release of the final letter in its alphabet-based digital archive today.

Appropriate for the forthcoming holiday period, the “X”, like each of the other letters before it, comes with online content relevant to the history of the French fashion house. In this case, it’s a specially-commissioned track called “I follow you (Melo’s Chloé Christmas Kiss Mix)” by Paris-based singer Melody Prochet of Melody’s Echo Chamber (embedded below).

“This song is in tribute to Chloé, Chloé women and celebrating 60 years of all of us, it’s our theme tune in a way. So to all who have supported, designed for, bought, worn, written and talked about, shared, followed, loved and lusted after Chloé, we say thank you – this is for you. Enjoy!” reads the write-up.

This 26th and final letter also sees the archive – created by digital agency Guided Collective – become an “intimate invitational tool” from Monday. Users will be able to type in the name of a friend and send them a bespoke version of the Chloé heritage, relative to the letters that make up their name (demonstrated below).

“As [founder Gaby Aghion] once used the alphabet to inspire creativity and fun, we want you to continue the journey and introduce this wonderful story to a friend,” it says.

Digital snippets: Hermès, New Look, Holt Renfrew, Victoria’s Secret, Nina Garcia

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

• Hermès brings 8 Ties digital installation to Selfridges (as pictured) [GQ.co.uk]

• New Look opens Blippar-enabled Marble Arch store [CreativeBoom]

• Holt Renfrew’s youth click: navigating social media like a teenager [WWD]

• Old-fashioned sex appeal works for Victoria’s Secret [Bloomberg Businessweek]

• The top 5 Chinese social networks [Fashion's Collective]

• Nina Garcia’s media consumption habits [AdWeek]

• Chris Anderson says the ‘Maker’ movement is the next industrial revolution [BoF]

• Online spending and in-store “showrooming” are on the rise [MediaPost]

• Retailers expect 6% of holiday sales to come from mobile [eMarketer]

Louis Vuitton invites viewers on a journey through the Louvre in debut TV ad

 

Louis Vuitton headed to the Louvre in Paris to film its first ever television ad, L’Invitation au Voyage.

Directed by photography duo, Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, the cinematic spot sees model Arizona Muse discreetly working her way through different rooms in the museum, surrounded by its famous paintings including the Mona Lisa. With a key spotted around her neck from the beginning, her quest is to unlock a secret that’s been hidden inside a legendary LV travel trunk for more than 150 years.

“For centuries, the most wonderful intrigues have been woven in the Louvre, a haven of culture and history. An intrepid young woman enters this universal temple and unwinds the skein of time,” reads the write-up.

A hot-air balloon whisks her away above the Cour Carrée (the courtyard of the museum) with the letter containing the secret in her hand, all the while the man that’s been following her throughout looks on from the ground.

The film launched exclusively on Facebook yesterday, before appearing on TV screens worldwide last night. The multimedia campaign will also comprise print and digital ads, and appear in cinemas from next week. A longer two-and-a-half-minute director’s cut of the film is shown on the Louis Vuitton website.

ThingLink’s interactive Twitter images could be a natural fit for fashion brands

Interactive images on Twitter? That sounds like something that would translate well to the fashion industry…

In which case, it’s worth knowing about ThingLink. A tool that let’s you “tag any image, with any content”, it was referred to by Mashable this week as having huge potential for brands and marketers following news of its link up with Twitter.

“Icons pop up when users hover over the image then, with a click, open up YouTube channels, audio clips, Facebook or Pinterest profiles, home pages, contact forms or anything else you would normally be able to link to the old-fashioned way,” reads their story. Click here to see an example of it in action.

They use an NBA team to illustrate an instance where images enhanced with links would work particularly well. But let’s translate it to fashion. Imagine a catwalk shot from (for argument’s sake, the easy option) Burberry. Now imagine if you could have a box that linked to play the full show on YouTube, or how about a click-through to the make-up looks up close.

Then we could also add in the Facebook page of the brand, not to mention one to Pinterest or to their all-new Instagram profile where all the backstage shots are housed. We might even consider adding the social profile of the model, thanks to a couple of nice integrated quotes from her. Now how about a link on one side that plays the soundtrack of the event via SoundCloud, or better yet sends fans to iTunes to buy it.

We could also think about an info box that lists detail about the product. And of course, a direct line into Burberry.com to enable everyone to pre-order it too.

The great thing is, ThingLink is ridiculously easy to use – so I did roughly the above with a Burberry SS13 show pic, and here immediately is the result (non-interactive version embedded below too).

As Mashable nicely sums up: “That single photo, in essence, just became a platform of its own.”

Check out more about what ThingLink is up to in the real-world with NFC, via this story from The Next Web, too.

Archive Lanvin film reveals founder at work in atelier

 

Lanvin has released another video of its founder Jeanne Lanvin, this time at work supervising fittings and making final adjustments on her collection before its unveiling to the press.

The historical, recently-discovered footage shows the designer, who lived from 1867 to 1946, busy with the last-minute preparations at 22 Faubourg Saint Honoré, which remains the flagship store of the brand today.

A beautiful glimpse into fashion history, it documents the launch of her “Sorbier”, “Tubéreuse” and “Azalée” eveningwear designs. It also provides a look inside her office. “This is not just a dressmaking studio; it is a veritable cabinet of curiosities furnished by the famous Eugène Printz and houses her fabric library,” read the notes.

The notes also suggest films resurfacing from the founder’s era such as this one are “thanks to the digitalisation of cinematic archives by companies such as INA or Gaumont-Pathé”.

Yet to be seduced by shoppable advertising

There’s an interesting debate about shoppable videos in this week’s issue of Marketing Magazine in the UK. In it, I comment on why I’m not yet sold on the idea in its entirety.

Read the full story here – Branded content: watch before you buy – or see below for my extract…

Click-to-buy videos have grabbed the headlines as the industry tries to cash in on the growing appetite for highly creative and beautiful films, but I am unconvinced.

Most consumers do not want to watch a video, especially those any longer than 30-60 seconds, if they are trying to get something out of it. There’s a disconnection between viewing for entertainment and for purpose.

Shoppable content aims to capture consumers at the point of inspiration and the moment of intent, but to do so, it has to work – and easily.

This is not always the case, as one luxury brand learned last year when its shoppable ad simply didn’t work – there was not enough time for the user to move the cursor to click on the item being advertised before the frame changed.

Perhaps Target’s short-film series, Falling for You, provides a better example of where this trend is going to go. Its column running alongside the content featuring items from its collection is like a digital update on product placement.

The concept of the shoppable film is novel, but to work in the long run, it has to be fast, seamless and closer to the nature of online behaviour to have true and lasting cut-through.

Roger Vivier releases shopper-themed iPad game

With the launch of Dressing-Room Panic, Roger Viver has become the latest brand to tackle the idea of gaming appropriate for fashion fans.

Available for the iPad, the app-based game invites users to help a shopper rearrange her latest purchases before her wardrobe overflows. They do so by pairing up shoes for instance, or clicking on the infamous Roger Vivier buckle to free up more space, all the whlie avoiding numerous traps throughout. Levels range from fashion beginner to shopaholic.

“Having fun with fashion –the essence of Vivier!” read a note on Facebook announcing it a couple of weeks ago. The aim is also to help fans rediscover some of the company’s most iconic designs. Will it convert to sales, I’m not so sure… but it’s a cute attempt.

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