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Monthly Archives: February 2015

February’s phygital retail bytes

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Here’s a round-up of February’s more interesting phygital retail bytes:

  • Interactive billboards continue to evolve as innovative retail marketing tools. In New York, Kate Spade partnered with The Science Project for a new type of personalised ‘coming soon’ shop front that gathered customer data ahead of the store opening.
  • River Island has partnered with Google Cardboard for its latest Design Forum collaboration and is experimenting with a virtual reality film in-store.

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  • Power brands are flocking to Netflix’s latest House of Cards series for brand cameos written into the storyline, according to Ad Age. No advertising here says Netflix, but I’ve lost count of featured brands such as Apple, Samsung, Chivas and Lexus enjoying their moment of internet TV fame.
  • The biggest story in fashion right now is gender neutral and on the eve of a major new ‘retail experiment’ called Agender about to hit at Selfridges, The Business of Fashion has a timely op-ed piece.
  • And finally a touch of out with the old, in with the new? As discovery-commerce looks set to drive growth within the e-commerce sphere, some legacy online-only sites are lagging behind. Here’s a look at what happened to the flash-sale bright star Gilt, that looks to be on shaky ground. It’s no wonder then that another mono-channel offering, Conde Nast’s NowManifest was shuttered this week – a sign that blogger influence is waning or more likely that Conde Nast is ramping up its native advertising and wants to streamline its online influencer portfolio.

Digital trends at fashion week: influencer clicks & double screening

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Fashion month has kicked off and already the digerati style-set are hot on the heels of the latest ‘influencers’ and their preferred social media platforms. As fashion designers, media publishers, retailers and luxury brands all assess their ROI across social media spend, it’s influencer clicks and double-screening activities that are driving digital trends this season.

Pin and click

Apple is jumping on the ‘pinfluencer’ band-wagon, with a collaboration for its App Store on Pinterest that launched during NYFW.

Apple's App store on Pinterest, launched for NYFW

Apple’s App store on Pinterest, launched for NYFW

As Pinterest develops more Rich Pins, or pins that are instantly actionable like real-time pricing or store addresses, the appeal of immediate, one-click access is hard to ignore, especially considering Pinterest’s huge fashion following (ComScore has it at 70m visits per month according to WWD, with more than 5m fashion pins going live every day). So the App Store collaboration allows users to discover new iOS apps and install them without leaving Pinterest.

So far we’ve seen tastemaker pinning activity such as FarFetch Discover, ASAP54, Lyst, Spring and Snapchat all uploading dedicated content from NYFW and influencers such as Cara Delevigne and Olivia Palermo will be sharing their favourite apps for the duration of London, Milan and Paris fashion weeks. Photography and visual culture is also on the App Store’s content agenda, via pinning activity from iPhone photographers Katja and Mal Sherlock as well as designer Valentina Kova and visual storytelling app Steller.

* Apple’s Pinterest collaboration shows the strength of the visual-culture platform and the power of pinners as influencers. The one-click download mentality is indicative of Millennial behaviour and looks set to drive digital strategy across other social media platforms.

London’s double-screening focus

The triumvirate of London Fashion Week digital innovators: Burberry, Topshop and Hunter Original, all chose to focus their #LFW social activity on the captivating appeal of live-streaming their show, combined with live messaging app collaborations.

Topshop again took a democratic approach to sharing its Unique fashion show live online, and on six outdoor advertising poster sites across the UK at high-traffic locations such as London’s Westfield shopping centres.

Topshop Unique's live stream show outdoor posters at LFW

Topshop Unique’s live stream show outdoor posters at LFW

Topshop partnered with Ocean Outdoor and Twitter for the live-stream show, during which online followers could shop for key trends by tweeting trended hashtags eg #military or #monochrome as the new AW15 collection  was shown on the runway. Topshop’s e-commerce team had curated an offer of related merchandise looks ahead of utilising real-time data accrued from the @Topshop #livetrends dedicated show tweets. I tried it with a #70s tag, and alongside other live tweeters, we all received a link back, detailing 70s and floral looks that were instantly shoppable.

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“Through Twitter’s listening power, we are allowing our global consumer to shop the trends as and when they happen, and give them insight and access into runway shows,” says Sheena Sauvaire, Topshop’s global marketing director. “The idea of live advertising is just beginning and this will be a first example of real-time shoppable billboards,” she adds.

Hunter Original did something similar, also via live-streaming its show on nine of Ocean Outdoor’s digital screens across the UK as well as it’s own website and social channels. It promoted real time m-commerce for key runway looks, by allowing viewers of the interactive screens free wifi in the busy shopping or transit locations and driving traffic to the Hunter Original mobile site to shop similar looks such as the Original Parka. The catwalk set featured an elevated scaffold runway, built above a pool of water and miniature waterfall. The sound of running water was intended as a nod to the Scottish highlands in an urban setting – reflecting the brand’s new metropolitan meets rural design DNA by creative director Alasdhair Willis. It was a subtle synaesthetic selling approach, giving a live experience an extra dimension.

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* For both these digital campaigns, I like the idea that as consumers take to double-screening they are also double-seasoning – with one foot in next season’s trends, while simultaneously shopping current season looks.

Message me back

Burberry took a two-fold digital approach this LFW, ensuring its live-streamed show experience was interactive for its global audiences across multiple social media channels. Firstly Burberry took its Asia audience on a emoji fun filled journey to Europe, via a collaboration with messaging app Line. The luxury brand live-streamed its show on the network, reaching out to Line’s 170m monthly active users, mostly across Japan, Thailand and Indonesia. Line users sign up to the service for its emoji characters such as Brown the bear and Cony the rabbit, who this season, were treated to a sightseeing trip to London courtesy of Burberry. During their visit Brown and Cony watch the Burberry show alongside ‘new’ cartoon characters Cara Delevigne, Christopher Bailey, Mario Testino and Anna Wintour.

Secondly, Burberry again partnered with Twitter for a live-stream show experiment.  When online fans used the hashtag #Tweetcam to the @Burberry account, they received tweet back showing a time-stamped photo from the runway, shot at the exact time the tweet was sent and carrying the user’s personal Twitter handle.

Burberry for Line messaging app at LFW AW15

Burberry for Line messaging app at LFW AW15

Burberry AW15 Tweet Cam @Retail_Planner

Burberry AW15 Tweet Cam @Retail_Planner

  • I like the Line collaboration for its fun, storytelling journey that targeted Burberry’s core Asia market, as well as drive traffic to its own website’s Shop the Runway seasonal activity. Meanwhile the Twitter partnership is a highly personalised form of brand engagement, with all the emotion of a direct brand to consumer conversation.

Influencer-commerce

Instagram is driving the trend for discovery-commerce, especially for fashion brands utilising the innovative Liketoknow.it  shopping app from RewardStyle. So it was just a matter of time before the two platforms collaborated with a designer brand to shop influencers’ key Insta looks live from the runway – step in Preen by Thornton Bregazzi and a handful of fashion bloggers to make it a first for LFW (after BCBG Max Azria did it in September 2014 for NYFW).

Preen by Thornton Bregazzi for Liketoknow.it Instagram

Preen by Thornton Bregazzi for Liketoknow.it Instagram

Preen by Thornton Bragazzi x Liketoknow.it at LFW

Preen by Thornton Bragazzi x Liketoknow.it at LFW

  • With its Liketoknow.it x Preen by Thornton Bregazzi partnership, Instagram is staking its claim to discovery-commerce at live runway shows. This is just the beginning, and as a digital and technology board member for the The British Fashion Council, Instagram’s Tracy Yaverbaun is likely to add a few more brands to the LFW ‘like to shop’ roster for next season.

As I explored in a post for DisneyRollerGirl late last year, discovery-commerce is also firmly on the agenda for ShopStyle and Amex. On their collaborative shopping platform, The Style Inspiration Hub, content is  currently focused on fashion week themed posts for all four major fashion week destinations. If you missed DisneyRollerGirl’s pre-LFW insider tips post, read (and shop) it here.

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This e-commerce/discovery platform is a collaboration that works well for both parties, and Amex is making the most of its influencer-driven association that mirrors its concierge service, the Amex Insiders, during LFW. There’s nothing like having a PA type service on tap between shows to sort out taxis, restaurant reservations and even IT support. The Amex Insiders team say they’ve dealt with a record number of nearly 3500 requests over the last five days, with popular restaurant requests ranging from the luxury fashion house themed afternoon teas at The Mandarin Oriental or hot new restaurant The Old Tom & English for its tapas-style take on quintessential British dishes.

* This is an updated version of a story that first appeared on DisneyRollerGirl.

River Island’s immersive VR experience

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Fashion films are two a penny at London Fashion Week, so it was a pleasant surprise this season, to see one created with a futuristic virtual reality (VR) experience in mind.

River Island Design Forum x Google Cardboard

River Island Design Forum x Google Cardboard

River Island  is showing off some serious phy-gital credentials for the launch of its latest Design Forum collaboration with LFW designer, Jean-Pierre Braganza. The high-street retailer  has produced an immersive VR film that is viewable to anyone with Google Cardboard and a smart phone, to promote the capsule collection and drive online and retail traffic.

River Island launched the Braganza film on the penultimate day of LFW at the Somerset House show space, when press and consumers alike could view the film through Google’s lo-fi cardboard headset and by downloading the app. The film features a CGI kingfisher bird on a high-tech journey through the mechanics of a spaceship, searching for a model who is wearing the collection. Once the user is wearing the headset and they have followed the kingfisher bird on its future-real journey, a layer of augmented reality experience is offered, when the user can see the bird fluttering around his or her real-world surroundings. At this point they can snap a photo to share across social media. The installation at LFW will be replicated in stores too.

A Google Cardboard headset is available with collection purchases in its flagship London and Amsterdam stores. River Island also previewed new Design Forum films produced by House of Holland and Gareth Pugh at the LFW one day preview event.

‘We wanted to give our customers a new type of in-store digital experience,’ Mary McClenahan, marketing manager told me at the launch.’It’s about making technology accessible and fun, especially for a younger, digitally savvy customer,’ she added.

‘The River Island Design Forum film collaboration with Google Cardboard allows us to offer a vision of how virtual reality will evolve, especially adding experience into the retail mix,’ said a Google Retail representative, adding this was a very early version of what virtual reality is likely to become.

*Via its low-fi almost DIY manufacturing process, Google Cardboard looks set to become more widely available and will encourage consumers to try out immersive VR films on their own smartphones as more open-source technology becomes the norm for digitally savvy consumers. With River Island’s experimental VR film, consumers are getting an early glimpse of how virtual reality will likely filter from the gaming world into the shopping experience.

 

Lo-hi online retail: Very Exclusive launches ‘affordable luxury’ fashion & beauty offer

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Starting from the ground up with a content-rich, editorialised e-commerce perspective, a new ‘affordable luxury’ online shopping site launched yesterday, and it’s filling a potentially lucrative gap in the market.

Very Exclusive by Shop Direct

Very Exclusive by Shop Direct

Shop Direct’s new fashion and beauty site, Very Exclusive has launched as a stand alone e-commerce venture, targeting women aged 25-36 who want luxury labels at a price they can afford. While sister shopping sites Very and Littlewoods are also under the Shop Direct umbrella, Very Exclusive is offering designer brands such as Marc by Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Westwood Anglomania, See by Chloe and Red Valentino alongside premium high-street lables including Whistles, Joseph and Reiss, as well as glossy beauty brands Stila or Laura Mercier. All these brands are signed up to Very Exclusive’s credit deal for customers to spread the cost of purchases across three monthly, interest-free payments.

Very Exclusive by Shop Direct

Very Exclusive by Shop Direct

‘We know how women shop and  presents an online destination that offers a top-to-toe-nail shopping experience for every occasion,’ says MD Sarah Curran, who previously launched My-Wardrobe. She says shopping on the site is about mixing up catwalk and high-street looks and decoding current season trends into easily digestible wardrobe additions. ‘We want the Very Exclusive shopper to come to us for her seasonal wardrobe or for that Saturday night purchase, knowing she can shop the fragrance, body care and make-up to match,’ says Curran adding her customers can be savvy with their shopping plans. Curran is joined by ex-buyers from Harvey Nichols and Harrods, as well as style bloggers Emily London and Simon Glazin to editorialise the website.

According to a recent savings survey by the Consumer Federation of America, Millennials are getting much better when it comes to having savings goals, with 39% reaching their monthly goals. It remains to be seen how many luxury brands will embrace the idea of free-credit to purchase their goods, but evidence suggests Millennials are keen to spread the costs of splurging online to manage finances. At FarFetch this is also a popular option, especially in Brazil.

* Shop Direct spotted a gap in the market as consumers are shopping across lo-hi retail and contemporary designer brands. After contacting a range of its regular Very customers that already had high basket spending habits, Very was able to confirm the likely demand for a more accessible luxury online shopping destination. It’s about time the multi-brand online retail marketplace was shaken up and Very Exclusive looks set to be driving change in both consumer and brand behaviours.

Social crowdsourcing: retailer press days hail new season trends early

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High street retailers are utilising their seasonal press days for much more than just previewing new collections, now these events are a tool for crowdsourcing key trends both on- and offline.

Arcadia SS15 press day

Arcadia SS15 press day

Major brands such as ASOS, H&M and New Look are employing social media personalisation tactics to entice fashion editors and bloggers down to their press days for editorial commentary, exclusive imagery and influencer-driven content, that in itself is driving brand followers. Here’s a top 10 run down of who had the best social campaigns and activity at the spring/summer 15 press days:

  1. ASOS – obviously ASOS is going to have the most sophisticated digital attraction at its press day, it lives online! Visitors to the 1/1 walk-in digital colour projection and print installation could create their own design (via a series of questions about moods and button pressing) for a personalized poster or t-shirt to take-away. ASOS also profiled its new social-influencers personal shopping service with a series of screens showing YouTube clips, introducing its team of dedicated stylists and their Instagram handles.
    ASOS SS15 press day digital print installation

    ASOS SS15 press day digital print installation

    ASOS SS15 press day digital print installation

    ASOS SS15 press day digital print installation

    Meet your stylist online - ASOS personal shoppers are on Instagram or YouTube

    Meet your stylist online – ASOS personal shoppers are on Instagram or YouTube

  1. H&M – one of my favourite press day attractions (organised by Reverb Events), H&M had everyone channeling their childhood paper-doll dressing activities with pre-cut outfit stickers that could be stuck to photos taken in the pop-up studio. To promote the retailer’s premium Studio capsule range there was a photo-studio and ‘craft’ table to showcase editor’s key picks and finished doll images that were instantly Instagrammable.

    H&M SS15 Studio press day #PaperDolls

    H&M SS15 Studio press day #PaperDolls

  1. Kurt Geiger – ‘You had me at Aloha’ was the give-away theme of Kurt Geiger’s evening press event held in Portobello’s Electric Cinema that was part Hawaiian themed festival and part press day. As if the chance to win a trip to Hawaii wasn’t enough pull, there was a grass-skirted Hawaiian band performance, surfer dudes, cocktails in coconuts and blow-up parrots as props for the all important Instagrammed shoes that had pride of place on the sumptuous seating.

    Kurt Geiger SS15 #YouHadMeatAloha

    Kurt Geiger SS15 #YouHadMeatAloha

  1. Boden – Boden takes the prize for the best VM displays where the springtime message ‘Great Boden in Bloom’, combined with a gardening theme provided the inspiration for colourful creative visual merchandising from carrots to clutches – all housed in a neon pop-up botanical shed.

    Boden SS15 press day 'Boden in Bloom'

    Boden SS15 press day ‘Boden in Bloom’

  1. New Look – New Look’s press day was merchandised by trend drops and with phy-gital display screens such as ‘Magical Marrakesh’ to advertise each story, the layout was a lesson in editorializing the store floor. With a heavy focus on social media activities, the event featured a photo-booth and beach themed speech bubble placards as well as a ‘postcards from the edge’ story-board highlighting editor’s favourite pieces.
    New Look SS15 press day

    New Look SS15 press day

    New Look SS15 press day

    New Look SS15 press day

  1. Warehouse – via its Tales of the City blog, Warehouse was able to translate an urban online voice onto its physical press day presentation. There were Tales of the City trended rooms, look book imagery and a set of wardrobes that included interior screens playing videos on repeat of the clothes on the rails. The entire VM set will feature in varying degrees in stores and the dedicated video content hi-tech wardrobes will feature in flagship window schemes.
    Warehouse SS15 press day #TalesoftheCity

    Warehouse SS15 press day #TalesoftheCity

    Warehouse SS15 press day #TalesoftheCity

    Warehouse SS15 press day #TalesoftheCity

  1. Primark – the cavernous ex-car-park venue meant a huge setting for Primark’s press day – including a vote for duvet set prints station in the homewares area, and a mirrored beauty counter for the new cosmetics range (Poundland watch out) – not to mention footwear wall and trended womens, men’s and teen vignettes. The giant transparent look book images hanging from the ceiling added scale and drama to the setting while the floral selfie-station was a fun execution for a de-rigeur press day activity.
    Primark SS15 press day

    Primark SS15 press day

    Primark SS15 beauty press day

    Primark SS15 beauty press day

    Primark SS15 press day

    Primark SS15 press day

  1. Hobbs – Personalisation and creativity were the driving forces behind Hobbs’ approach to content sharing for its town-house setting press day. As editors snapped and posted their key pieces on Instagram, Hobbs mirrored the visual coverage with a growing collection of Polaroid snaps on a dedicated wall – documenting the most popular merchandise choices throughout the day. How can this be replicated in-store / online?
    Hobbs SS15 press day

    Hobbs SS15 press day

    Hobbs SS15 press day

    Hobbs SS15 press day

  1. Oasis – a charming walled garden (and café) was the well-manicured setting for Oasis’ press day complete with water fountain feature, stone pathway and named statues for key outfits. There was even a seedling and gift shop for press day trinkets. A well thought out theme from beginning to end.
    Oasis SS15 press day

    Oasis SS15 press day

    Oasis SS15 press day

    Oasis SS15 press day

    Oasis SS15 press day

    Oasis SS15 press day

  1. Arcadia – It was a full on botanical experience at this secret garden decorated venue, including hidden café and tropical photo-booth for OOTD shoots. Each of Arcadia’s brands had themed tableaux settings ideal for Instagramming key collection pieces. Over the two day event, press waxed lyrical about the Wonderland Events designed setting. My favourite was the free cactus station and the garden-party style café.
    Topshop SS15 press day

    Topshop SS15 press day

    Dorothy Perkins SS15 press day

    Dorothy Perkins SS15 press day

Insta-ready

For many, the visual merchandising creativity of tableaux style settings is too hard to ignore. Today’s press days are one big photo opportunity and there were plenty of Instagram-friendly displays on offer at Boden, Kurt Geiger and Arcadia.

Miss Selfridge SS15 press day

Miss Selfridge SS15 press day

Storyboard storytelling

Pinterest-inspired image boards were also great Instagram-bait for retailers encouraging editors and bloggers to post their favourite pieces and start a conversation – both with physical Polaroids (at Hobbs), postcards (at New Look) and storytelling imagery (at Monsoon) as well as mashed up cut-out-and-stick digital iterations of editorial favourites (at H&M).

Monsoon SS15 press day

Monsoon SS15 press day

Shoe-fies

Special mention goes to the shoe-fie stations at Kurt Geiger and Dune, where dedicated image boards (complete with bare-chested surfer hunk at Kurt Geiger) ensured many of the visiting editors posted shoe-fies online.

Dune SS15 press day

Dune SS15 press day

Crowdsourcing product ranges

It was the piled up markers at Primark’s press day that got me thinking about how best to utilise all these early collection product reviews. Primark certainly had the volume of editor tags to make a difference to what products go into production and what might get cut, while Gap’s editor comment labels added influencer-style endorsements to products that look set to be popular.

Primark SS15 press day, tagging key pieces

Primark SS15 press day, tagging key pieces

What does it all mean?

Social media democratizes the previously exclusive experience of press days and previewing fashion collections up to three months in advance. Now consumers can see what’s coming up, they can get a head-start on key seasonal trends and ear mark products they want to buy. Personalization could be a major driver for ensuring retailers order the products their customers (and press) vote for after press days.

Perhaps retailers could start to introduce pop-ups in-store and online, for sneak peaks at next month’s merchandise drops. (Spoiler alert: Warehouse is already on it with its Tales of the City press day blog post  and Oasis has a similar sneaky peak press day themed post here)

Consumers could start voting for what products they like (and don’t) via apps such as Whichit, that looks and feels like Instagram but gamifies the shopping experience, by asking users to vote for their favourite outfits. This data could easily be transferred into a forward planning tool, that tracks products with the most votes.

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