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.

Matthew Williamson in Net-a-Porter Instagram takeover for #matthewmapped campaign

Matthew Williamson is guest posting on Net-a-Porter’s Instagram this week in a campaign that teases his own arrival on the social platform.

The London-based designer is sharing images of his favourite places from around the world on Net-a-Porter’s account twice daily for seven days. Each is tagged with #matthewmapped and the relevant location, therefore curating a geographic story of his travels that will result in a ‘Matthew Map’; an image that showcases all the shots together in one place.

“All week we will be sharing photos of [Matthew’s] inspirational travel destinations on our Instagram. Get inspired!” reads the intro post from Net-a-Porter.

“Follow me around the world in 7 days! MW x,” quotes the copy in the first shot from Matthew – one of him in Mauritius. Others so far have also come from Goa, Lake Tahoe, Venice and the Nevada Desert.

The initiative is being pushed across Net-a-Porter’s social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and its blog, Fashion Fix. There are also posts showing relevant product from Matthew Williamson, such as an ombré sweater inspired by the sunset hues from the Nevada desert snap (as below).

It all leads to Matthew launching his own Instagram account from April 1. This will be run by the designer himself and include everything from shots of his creative inspiration to insight into his daily life (the profile picture for his account is shown at the bottom).

Rosanna Falconer, head of digital at Matthew Williamson, said: “We both felt it was crucial Matthew was posting his own visual story and personal photo diary. His aim is to encapsulate our core brand DNA, be it about colour or travel, art, nature, or interiors. He’ll share his sketching and his styling when he’s in the studio, as well as shots when he’s out and about with friends.”

The new feed will also see images shared from the brand’s #MatthewMagnified and #OhMW campaigns – the former stitching together different shots that zoom in to the details of collection pieces, and the latter featuring fans themselves wearing Matthew Williamson. “They have both proved so popular on Facebook and Twitter, and I always find fans taking the images from those platforms to Instagram on their own accounts, so it’s an obvious fit.” Falconer added.

Matthew can be followed via @matthewwilliamson on Instagram from April 1.

The future of fashion weeks: do you have an opinion?

This is a bit of a different post to usual – a call for content if you will. Over the past two years, Fashion & Mash has grown to have readers from many fascinating parts of the industry – both in brand and in agency, all doing interesting things in their own right, but more importantly with a lot of things to say on this space.

Now, I’m looking for a bit of a view on where this industry’s seasonal fashion week shows can go – my very own crowdsourcing you could say. Does the old model still work? Does it need to change? How do we better align the communications and operations side of what our design houses and retailers do? As leaders in the digital field, you’re the rightly placed disruptors for these businesses – can you shake it up? Do you want to? Does it need it?

If you have any thoughts, on the record, or just as easily off (honestly), I would love to pick your brain. Let me know! Drop me an email anytime, whether it’s just with one sentence or two, or for a bigger conversation with a promised drink at the other end too. I have my own thoughts, and with recent discussions they’re rapidly evolving, but yours will really help fuel this fire…

Thank you!

Digital snippets: Burberry, Uniqlo, Jaeger, Rebecca Minkoff, Reebok, Asos, Target

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

• Burberry fetes digital at Chicago flagship opening (as pictured) [Mashable]

• Uniqlo partners with GIF artists for holiday campaign [PSFK]

• Jaeger’s new website let down by drab colour scheme [Econsultancy]

• Rebecca Minkoff unveils new site [WWD]

• Reebok edits and refines its social media footprint [AdAge]

• Asos maintains heady rate of sales growth, Q1 up 30% to £165.8m [Reuters]

• Target CMO: content and mobile matters more than campaigns [BrandChannel]

• How eBay became a fast-fashion graveyard [The Cut]

• Five years in and profitable, Gilt refocuses on new leadership, an IPO in 2013 and more [TechCrunch]

• Co-creation: the real social media revolution [Harvard Business Review]

New start-up Tapestry gives shop floor a digital identity, signs Diesel as pilot partner

It goes without saying that mobile is set to play an ever-increasing role in the future of retail – be it for payment, loyalty and rewards, social content or more.

Enter then, Tapestry, a new start-up from the team behind London-based digital agency Guided Collective, that very nicely ties all those things together.

Launched in a pilot partnership with Diesel in the UK, this iPhone and Android app helps to provide shoppers with a 360 degree online-meets-offline experience.

Trialling at Diesel’s Westfield London store until December 21, it allows consumers to curate a collection of all the items they like as they shop by scanning existing barcodes (or by using NFC in enabled Android devices). From there, they can see information about each piece such as size, colour and price, as well as the digital content that surrounds it – expert reviews from bloggers for instance, alongside videos, runway shows and more.

In essence, it’s a physical or real-world bookmarking tool for the fashion industry.

Those bookmark sets – known as Tapestries of course – can then be shared across social networks, but better yet be bought straight from the smartphone too. There’s also the possibility for notifications on things like promotions and rewards.

Referring to itself as a mobile loyalty service, the Tapestry write-up reads: “On the one hand it links content and promotions directly to physical products via a consumer’s mobile. On the other hand it links all physical items in store to the retailer’s ecommerce site, re-shaping the retail experience both in and out of store.”

Simply put, it gives a retailer’s physical inventory a digital identity, something Sam Reid, founder of Tapestry, refers to as “joining up the dots”. Based on a cloud platform, it also does so simply and at scale, he explains. And the app is to be funded on that basis, with retailers paying a subscription fee for the service.

In addition, it gives retailers permission-based real-time access to consumer interests, and therefore data. “The user is saying ‘I’m interested in these shoes, this t-shirt and this dress. Let me know when they’re on sale, or if stock is close to selling out, or if you’ve some interesting content to share,” the Tapestry description explains.

It’s hoped more retailers will follow in Diesel’s footsteps, says Reid, suggesting others are already in talks. This makes the concept all-the-more interesting – rather than just being about one brand’s clothing items consumers might save and explore, it becomes about their entire shopping trip. Imagine being able to recall everything you’ve seen, read reviews around them, and pick and choose which ones you want to buy at a later date. It’d certainly simplify those occasions when you regret something you should have purchased and you can’t find it online.

Another interesting part for the future will be seeing this app develop alongside NFC. With this, consumers only need to tap items (hence the clever Tapestry name) to bring them up on their phone – effortless. As this technology becomes more commonplace across devices, that behaviour is likely to see a huge spike in uptake in the retail space, blurring the digital and physical lines ever more.

It’s worth checking out blogger Liberty London Girl’s exclusive link up with Diesel for the Tapestry launch too. And watching the video demonstrating Tapestry in action, below:

Valentino updates virtual museum, launches in-browser

You may remember Valentino launched a virtual museum in December 2011. Designed as a downloadable desktop app, it was met with somewhat lukewarm reception in terms of its design and more importantly, its technical ability.

It’s great to hear therefore, the team has launched a browser verison. At www.valentinogaravanimuseum.com, users can now explore the archives of the designer within their internet journey. There are still a couple of hoops to jump, such as downloading a plug-in, but the overall result is simpler, more appealing and should help up traffic.

At the original launch last year, Valentino Garavani’s business partner Giancarlo Giammetti spoke about keeping the virtual concept exciting by staying abreast of technological change. He also promised frequent content updates to the museum, including new drawings and videos.

That is finally happening with the web browser launch too. Two new videos have been added: one from Valentino’s collaboration with the New York City Ballet (as below), and the other of the recent presentation of his Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, in Paris. Hopefully there’ll be more to follow.

The site also has a dedicated homepage (before the plug-in) featuring news, pics of the week and an ‘In the Press’ section – nice for SEO and further suggestive of more regular content updates.

Offline, Valentino’s couture archive specifically is the subject of a new exhibition at Somerset House in London, opening this Thursday, November 29.

H&M teases digital content ahead of & Other Stories line launch

There’s some nice digital content going on to seed the launch of H&M’s new upmarket concept, & Other Stories.

The womenswear line, which will include ready-to-wear, shoes, bags and accessories, was teased through a one-minute video on Vogue.co.uk this week (as below).

The “Shoes & Other Stories” spot sees a series of polariod frames streamed one after the other as though a slideshow. It features a woman walking around Paris barefoot until she receives a delivery of & Other Stories footwear.

“Documentary-like snapshots tell the story of a day in the life of a Parisian girl while giving glimpses of & Other Stories’ concept and SS/13 collection,” reads the write-up.

There’s also a Tumblr page in action showcasing all manner of inspiration and product shots (including some from the film), as well as a couple of what looks like the & Other Stories team at work in the atelier.

Facebook, Twitter and a website have also launched, the latter inviting fans to sign-up in order to “receive tons of inspiration on a regular basis because we love to share our secrets, tips and tricks with you”.

The line aims, it says, to inspire women to create their personal style, or story. It will launch for spring 2013 in stores and online in selected European countries. Expect lots more to come…

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.

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.

Cinemagram’s crowdsourced GIF content could prove viral win for fashion brands

Rodarte

There’s no denying the unfathomable appetite online for GIFs at present, or Graphics Interchange Format images to use their full name. Although the simple animated pictures (made up of multiple frames on loop) are about to celebrate their 25th anniversary, they’re being feted across the web now more than ever.

Within the fashion industry, what’s followed of course is bundles of beautifully creative work – pioneered by blogger Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg with their “Cinemagraphs”, as reported here, and since carried on by all manner of Tumblr stars, including the likes of Mr Gif and FashGif.

In fact, on Tumblr, GIFs are hands-down the most successful posts. As Rick Webb, Tumblr’s revenue consultant explained at an event in New York recently it’s these that result in the most engagement actions – likes, reblogs and follows.

Needless to say therefore, fashion brands have cashed in on them too; Burberry, Oscar de la Renta and Calvin Klein as just a couple of examples. Below meanwhile is a recent tribute to the late Lee (Alexander) McQueen created by Nick Knight, and above another created by Rodarte, both of whom are part of the selection committee for a forthcoming GIF exhibition at Art Basel Miami created by Tumblr and Paddle8 called Moving the Still.

Over the past few months, Cinemagram is a name that keeps popping up in relation to all this. One of a number of apps dedicated to the GIF, it essentially simplifies the whole process for individuals to do themselves by using film, while simultaneously tapping into a sense of community once more (think Instagram for GIFs – grainy filters and all). It launched on the iPhone in March 2012, and reportedly has over two million users already.

Referred to as “a fun and beautiful way to animate your photos”, it has caught the eye of a number in the fashion industry especially. It’s interesting to see who is, or has been, on there already – the usual (largely New York-based) digital crowd when it comes to individuals, as well as the industry’s most tech-savvy brands, including Nicola Formichetti, Bergdorf’s and Rebecca Minkoff.

What seems to be the most interesting part of it, however, is nothing to do with corporations having to manage yet another social media outlet, but being able to use it to crowdsource content from their followers.

Brands such as Red Bull and music stars like Pink and Linkin Park have partnered with the platform to offer users the ability to remix official videos and create their own interpretations of the work. The sharing features built into the app then help spread it.

An original post introducing the “Remix” feature, reads: “For the first time, users can engage, interact, and be creative with official video content in a way that has never existed before. Companies want more exposure for their video content… We view cines as tweets for videos and therefore potentially a unique opportunity for Cinemagram to achieve their goals.” Users were doing it already, now they can do so legitimately, and directly from the source.

While a number of fashion brands told me they don’t see uploading their own content on Cinemagram to have too much of a future for them, one e-commerce site in particular said they’re excited to look at how to make use of this new crowdsourcing opportunity. Sending snippets of content out to fans and using it is as a teaser for a then full campaign video is enormously appealing, they explained.

Watch this space…

Nick Knight’s GIF tribute to Alexander McQueen