Could this be the year fashion makes its mark at Cannes Lions?

There was a great article written by Rei Inamoto, chief creative officer of AKQA, for AdAge last year about why Cannes Lions, the international festival of creativity – otherwise known as advertising’s biggest global awards – trumps SXSW in terms of content.

“At events like SXSW, there is a lot of information. And information can become useful knowledge for marketers. However, what really moves people is inspiration. And that’s where Cannes keeps its edge for marketers. While SXSW may be about informing and finding that Next Big Thing, Cannes’ focus has been about pushing this industry of ours forward,” he says.

It reflects my own sentiments exactly. I’m well versed in both, but Cannes likewise wins for me* largely because of both the curation and the quality of its content. This is the place where true leaders come together to share not only best in class work, but overarching ideas and thoughts for the future of this space.

It’s a week where inspiration is utterly abound (alongside copious vats of rosé of course). Speakers over the last couple of years have spanned former US president Bill Clinton, Malcolm Gladwell, Robert Redford, Sir John Hegarty, Alain de Botton, Patti Smith, Aaron Sorkin and more.

Yet it’s SXSW that the fashion industry has managed to get a good grip on in terms of its relevance to them – all manner of luxury brands and major retailers have been in attendance these past couple of years, as I’ve previously covered, to source both content and opportunities for partnerships within the largely tech-focused world. Of course at SXSW there are now huge volumes of agency folk too, and at Cannes an increasing number of technology companies.

Two years ago I wrote this article about the significant lack of fashion presence throughout Cannes. It focused on the fact that fashion communications remained largely about print ads selling product over campaigns selling ideas, a viewpoint I still hold at large, but certainly one that is beginning to shift. In doing so, it’s sparking more relevance than ever for these brands to start making an appearance at Cannes, both on the delegates list and in those nominated for awards.

The great news is, 2013 looks like the year that might take shape.

Just announced is news that Burberry CCO Christopher Bailey will take to the stage on the Friday of the festival (it runs from June 16-22) to talk about “digital’s creative revolution” with Google’s head of marketing, Lorraine Twohill. From the write-up, as well as prior news from Google, that event will be the kick off for another impressive digital project from the brand.

Burberry is one of a number, alongside adidas and Volkswagen, involved in Google’s Art, Copy & Code initiative, a follow-up to its Project Re-Brief last year. This is “a series of projects and experiments to show how creativity and technology can work hand in hand”.

The write-up for the session at Cannes adds: “How do you engage your audience when ad views are voluntary? What happens when the physical and digital worlds intersect? How can data enable creativity? What if ads didn’t have to look or feel like ads? The only way to find the answers is through risk taking and experimentation.”

[Side note here as to Google's subtle but increasing infiltration into the fashion industry across all aspects of its business - way beyond just search].

Elsewhere at Cannes there are other fashion types in attendance too – Vivienne Westwood speaking with SapientNitro to “de-construct the narrative behind some of the most innovative stories of all-time”, and photographer Annie Leibovitz as part of a panel discussing the “genesis, evolution and continued success of the global ‘Disney Dream Portraits Series’.”

Watch this space…

And do also keep an eye out for the free daily live-streams being offered from the festival for the first time this year… there will undoubtedly be some good ones to choose from.

*Full disclaimer: I am employed by the same parent company as Cannes Lions. My opinion would stand regardless.

How digital innovation is changing the face of fashion

Interested in some key thoughts on where the fashion industry is at with social media, mobile and digital strategy? My knowledge has just been tested by Poq Studio, a company making apps and mobile sites for brands and retailers in this space, and posted in the form of a Q&A over on their blog.

Do check it out – I would love to hear your feedback.

Thank you in the meantime to the team over there for both the invitation and the kind introduction in the piece!

An inspirational note: fashion needs to take risk

Despite the significant number of start-ups there are in the fashion space today, the propensity with which the fashion industry in its more ‘traditional’ sense – its brands namely – is open to taking risk, remains very small. There’s a lot to be learnt from the tech world’s “failing fast” mentality to ultimately achieve reward.

So here’s a friendly reminder for the weekend. A touch of inspiration from poet Christopher Logue:

“Come to the edge
We might fall
Come to the edge
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came
And he pushed
And they flew”

As told by Steve Zades, creator of the Odyssey Project on Imaginative Intelligence, during a talk on the role of technology for the future of apparel at the Museum of FIT’s tech syposium in New York this week.

 

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.

Fashion industry can still learn from big winners at Cannes Lions

You may well have already seen that Nike+ FuelBand scooped the biggest awards at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – a week-long event held in June celebrating the best in advertising from around the world.

A wristband that measures your everyday activity, it won the coveted Titanium and Cyber Grand Prix for the way in which it goes a step beyond technology and inspires consumers to act.

As Stefan Olander, vice-president of digital sport at Nike, said during the festival: “Technology is no longer remarkable, it’s what we do with it and how we do it that’s unique.”

That comment is a nice follow up to an article I wrote for the Huffington Post last year calling for the fashion industry to be more creative in their campaigns; to produce work worthy of winning at Cannes.

“Fashion – an industry with creativity at its very core – needs to shake off its seasonal collection focus and start thinking instead about campaigns built around big ideas,” it read.

Since then, there’s been a lot of innovation from brands and retailers, especially when it comes to technology; quirky Pinterest campaigns, multiple app launches and much play with augmented reality.

But, as essentially suggested by Olander (and in my Huff Po piece), there still needs to be less focus on technology for technology’s sake, and more on overarching campaigns that solidify brand purpose.

Paul Kemp-Robertson, editorial director at Contagious Communications, emphasised the same during Cannes: “Normal people don’t care about the technology, they care about what comes out of it: the experience.” He suggested marketers need to forget about the “dude we should…” philosophy; “dude we should do an app”, or “dude we should launch a QR code” for instance. There’s little benefit in becoming obsessed with doing something just because everyone else is, he explained.

Accordingly, it’s all very well launching on Pinterest, so too is it understandable to push out a seasonal video, but when those initiatives just end up as another example of products over ideas, it not only gets boring for the consumer, but ultimately unsuccessful in terms of ROI.

Some are doing it right. For one, the increasing focus on film has resulted in some outstanding creative work. The new Roman Polanski-directed short for Prada is a great example – despite the fact focus is so heavily on a jacket from the recent collection, the viewer is entirely distracted by the storyline.

I also love Dior’s Secret Garden Versailles spot; it fits beautifully with the image of the brand, even though strictly speaking it has little in the way of a tale to go with it.

The rest of the autumn/winter 2012/13 ads are also just starting to drop, so here’s hoping there’ll be more that push the envelope beyond the typical product focus of print imagery. Unsurprisingly, Burberry is already proving a great example with its multimedia campaign, celebrating both its brand and London through “imagery, film, music and weather”.

The question is, were any of them to be entered at Cannes, would they win? I for one would love nothing more than the likes of a Calvin Klein or Marc Jacobs or even a Chanel initiative sweeping the ceremonies at the Palais one day… here’s hoping.

Sorry Dior, your new online magazine misses the mark

Dior has unveiled a new online magazine in a continuation of its quest for greater digital presence, but unfortunately the result just isn’t fit for purpose.

According to WWD, Diormag.com launches with eight articles to coincide with the fact the number is a good luck charm to the company. It will follow with  daily updates based on a variety of content designed to “both entertain and inform”. News from its 30 Avenue Montaigne headquarters will be included, as well as details on its other activities worldwide.

The aim is to tell the backstory of the brand and its products. As WWD’s piece explains, there is therefore also “house lore galore: The site’s introductory letter notes that Christian Dior was so superstitious, he would sew sprigs of lily of the valley into dress linings for luck on the day of his show.”

In theory, it sounds great. But in practice, it unfortunately comes across way too much as corporate spiel than it does anything that closely resembles that of “news” or a “magazine”.

Take this title: “Silver screen stars and fashion icons: femininity as seen by Christian Dior“. From that, I expect a real insight into the women of Dior, why they’ve been chosen, who they are, history of where they’ve come from. Maybe, even hopefully, then some insight into a fresh campaign, at the very least the latest update on one of its ambassadors like Charlize Theron (though the images of her that are provided are beautiful, if not fresh).

Alas, the text intros as follows: “Backstage Dior: the other side of the show coin. Behind the scenes, the action continues. But it’s another film that’s showing here, a more intimate one. Flanking the runway: director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s cast of four hundred. In the wings: Marilyn, Grace, Marlene, Charlize – Dior-ified, brought together through the magic of cinema.” A further three very similar paragraphs follow.

Unfortunately, the only phrase that comes to mind from that is: PR jargon. Or worse yet, utter mumbo jumbo. The team might have hired a “full-time editor in chief, whose identity has not been disclosed”, but the writing doesn’t come close to offering anything slightly resembling that of true magazine editorial quality. Beautiful if it’s on a page about the history of the brand, a piece of text designed to inspire or merely illustrate, but for a blog? (as that’s essentially what this is trying to be). Don’t expect digitally-savvy consumers to embrace it is all I’ll say.

This post on the house’s latest couture show, is much the same. It claims to offer a “look at it”, but the gallery doesn’t actually overly show the collection itself, and the copy, once again, reads exactly like a press release. Or maybe the show notes.

The post on Miss Dior, or Christian’s little sister Catherine, is better, but not by much.

The key thing that’s missing from Dior’s puzzle here, is creating content that’s shareable. Nothing in any of these pieces screams out “share me on Twitter” or “post me on Facebook” (where it has almost 7m fans), although that functionality is, quite surprisingly, built in.

There are some incredible branded content offerings out there from luxury fashion houses: Dolce & Gabbana’s Swide, Mr Porter, not to mention LVMH’s own Nowness, so plenty for Dior to have learnt from. Even Chanel’s very elusive attempts do a better job.

According to WWD, Diormag.com will cover Friday’s Paris Fashion Week show as its inaugural headline event, live-streaming it for the first time too. There’s also plans for blogger Susie Bubble to oversee a feed on Twitter at the same time. In both of those, therefore there may come something of much more value.

The entire concept has real potential, but from a content standpoint, I just hope they start to drive it properly. When you’re a brand as rich as Dior, you are naturally sitting on an enormous bed of information that people want to know, hear and see more of. By all means tell us about the past, but also show us behind-the-scenes, take us into 30 Avenue Montaigne, and give us a sneak peek at what’s coming next.

Either which way, just write it in a straightforward manner… for if you do, we’ll probably start talking about it. And better than that, we’ll also come back again.

***

ps. This piece from The New York Times fashion desk is worth reading: Editing as a brand investment