New website brings crowd sourcing to fashion
An Internet startup called Fashion Stake launching in coming weeks aims to shake up the fashion industry, just as peer-to-peer file sharing changed the music industry.
Fashion Stake will allow customers to directly fund fashion designers by browsing on-line collections and buying a stake in a collection in return for credits to buy clothes. Patrons can also share ideas with designers and vote on collections.
The model, inspired by Internet-based social media networks like Twitter and Facebook, taps into a growing business model called crowd sourcing where entrepreneurs go directly to customers for content, funding, and distribution.
Full story at Reuters
Experience Nowness with LVMH
Chanel’s Vol De Jour not quite order of the day
We’re big Chanel fans at SoL, but can’t help feeling that Karl’s latest ‘Vol De Jour’ film, available via their iPhone app, falls a little short of the mark when it comes to creating interesting digital content. Why? Because frankly it’s dull. Beyond being able to see various pieces of the collection and getting a glimpse of Lara Stone in her smalls, it is of little value to the user, and therefore misses a major social opportunity. This is reflected in the low views and ratings on public broadcast sites and largely disparaging user comments. The experience is flat because it doesn’t embellish the brand and it leaves you wondering why Chanel doesn’t have more to say, which it certainly does. Cool bike though…
Gaga about luxury product placement
The modern luxury industry is arguably built on product placement in one form or another, but Lady Gaga is offering something quite remarkable to luxury brands: the opportunity to get in front of 35million YouTube viewers for starters. The latest beautifully crafted product from Haus of Gaga is the Bad Romance video, which counts no less than 12 product slots for everyone from Burberry to Versace via Phillipe Starck, La Perla and McQueen. Why? Gaga’s opulent visual imagery is an inviting backdrop for a luxury brand. It is the kind of lavish fantasy that strikes an attractive balance of desirability, edginess and mass appeal. Couple that with an almost unprecedented reach thanks to social media and it starts to look like a very engaging marketing platform.
“Train de Nuit” by Chanel N°5
“Train de Nuit” is a short film by Chanel N°5, that was released earlier this year. The film, which stars Audrey Tautou and Travis Davenport, is the work of legendary French film director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It tells the tale of a brief encounter between a man and a women traveling to Istanbul on the Orient Express, who’s lives are brought together with a little help from N°5.
In the lead up to the festive season the film is getting plenty of air time on television channels worldwide. But it’s the digital aspects of the project that have caught our attention.
The film was initially released online at www.chaneln5.com, back in May. The Flash website is beautifully executed and is a very good extension of the overall campaign. As well as showing the films – both the long and short versions – the site provides a fascinating looks at the making of the films including an interview with Jean-Pierre Jeunet and plenty of behind-the-scenes photography.
Interestingly, the campaign extends well beyond the website. Much of the campaign has been promoted via the brands own Facebook group, which currently boasts almost half a million fans. To many, involving consumers in the conversation only takes away from the mystery and potentially endangers a luxury brands positioning. Though a cursory read through some of the comments posted by the 1613 fans who recommended the film, reveals that there is very little being done to harm the Chanel brand in this case.
Aside from Facebook, the campaign is also getting promotion through an email marketing drive, which we picked up on courtesy of Elle Tea. And there’s plenty of Chanel conversation taking place on Twitter also.
We think it’s great to see brands such as Chanel using digital channels to breath extra life into the great campaigns they produce.
Social Luxury (continued)
Here’s a nice succinct wrap up of a few dos & don’ts when it comes to luxury brand engagement with social media thanks to our friends at Agenda.
Burberry attracts 200,000 to its social network
British clothing brand Burberry has attracted more than 200,000 unique users and 3m page views to its new social network since launching last week.
The Art Of The Trench encourages visitors to upload pictures of themselves wearing a Burberry trenchcoat to build its own community of fans of the brand. Burberry wants to build on the 700,000 fans it has attracted on Facebook.
Christopher Bailey, creative director for Burberry, said, “Everybody has a different story related to their coat or the first time they came into contact with one. I love the idea that people from all over the world can share those stories and images with each other.”
From New Media Age
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