Digital snippets: Burberry, L’Oréal, Macy’s, Adidas, Uniqlo, Google Glass

A round-up of the latest stories to know about surrounding all things fashion and tech:

• How Burberry has fared in its first days on Tmall [Jing Daily]

• L’Oréal launches virtual try-on make-up app [NY Times]

• Macy’s is the first retailer to run Facebook’s auto-play video ads [Adweek]

• Adidas app to print Instagram snaps on your shoes [CNET]

• Uniqlo lets consumers design their own t-shirts [WSJ – Japan Real Time]

• Google’s new fashion-savvy exec can’t fix Glass’ biggest flaw [Wired]

• Burberry cites integrated marketing activity for revenue growth as EasyJet CEO joins the board [The Drum]

• CFDA to give out Instagram award [Telegraph Fashion]

• Op-ed: Why fashion is the next big thing in venture capital [BoF]

• Why are fashion brands shying away from Tumblr? [Tumblr]

Burberry, Wren, Uniqlo and Marc Jacobs among digital winners at inaugural Clio Image Awards

Sarah Jessica Parker might have taken home an honorary title for her creative work at the first ever Clio Image Awards this evening, but it was a night for digital campaigns from across the fashion and beauty industries to be recognised otherwise.

Grand prizes in categories including mobile, experiential, out of home and video each went to initiatives that could be deemed digital in some way or another, nicely nodding to the integrated efforts being seen in the market of late.

Burberry unsurprisingly won the prestige title in digital/mobile for its Burberry Kisses campaign with Google last summer, while Uniqlo took the mass award in the same category for its Uniqlo Storms Pinterest initiative. That latter one achieved a massive 55 million impressions in five days with a media spend of $0.

Meanwhile, the Marc Jacobs Daisy Tweetshop, which saw fans able to use social currency to win big prizes during New York Fashion Week, was the winner in the engagement and experiential division. (There’s a great campaign wrap video on this hosted on the Clio website well worth the watch).

Even the out of home award in the mass category, which went to Gap for its Holiday 2013 campaign called Make Love, saw a digital component this year. The ads were straightforward portrayals of different types of love; depicting diversity and focusing on a message of acceptance throughout. It was the retailer’s reaction to racist graffiti being drawn on one of the ads starring Indian Sikh-American actor and fashion designer Waris Ahluwahlia in a New York subway station however that truly hit the headlines – Gap not only made the effort to find out where said image was actually located, but made that same shot its Twitter background picture. The Clio Image Awards referred to this as a “rare moment where a campaign truly comes to life”.

Film meanwhile, was a particularly easy one, with the grand prize going to Wren for its uber viral First Kiss campaign. This three-and-a-half-minute video documenting 20 strangers making-out for the first time only launched in early March 2014, but has swiftly become the most-viewed fashion film of all-time with a huge 81 million views.

There were also honours for the likes of T by Alexander Wang’s guerrilla marketing move with its free-for-all sample sale, Diesel’s Reboot campaign, the Inside Chanel video series, and more. Further awards went to Inez & Vinoodh for their achievements in fashion photography, as well as in additional categories such as store design, packaging, partnerships and print ads.

Image via WWD

Digital snippets: Nike, Burberry, Selfridges, DKNY, John Lewis, Burt’s Bees

It was perhaps Nike that was the buzziest of brands over the past couple of weeks, if you take into consideration both the successful launch of its unofficial World Cup campaign, Winner Stays (as above), and the rumoured shift in strategy for its FuelBand wearable device. That latter news reported the brand is laying off 70-80% of the fitness tracker’s hardware team in a bid to focus on software and the NikeFuel metric instead. A further interview with Nike President Mark Parker added fuel to the fire on a big partnership with Apple.

Burberry meanwhile was another brand with various stories to follow. It opened its new Shanghai store to much theatrical, multimedia fanfare; pushed yet another social tie-in via WeChat; launched an online store on Alibaba’s Tmall; and was announced as one of the first brands to advertise using Instagram video. And if that wasn’t enough, Angela Ahrendts just made that move officially over to Apple. “Did you notice?” asked the FT.

Safe to say, some other companies were up to things too. Here are the best of the fashion and tech stories not to be missed…

• Selfridges launches biggest ever beauty campaign with Google+ partnership [Campaign]

• DKNY shoppers go product hunting with Awear Solutions chips [FierceRetailIT]

• John Lewis looks back on British history in TV spot to mark 150 years [Campaign]

• Burt’s Bees creates promotional messages via appointments in digital calendars [NY Times]

• What can fashion-tech companies learn from Instagram’s success? Co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom shares his start-up secrets [BoF]

• Instagram is brands’ best bet for consumer engagement… but not for long [Fashionista]

• ‘Brand tagging’ mobile apps: China’s next selfie sensation [Jing Daily]

• Fashion retailers eye up image-recognition apps for smartphones [The Guardian]

• Microsoft to push into fashion space “like never before” as it boosts commitment to UK start-up community and unveils ASOS as partner [The Drum]

• Why online retailers like Bonobos, Boden, Athleta mail so many catalogs [WSJ]

• Crowdemand is like Kickstarter for fashion designers [Mashable]

• Like a dating site for fashion, PopInShop plays matchmaker for brands and boutiques [Fashionista]

• The golden era of ‘fashion blogging’ is over [The Cut]

Digital snippets: Burberry, Calvin Klein, Moschino, Saks, M&S, Primark

A round-up of all the latest stories surrounding fashion and tech…

 

• Burberry reveals ‘digital innovation’ partnership with WeChat to strengthen social presence in China [The Drum]

• Calvin Klein asks fans to snap selfies in their skivvies for #MyCalvins campaign [BrandChannel]

• Fast-fashion: Moschino offers fans the ability to shop its McDonald’s-themed show live [Dazed Digital]

• Saks recreates in-store beauty tutorials with six-second videos on Vine [LuxuryDaily]

• Marks & Spencer launches new website to replace Amazon platform, after three years in the making [The Telegraph]

• How Primark achieved 1.7m Facebook Likes in just six months [Econsultancy]

• Former GQ editor Lauren Bans comes out as @CondeElevator Tweeter [Fashionista]

• New privacy website lets you opt out of tracking in retail stores [AdAge]

• Ebay buys virtual fitting room start-up PhiSix Fashion Labs [PC Mag]

2013: a designer meets digital year in review

What a busy year it’s been…

From 3D printing taking its first trip down the New York Fashion Week catwalk, to the launch of Vine and Instagram videos, not to mention the continuing debate about the role of bloggers as influencers, the increased focus on the potential market size of wearables, and Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year as ‘selfie’, one thing after another has rapidly impacted the role of innovation in this niche fashion x digital space.

Below then, are 10 of the posts you loved the most on F&M this year. It’s an interesting collection, nodding to familiar ideas like storytelling and crowdsourcing, as well as higher quality content, and a general reassessment of what it is that actually works in this space. Video content does of course also have its place, as does the continuing power of celebrity.

Thank you for reading and see you in 2014!

• Why and how fashion brands should be on Vine: Meagan Cignoli creative interview

• Press may have pushed “tech” angle of new H&M store, but less than a week since launch, nothing seems to be working

• Literal window shopping with Kate Spade Saturday’s digital, touchscreen storefronts

• Latest Topshop innovation will see #LFW content shared via sound

• Robert Pattinson’s Dior Homme film storms in 24-hours, #diorrob hashtag takes off

• Net-a-Porter calls for shopper content with #TheNETSet social campaign

• Burberry and Google bring emotion to digital with virtual kissing campaign

• Dolce & Gabbana: #MFW’s social media winner

• All the interactive elements accompanying John Lewis’ #bearandhare Christmas ad

• Live streaming fashion week: is it worth the cost?

• And a bonus post as a thought-starter for the New Year: An inspirational note, fashion needs to take risk

Key fashion week trend: social media quality

There’s a lot to be said for the level of quality our industry is producing over social media these days, and rightly so for a world that prides itself on luxury. Whatever it is – better cameras, bigger teams, more budget – it’s working.

Take a look at some of the content highlights from the most recent round of fashion weeks:

In order: Burberry, Tory Burch, Chloé, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana (as highlighted individually last season), all with beautiful executions across multiple platforms.

In terms of cameras, partnerships with tech companies for Burberry and Tory Burch have undoubtedly helped. The former, as reported at the time, teamed up with Apple (ahead of the news this week of CEO Angela Ahrendt’s move to become Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online stores) to exclusively capture its social media content using the new iPhone 5S iSight camera. This meant incredibly high res images, not to mention benefits including auto image stabilisation, a new ‘burst’ mode that allows users to shoot 10 photos per second, as well as an option for slow-motion.

Tory Burch on the other hand partnered with Sony to shoot its show using the F55 professional 4K camera, resulting in content with four times the resolution of standard high definition video. A detailed view of each and every look was hosted at runway.toryburch.com.

Meanwhile, we’re also seeing those in attendance at the shows sharing higher quality imagery too. Yes there are still blurry runway shots, but better smartphone cameras are of course at the root of this improving. That said, there are two other factors helping this along too:

The first is down to designers increasingly creating scenes for the crowd to want to capture. As Elizabeth Holmes of the WSJ reported: “Designers have a few tricks – falling under the heading ‘Instabait’ – to create moments that even hard-to-impress fashion week veterans can’t help but click and post.” These vary from elaborate set designs and props, to celebrity showcases.

The BoF covered this during the menswear shows in July too, writing: “In recent seasons, it’s become increasingly common for fashion shows to end with a tableau of models, perfectly positioned to be snapped and shared on social media. But at the most recent round of Paris menswear and couture shows, the staging of these instantly sharable moments rose to a whole new level of sophistication.”

A second factor that might begin shaping this lean towards quality all that much further, was hinted at by Tommy Hilfiger this season. As previously covered, it offered up a service that delivered assets – pictures through to collection information – upon request to showgoers over email in real-time. The aim was to “allow the industry to curate and share a new layer of exclusive, customised content on their own digital platforms for their followers during the show”. Doing so however cleverly put Tommy Hilfiger back in charge of the look and feel of its brand in the social space, ensuring its quality was as on-brand as possible throughout.

It might be a week for talking about technology, innovation and where the two cross with fashion thanks to that news from Burberry and Apple, but it’s important to ensure nailing content and quality likewise gets the attention it deserves. Overall the result is undoubtedly a better experience for the consumer so long may it continue. And for once, long may other industries be inspired by just how well (and by that we mean beautifully) ours can do digital.

Digital snippets: Burberry and Apple executive special

The big news today has of course been about Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts’ move to become an SVP at Apple, as well as the subsequent announcement of Christopher Bailey’s new title covering her role as well as his existing one as chief creative officer at the luxury brand. Here are the must-read stories on it:

• As outlined in a statement from Apple, Ahrendts’ role will be to have “oversight of the strategic direction, expansion and operation of both Apple retail and online stores”. She will join the company by mid-2014 and report directly into Apple CEO Tim Cook

• 9to5Mac has the full text of an internal email Cook sent to Apple employees, in which he refers to Ahrendts as “wicked smart” and someone who shares the company’s values, its focus on innovation, its emphasis on customer experience and its care for people

• In general the move is being reported as a positive one for Apple. Fast Company has done a great job of aligning Ahrendts’ mindset with Apple’s based on an interview she gave earlier this summer surrounding the future of retail. A second piece suggests replacing the words “trench coat” with “iphone” in one of her quotes as further proof of why she’ll be such a good fit for the brand

• Meanwhile, a tweet from Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal said the announcement is a signifier of how the “convergence of fashion and technology continues”, a sentiment that’s been echoed elsewhere. Vanessa Friedman of the FT wrote: “It also demonstrates the increasing give and take between luxury and tech, as great personal gadgets become luxury accessories, design plays a big role in brand equity, and luxury increasingly becomes tech-savvy”

• Let’s not forget, Ahrendts is the second senior fashion executive to be hired by Apple this year. As reported by The Business of Fashion, Paul Deneve, former chief executive of Yves Saint Laurent joined Apple in July, and is thought to be working on wearable devices

• But Ahrendts offers Apple another significant value too; namely understanding China. As highlighted by Quartz: “It is also gaining the expertise of one of the most successful luxury brands in China, which happens to be the world’s largest smartphone market and one of Apple’s target markets”

• Over at The Telegraph there’s a great outline of how the first Apple Store came about under Steve Jobs, and grew to its 408 locations worldwide today. But it highlights how Ahrendts will not inherit a business without challenges. “Rivals such as Samsung and Microsoft have copied the Apple Store template and are expanding their own retail footprints around the world,” it says. And: “Apple retail has been without permanent leader for over a year following the brief tenure of former Dixons chief John Browett, who took over after Ron Johnson left in 2011 for the top job at JC Penney.”

• Much of the coverage otherwise surrounds the fact Ahrendts is the first woman to join the Apple exec team, placing her alongside the likes of Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer making waves at other technology companies

• But there’s also an argument the move is a bit of a step down for her – from the top of the pile at Burberry (not to mention the highest paid CEO on the FTSE 100 last year) to another fish in a big pond at Apple. Mashable has a few thoughts on that however, including the fact Apple could be grooming her for the CEO role in the future. It also outlines that Apple’s retail revenues are about seven times that of Burberry. (There’s some nice background info in this piece about the impact Ahrendts has made at Burberry too)

• Meanwhile, the news of Bailey as Ahrendts’ successor at Burberry (taking on the dual role of chief creative and chief executive officer) has been met with mixed response. Shares dropped 7.6% on London’s stock exchange today, suggesting there’s not a great deal of confidence surrounding it, despite enormous backing from Ahrendts and from Burberry’s chairman Sir John Peace in the brand’s video announcement. During this, Bailey himself refers to the fact the brand has “only just started dreaming”, mentioning future strategies surrounding beauty and re-integrating Japan back into the business

• As the Guardian reported, there were suggestions Bailey had been handed the top job to stop him following Ahrendts out of the door, though Burberry was forced to deny it. It instead reinforced the support he has in the rest of the company management team; in spite of the fact finance director Carol Fairweather only stepped into the role  in July this year, and chief operating officer John Smith joined in March

• Another piece from The Business of Fashion notes  it is “truly unprecedented for a designer to graduate from creative director to chief creative officer to chief executive officer, as Bailey will have done when the transition is complete”. It asks: “Can Mr Bailey, someone who is not obviously au fait with the dollars and cents of balance sheets, intricacies of global supply chains and the excruciating detail of retail operations, run a multi-billion dollar creative business in every sense of the word and also communicate with analysts on Wall Street and in the City of London?”

• As Friedman at the FT likewise says: “Now we have an art-school-trained man without an MBA atop a £7bn public company – albeit one who was always referred to by Ms Ahrendts as a “partner”. And we have final confirmation that these days, corporate and creative are becoming one and the same when it comes to high-end fashion. Argue all you want about whether or not it is a good development for either side (and I betcha people will argue) – the fact remains it has happened.”

Pic via Fast Company

Burberry shoots SS14 #LFW show on new iPhone 5S

 

The social media content surrounding Burberry’s spring/summer 2014 show at London Fashion Week was captured exclusively using Apple’s new iPhone 5S iSight camera.

The promotional move saw the British heritage brand able to make use of such features as a “larger sensor, better live exposure adjustment, auto image stabilization and live video zoom,” reported Mashable. The camera also includes a new ‘burst’ mode that allows users to shoot 10 photos per second, as well as an option for slow-motion.

The resulting creative work was edited into a YouTube video by Burberry straight after today’s show (as above), featuring models backstage, the collection coming down the runway, and celebrities including Sienna Miller and Anna Wintour interviewed outside. A 15-second – and truly beautiful – slow-motion piece on Instagram meanwhile, received over 20,000 likes.

See it below alongside some additional highlight shots from Instagram, Twitter and Vine:

http://instagram.com/p/eUvd7NxJCC

https://twitter.com/Burberry/status/379618931767775233

London amps digital to make fashion week more public than ever

This article first appeared on Mashable

New York Fashion Week came to a close Thursday, heralding the return of another fashion week in London. Once again, anticipation for the week is not limited to the collections themselves: The industry and the public are equally interested in what digital innovations the top design houses will introduce during their shows.

When one fashion house introduces a new digital innovation, it doesn’t take long for others to follow — if it’s good. One need only remember that fashion shows weren’t live-streamed five years ago, nor did designers reveal behind-the-scenes snapshots over Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr. Today, those are a matter of course.

But what’s next? New York saw Tommy Hilfiger introduce Lytro cameras and a “social concierge” service to its show this season, while Rebecca Minkoff experimented with messaging app Snapchat to debut its collection. For London Fashion Week, which runs from Sept. 13 through Sept.17, yet another round of ideas are on their way. Here’s a preview.

Celebrating London

Natalie Massenet, founder of Net-a-Porter and chairman of the British Fashion Council, published an open letter in UK newspaper The Evening Standard ahead of this season’s shows, calling for the whole of London to help raise the profile of British fashion by engaging in the excitement surrounding Fashion Week.

“All eyes will be on you as our international guests will be tweeting, Instagramming and reporting in nearly 50 countries across the world,” Massenet wrote, adding that this “will help grow our brands, stimulate exports, create new jobs and generally make us a must-visit city.” She invited the public to be their most stylish selves for the week to show their support.

Once a trade-only event, London Fashion Week has increasingly become an opportunity to speak directly to consumers. This is especially the case at the event’s headquarters in Somerset House, where an “Instabooth” has been set up to celebrate the best of the capital’s street style. Visitors will be able to print images of themselves as souvenirs as well as share their favorite looks on Facebook. Highlights will also be posted on the official London Fashion Week Instagram.

Meanwhile, a social media wall in the courtyard of Somerset House will provide running commentary on the shows, as pulled from anyone using the #LFW hashtag. Posts will be regulated to keep them appropriate, but the aim is for a visual insight into the experience of Fashion Week, whether that’s through catwalk looks, front row pics or celebrity sightings.

This consumer-facing strategy is being pushed out across the city in a year-long campaign. The British Fashion Council last week announced that every Friday for the next 12 months it will broadcast a fashion news bulletin, dubbed #FashionFridays, on screens situated on the London Underground. Beyond news and other fashion-related content, the BFC will hold competitions to encourage consumers to engage with the broadcasts using the hashtag.

The BFC is not the only one taking to the streets of London this season. Belstaff, which cancelled its New York presentation last weekend to focus on the opening of its London flagship this Sunday, is doing so with a bold statement. Playing on its motorcycle heritage, the British-born brand is closing off part of New Bond Street to welcome a parade of 50 bikers. In lieu traditional models, Belstaff is using “rugged” British guys in the parade, ones who are passionate about the brand, Emilie Hawtin, senior marketing and digital media manager, tells Mashable. “They are already wearing Belstaff; they’re getting it dirty and using it the way it’s supposed to be used,” Hawtin says.

During the parade, the bikers will perform tricks on vintage bikes, which The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman will be on hand to capture. The well-recognized street style photographer will also shoot a series of intimate portraits of the bikers before and during the ride. The resulting images will be hosted on the Legends section of Belstaff’s website, which is already home to images of its oldest jackets and the icons who have worn them.

Enhancing show experiences

When it comes to the shows themselves this season, the two big moves come from Burberry and Topshop once again. Both are partnering with technology companies, albeit ones at radically opposite ends of the scale.

Burberry is teaming with Apple to capture its Spring/Summer 2014 collection using a set of not-yet-released iPhone 5S devices. Its team will capture both photos and video of the runway looks as well as backstage, which will be shared via social media. It’s a promotional rather than an innovative partnership, a way to leverage the buzz created by Apple’s latest device.

Having partnered with more established technology players in the past, this season Topshop has sought out a young mobile startup called Chirp to create a new experience for its show. Chirp is a mobile app that transmit images, notes or links through “digital birdsong” — users post their content, then hit a yellow button to emit a unique 20-note chirp, which other devices running the app nearby can pick up. The retailer will be using the app to send out images, including prep and backstage shots, to attendees of the show via several “Chirp locations” around the event site. Its Oxford Circus store will also feature a Chirp and Twitter “garden” full of digital content for shoppers to explore.

Other content highlights

Other London designers will be sharing their collections via a variety of digital means. Twenty-nine of 58 shows will be live-streamed throughout the week, including 18 from Somerset House, eight from Topshop’s new Regent’s Park venue, and from off-site locations chosen by Burberry, Mulberry and Paul Smith. The Christopher Raeburn, Sister by Sibling and Simone Rocha shows will also be streamed directly to the BFC’s Twitter feed.

Here’s a round-up of the rest of the social content to look out for:

• The BFC is continuing its live Twitter Q&A sessions with industry insiders, including blogger Susie Lau of Style Bubble, using #AskLFW. This time, all of the responses will be recorded using six-second Vine clips.

• Matthew Williamson is handing out props branded with the hashtag #ohMW (Oh My Williamson), encouraging attendees to tweet and Instagram photos of themselves with the prop. “We wanted a cute prop to make people feel at ease with the camera – we want to show personality and character,” says Williamson’s head of digital Rosanna Falconer.

• Jonathan Saunders will use an app called Slidergram to showcase “slideshow-style videos” of key looks from its show, as well as backstage and close-up shots. All will be accompanied by the show’s soundtrack.

• Paul Smith himself will be taking over the brand’s Instagram for the majority of the week, revealing pictures of Sunday’s show prep as well as the new Mayfair store opening Friday night using the #takenbypaul hashtag.

• eBay UK has teamed up with video blogger Patricia Bright of BritPopPrincess for a series of videos focused on street style at LFW, with looks shoppable straight from eBay’s YouTube channel. eBay will also be revealing a capsule collection by designer Holly Fulton.

• Pinterest’s fashion week hub continues in London, this time showcasing boards from the likes of Harvey Nichols, Anya Hindmarch and Mulberry.

Digital snippets: Burberry, Gucci, Kenneth Cole, Onitsuka Tiger, Google Glass

Here’s a highlight of recent stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital. Look out for another round-up later this week specific to all the digital activity from New York Fashion Week…

• CEO Talk: Angela Ahrendts on Burberry’s connected culture [BoF]

• Gucci links with Google Maps for interior view of Milan men’s flagship [WWD]

• Kenneth Cole tweets joke about American involvement in Syria [The Atlantic Wire]

• Onitsuka Tiger launches digital film and Instagram campaign [Campaign]

• The next version of Google Glass might actually look normal instead of ridiculous [Business Insider]

• How the #selfie is changing fashion [Fashionista]

• Twitter hires first commerce chief to start shopping via tweets [Bloomberg]