Before the spring/summer 2013 campaigns sweep us away, and the forthcoming autumn/winter 2013/14 shows creep up on us, there’s one last holiday initiative I wanted to share.
eBay recently celebrated the fact it reached one million fans on its UK Facebook page by running a competition that offered one fan the chance to win a winter wonderland-themed party.
The “1 in a Million” contest saw 1,300 entries over three days, with a mother of two called Helen (an eBay buyer and seller of course) selected as the winner. She received a pop-up celebration in her local village just before Christmas that included a horse-drawn carriage, dancers, elves and circus performers.
The video above captures the scene. As Helen said: “The whole experience was really fun and totally unexpected… When a giant elf knocked on my front door it was all a little bit surreal. We all had a great time and we’ll not forget this day.”
A great example of personal, real-world social marketing.
Happy new year one and all! To kickstart 2013, here are a handful of stories surrounding all things fashion and digital from over the holiday period you may have missed:
Louis Vuitton pushes spring/summer line with downloadable paper doll cutouts (as pictured) [Luxury Daily]
Love magazine released a star-studded Fashion Nativity video on Christmas Day featuring Laura Carmichael, Pixie Geldof, Giles Deacon, Henry Holland, Abbey Clancy and more [Love]
New video from H&M’s forthcoming & Other Stories line reveals craftsmanship of bags in its first collection [YouTube]
Nike gamifies every day human movement with NikeFuel Missions video game [DigitalBuzzBlog]
Fashion retailer Caché launches mobile app featuring push notifications [AdWeek]
Hearst magazines is stealth e-commerce player [Material World]
Burberry is wishing its fans a”magical festive season” with the release of a short animated film set atop London’s snowy rooftops.
“A festive night at Burberry 121 Regent Street”, as it’s called, sees a silhouetted couple travel by umbrella to the doorstep of the new flagship store where a party awaits.
Accompanied by the soundtrack “Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)” by Laura Marling, it sees them dancing on the second floor while a fox and an owl, both central to Burberry’s autumn/winter 2012/13 collection, dart across the screen. Even the Burberry festive van pulls up, before the couple depart, catching a giftbag floating down on a balloon as they do that opens up to a coat for the woman to wear home.
Housed on holiday.burberry.com, the film ends with the closing of the greetings card, social icons to encourage fans to share and the festive message that it’s celebrating the season by donating to the Burberry Foundation, which helps young people realise their full potential through the power of their creativity.
In the fast-paced run up to Christmas madness, here’s a little Friday respite with a highlight of 10 of the best festive fashion, retail and luxury films:
That title should be quite an obvious statement to most, but a number of stores seem to need reminding of it in the busy run up to the holidays this year.
At a time when capturing consumer attention is fraught with more noise than ever, any sort of social activity that has the ability to cut through should not be restricted to the standard Monday to Friday routine. Yet many of them are…
Not to pick on John Lewis, but in this instance it’s the most obvious example. The UK department store has been running an advent calendar competition via Twitter with the hashtag #JLChristmas.
A nice incentive-based initiative (and no doubt a traffic driver), it invites @johnlewisretail followers to guess what festive treat is behind the door of its advent house to be in with a chance of winning it.
Every day between 10am and 3pm, it tweets out clues. At 4pm it then reveals the answer as well as a winner. Every day except Saturday and Sunday that is.
As the press release reads: “We won’t be running our competition on Saturdays or Sundays, but that means we’ll be giving away three lovely prizes instead of just one each Monday so there are even more chances for you to win.”
So the simple answer, of course, is resources. Retail marketing is not a 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday job. It hasn’t been for a very long time. It certainly isn’t now, yet with social it’s frequently still seen like it is.
Customer service departments are a lot better at working around the clock (M&S has doubled the number of those in its e-commerce call centre), but enormous marketing opportunities are being lost by brands who only focus on pushing out messages at the times they’re also sat in the office. How many of the individuals on such teams then go home and browse through Facebook, or better yet do a spot of online shopping themselves I wonder?
And that’s exactly the point.
As Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, famously said: “If you don’t come to work on Saturdays, don’t bother to come in on Sunday.” Not a bad takeaway for Christmas traders…
Stood atop a grand piano, the Hollywood actress sings a rendition of Winter Wonderland in the spot; a track that Topshop hopes has a chance of reaching number one. Accordingly, it is available to download on iTunes as well as through Shazam and Spotify.
The film was directed by Michael Polish and was inspired by the famous piano scene from 1989′s The Fabulous Baker Boys with Michelle Pfeiffer.
It sees Bosworth wearing a custom-made Topshop dress, designed by her in partnership with the retailer’s team. Both that and her shoes will be available to order on Topshop.com to tie in with its new store opening in LA in February 2013. The make-up worn in the film however is available to order immediately.
“This project brings together two important aspects of my life: cinema and fashion. I have always been a fan of the Topshop brand and it has been an honour to work with Sir Phillip and the team. I hope everyone enjoys watching it as much as we did making it,” said Bosworth.
She has also sent personalised digital messages introducing the film to numerous Topshop customers.
Liberty London Girl announced the exclusive yesterday, and she’ll be tweeting on the mornings with the two biggest prizes too. They include “a trip to Paris for two, including two nights in a 5* Tablet hotel and a gift voucher to spend in the new Whistles concession in Printemps department store. Or a trolley dash in your nearest Whistles store, so you can race around the store and grab all the things you’ve been lusting after in one fell swoop?”
What I love however, is the genius behind-the-scenes video that goes along with it. That’s one miffed model…
Given the fact online films now pop-up left, right and centre from fashion brands and retailers, it’s always fun to see those who go the extra mile to make sure their fans are fully engaged ahead of launch, almost securing the spot’s virality before it does so.
Kudos then to Topshop, who has made its first holiday campaign an altogether more significant affair by using social media to tease who its star is.
“Winter Wonderland” will premier tomorrow on YouTube, fronted by a Hollywood A-lister. Accordingly, Topshop has been using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram to build anticipation as to who she is.
Five teaser trailers reveal shots of her from the neck down, pictures on Instagram capture her in London over the weekend from behind, and comments on Twitter provide clues into where she’s from and what she likes doing. A board on Pinterest houses everything together in one space.
Justin Cooke, CMO at Topshop, said: “We are very excited about the launch of our first Christmas movie, its a true 360 degree campaign with some surprise elements that you will see tomorrow! We wanted to create real anticipation before it premiered and it looks likes its working with over 100,000 people watching 10 second teasers and an incredible number of posts and tweets across all platforms.”
Some of the clues have included:
This one is particularly fabulous:
And the guesses have been flying in. “From Elizabeth Olsen & Georgia May Jagger to Whitney Port & Diane Kruger…” tweeted Topshop on Saturday, December 1. So too have there been suggestions such as Cara Delevingne, Kate Bosworth, Chloë Grace Moretz, Emma Stone and more.
Fans themselves have been saying things like: “@Topshop’s #whosthatgirl competition is so addictive, keep trying to guess who it is, I really haven’t got a clue!”
And: “@Topshop #whosthatgirl can’t wait til Tuesday to find out if I’m correct, most fun game I’ve played in a long time, feel like a detective!”
And: “Tortured by @Topshop’s #whosthatgirl campaign. Talk about brilliant social media marketing. Can’t wait to find out who she is tomorrow!”
As for the film itself, Topshop says its inspired by The Fabulous Baker Boys – the film that made Michelle Pfeiffer famous. Until tomorrow then… (and some more pics below in the meantime).
Over the next 24 days, the likes of Abbey Clancy (also pictured), Daisy Lowe, Dree Hemingway, Edie Campbell, Eliza Cummings, Jessica Hart, Jessica Stam, Karlie Kloss, Liberty Ross, Lily Donaldson, Pixie Geldof, and Tallulah Harlech, will all make an appearance, with a new film every day until Christmas. Kelly Brook will feature again too, as will her boyfriend Thom Evans.
Katie Grand, editor-in-chief of Love, says: ”It’s been super fun working on the Love advent calendar again. We had such amazing figures last year with some girls getting up to a million hits for their festive frolicking. I mean, who doesn’t want to see Cara on roller skates?”
Behind the scenes are the same team as last year: photographers Daniel Jackson and Angelo Pennetta, and stylists Sally Lyndley and Victoria Young.
