Topshop’s festival campaign sees Kate Bosworth return, star in interactive film

Topshop has launched a new festival-themed campaign fronted by actress Kate Bosworth that combines product, content and entertainment.

Inspired by “the attitude and energy of British festivals”, the initiative is anchored by an interactive film directed by Bosworth’s fiancé Michael Polish, who also shot her in the brand’s Winter Wonderland ad for Christmas 2012. It sees her on her journey to this year’s Coachella music festival in the Californian desert, wearing items from the new collection (16 pieces of which were based on her personal style).

Each item is “clickable, shareable and shoppable” via a custom-built player on Topshop.com, while the soundtrack is also downloadable on iTunes.

“This is about entertaining the customer and immersing them in our world, we want them to spend more time with the brand, share things with their friends. If they do that it will lead to a longer relationship rather than trying to get any short-term gains,” says Topshop’s CMO, Justin Cooke.

 

He also explains how many of the shots in the film (a selection of which are shown below), purposely lend themselves to social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. “[They] are landscapes, architecture and not just clothing, so it will appeal to people beyond fashion which is something we always look to do,” he explains. His team has also been working with Pinterest to optimise all images so they can be pinned directly from the experience yet link straight back to the specific product pages on Topshop.com for the first time. The Pin It button will become a permanent fixture on the Topshop homepage in the future too.

The campaign will also see “Secret pop-up gigs” from new artists and established acts hosted worldwide, with invitations given at random to shoppers on mobile, on tablets or in-store, as well as made available through a variety of online competitions.

The concept continues in Topshop stores where the music playlists can be scanned using the Shazam app to gain access to content including an interactive festival guide on Topshop.com of the best festivals around the world.

Shoppers can also use the Topshop app to scan the barcode of products in the collection while in-store to unlock further hidden tracks and extra content related to artists playing at key festivals in their cities.

Calvin Klein proves value of video for conversions

 

The launch of Calvin Klein’s Push Positive Bra was its single-best for a bra in the brand’s history and it sounds like its video campaign starring Lara Stone dancing to Salt-n-Pepa’s Push It, is why.

According to a story focused on video as a strong measure of ROI in WWD yesterday, the 32-second ad from last August has had 10.9m views to date and garnered more than 450m impressions. Importantly, during the time of the campaign, calvinklein.com saw a 30% increase in overall traffic and a 385% increase in referral traffic from YouTube.

Ad dollars behind the spot undoubtedly helped – the brand took over YouTube’s homepage in 10 markets, including Singapore, Taiwan and Korea, and placed the ad in-stream on multiple other YouTube videos through the site’s TrueView advertising system.

The audience retention rate for the video – meaning those who watched the whole segment rather than clicking away – was well above the industry standard too, at over 80%. Its men’s Concept underwear spot, which first aired during the Super Bowl this February, meanwhile, also saw a retention rate of over 85%.

Calvin Klein CEO, Tom Murry, said: “As a brand, video has not only been integral to our overall communications strategy but also a part of the brand identity. We see YouTube as the natural place to house and curate our digital video content… [It’s] an impactful way to reach and interact with our audience through multiple touch points — desktop, tablet and mobile.”

According to WWD, video is proving to be the most powerful digital medium for reaching consumers in a measurable way. Importantly it’s also proving a killer option for the fashion and retail space in terms of driving conversion. Statistics from YouTube and research firm Compete show four in 10 consumers visit a store either online or in person as a direct result of watching a video online. This shopper also tends to be a retailer’s most valuable customer: 28% of those who watched a retailer’s online video spent more than $500 on apparel in the past six months, while only 2% of non-video watchers did.

Maureen Mullen, L2’s director of research and brand advisory, added that video is now a “way to push consumers further down the purchase funnel”.

Kmart #shipmypants ad goes viral

 

If there’s one brand grabbing the viral video headlines at present, it’s Kmart. The US retailer has released an ad that plays on the phrase “Ship my Pants” to tout its new free shipping service for loyalty members when items are out of stock in store.

The 30-second spot, created by agency DraftFCB Chicago, sees a series of characters situated in store stating the fact they can “ship my pants”, “ship my drawers”, “ship my nightie”, and “ship my bed”. Say that a few times over and you get the joke. Accordingly it has nearly 13m views on Youtube in the week since it was released. One in nine viewers are reportedly sharing it. It’s also being pushed with the hashtag #shipmypants.

The ultimate ingredient for viral video success is proven once again to be comedy.

Despite a handful of protests toward it being inappropriate, overall response to the ad has been extremely positive. The Huffington Post called it “puerile and pure gold”, while Mediapost.com’s Barbara Lippert says you should “never underestimate the power of a doody joke“.

It might be true schoolyard humour, but we’re all in on it.

Digital snippets: Louis Vuitton, Victoria Beckham, Dior, Shazam, Amazon

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

 

• Louis Vuitton promotes “prostitution chic” in controversial short film (as above) [BrandChannel]

• Victoria Beckham enters e-commerce [Vogue.co.uk]

• Dior parades exclusive lip colours via one-day Twitter activation [Luxury Daily]

• Shazam creates fashion ID app [Telegraph Fashion]

• Amazon’s confused foray into fashion tries to please too many women [Pando Daily]

• Stefano Gabbana’s Twitter tirade after tax evasion ruling on sale of D&G [Daily Telegraph]

• Mira Duma: finger on the trigger of social media [South China Morning Post]

• Augmented reality, intelligent mapping: fashion and tech collide in China [JingDaily]

• That’s So 2012: have Pinterest, Foursquare and Groupon peaked? [Inc]

Alice + Olivia, Topshop kickstart prom season with online push

A number of designers and retailers are reaching out to teens through a variety of online initiatives in the build-up to the forthcoming prom season.

Alice + Olivia is one such example; utilising social media to do so. The brand’s designer and founder Stacey Bendet is hosting a live Twitter chat on Tuesday, April 2 at 3pm EST. She will be answering questions and giving styling tips to help shoppers achieve the “perfect prom look”.

Users can submit questions via the hashtag #askstace.

Topshop is also looking to prom with a series of store events held in specific cities during March (three in the US and five in the UK), and a collection of dresses, accessories and shoes inspired by a touch of Kurt Cobain grunge.

All of that is tied together with online content including the below film from director Sean Frank. Referred to as a “vintage-inspired ride in getting prom perfect”, the clip is cast with a filtered light as the model is seen getting ready for the evening, dancing under a disco ball and ending up jumping in the swimming pool.

The British-based high street retailer has slowly been upping its focus on more holiday-based marketing – pushing out relevant collections around the likes of Halloween, holiday and Chinese New Year with dedicated campaigns. Doing so is of course further cementing its presence in the US market especially. Expect more to follow.

Digital snippets: Peter Som, Bergdorfs, Prada, Jean Paul Gaultier, American Eagle

There’s been a lot happening in the fashion and technology space over the past couple of weeks, ranging from Proenza Schouler’s new site to Net-a-Porter moving into the beauty space. News of Pinterest’s new analytics platform and Facebook’s planned integration of the hashtag have also hit. Here are the rest of the highlights sourced from around the web…

Don’t forget to check out this wrap-up report from SXSW Interactive as it applies to the fashion industry too.

 

• Behind Peter Som’s 3.3 million Pinterest followers [BoF]

• Insider Access: Q&A with Cannon Hodge, Bergdorf Goodman [Fashion’s Collective]

• Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola made a Prada film (as per above trailer) [Fashionista]

• Jean Paul Gaultier launches responsive web design [Web&Luxe]

• American Eagle spoof video pokes fun at skinny jeans trend [NY Daily News]

• Neiman Marcus launches fashion contest on Pinterest [WWD]

• Justin Bieber plays drums in adidas NEO interactive lookbook [MTV Style]

• Aeropostale launching new tech for teens [Business Insider]

• Puma seeks to celebrate individuality with Worn My Way lifestyle campaign [Marketing magazine]

• 3D printing clothes at home could be reality by 2050 [PSFK]

• Google Glass app identifies you by your fashion sense [NewScientist]

• Zalando concept car spots fashions, transforms into changing room [Gizmag]

• China entering e-commerce and mobile “golden age”. So why are fashion brands lagging? [Jing Daily]

• What real-time branding means for luxury brands [Luxury Daily]

Social content fuels H&M’s & Other Stories launch success

If you haven’t already noticed, H&M’s new brand & Other Stories has been doing a phenomenal job of using social media to seed its launch. I first wrote about them doing so here, when content across YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook and more was being teased before much was known about the line at all. The same continued as stores opened in three European cities (including London), and its e-commerce website – also heavy with shareable content – launched just this month. The reception was reportedly “tremendous”.

In a report released today, CEO Karl-Johan Persson said: “Sales, both in stores and online, have far exceeded our high expectations… This opens the possibility that & Other Stories can expand more widely and faster than we originally planned.”

Also unveiled today was another piece of shareable content; this time one tapping into the idea of collaboration. A short film called Co-Creatives (another nice social term there), shows the personal stories of “friends” of the brand including Julia Sarr-Jamois, Valentine Fillol Cordier, Ada Kokosar and Bea Åkerlund as they style their favourite looks from the collection.

Each of them was armed with a Polaroid camera and tasked with capturing their inspirations as they went. It’s a simple short spot, but another great example of how well this team seems to know it’s consumer base…

Video highlight: Jean Paul Gaultier talks 2014 Barbican exhibition

There’s three types of good fashion films these days: the conceptual creative type (think features for seasonal campaigns), the product shots (more for selling, a lot shorter in length but ideally still tied to a story), and then the interview. That was an idea coined by Harriet Mays Powell of The Look Now (formerly fashion director at New York Magazine), speaking at the first Fashion Forward conference in 2011.

Her focus was that each needs investment, not just in terms of money, but in terms of a strategic approach. The better interviews for instance aren’t haphazard behind-the-scenes clips that don’t do a high fashion house any justice, but well-shot and insightful pieces in their own right.

This one (below) just released by The Barbican Centre in London serves as a great example. It captures designer Jean Paul Gaultier animatedly discussing his upcoming exhibition in its art gallery in April 2014. Set in his Paris studio, with shots of various items from his collections interspersed, he jokes about the retrospective being shown while he’s still alive, and highlights his appreciation for the city of London.

The entire video is such an enthusiastic insight into him and his brand, that when he says, “I am very lucky because I am living my passion”, at the end, the viewer truly believes him.

 

The exhibition itself also sounds like a winner. The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, as it’s called, will see more than 140 garments from 1970 to today presented. Included will be the infamous conical bra from Madonna’s Blonde Ambition Tour, as well as costumes for Kylie Minogue and films such as The Fifth Element.

The exhibition will also comprise catwalk footage, music videos, films, dance performances and snippets from Gaultier’s cult TV show, Eurotrash. It will be accompanied by an events programme and film season.

It has been initiated and produced by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with Maison Jean Paul Gaultier, and will tour worldwide.

All the winners from the 2013 Fashion 2.0 Awards

Marc Jacobs took the top innovator award at Style Coalition’s fourth annual Fashion 2.0 Awards in New York last night, an event dedicated to celebrating the best in communications strategies across digital media platforms.

Voted for by the public, the event also saw Jacobs taking the best Facebook title. Saks Fifth Avenue won two awards too: best blog by a fashion brand, and best website.

DKNY was named best Twitter for the fourth year in a row, while the Fashion 2.0 visionary award was presented to Rent the Runway founders Jennifer Hyman and Jenny Fleiss in acknowledgment of their “achievements in disrupting the retail industry and democratizing luxury fashion”.

Here’s the full list:

• Best Twitter: @DKNY
• Best Facebook: Marc Jacobs
• Best Pinterest (new category): Anthropologie
• Best blog by a fashion brand: Saks POV
• Best website: Saks Fifth Avenue
• Best mobile app: Gilt on the Go
• Best online video: DVF Through Glass (as below)
• Best fashion start-up: Of a Kind
• Top innovator: Marc Jacobs
• Fashion 2.0 visionary award: Rent the Runway

Pic courtesy of Patrick McMullan

Digital snippets: Facebook, 3D printing, Weibo, Topshop, Calvin Klein, Anthropologie

It’s set to be a little bit quiet on here over the space of the next week as I head down to Austin to check out this year’s SXSW. In the meantime therefore, here’s a quick round-up of some of the best fashion and digital stories from around the web these last few days:

• Facebook redesigns news feed: what’s in it for brands [Inc]

• Dita Von Teese debuts 3D-printed dress (as pictured) [Mashable]

• Dior, Prada, Marchesa, Elie Saab and Giorgio Armani top Sina Weibo’s most buzzed about brands from Oscars red carpet [WWD]

• Topshop is fashion’s most social high street brand [The Wall Blog]

• Calvin Klein launches Dark Obsession fragrance ad starring model Matthew Terry [The Cut]

• Content marketing with Instagram: five lessons from Anthropologie [The Bureau]

• Dove Canada’s Photoshop ‘hack’ reverts airbrushed, edited photos [Huffington Post]

• Five brands that reaped rewards after adopting responsive design [Econsultancy]

• One e-commerce winner, one loser; two lessons – Farfetch vs Luxup [Material World, FT]

• Shangpin taps China’s fashion e-shoppers [Financial Times]