Topshop teases holiday film with social game of celebrity guess who – #whosthatgirl

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.

All of it is accompanied with the hashtag #whosthatgirl encouraging consumers to guess for the chance to win a £500/$1000 shopping spree at the store.

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).

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.