5 Lessons From Fashion Week and How to Use Them in Your Marketing
During Fashion Week, the world turns its attention to the global fashion hubs to admire the latest works of art from renowned and up-and-coming designers. But in order to truly earn their time in the spotlight, brands and designers have to think beyond their innovative and captivating designs.
With the whirlwind of New York & London Fashion Week having come to an end, we thought we’d take a look back on our favorite marketing campaigns that have emerged from global fashion weeks across the years.
5 Marketing Learnings From Fashion Week
By observing the tactics that brands employ to strike up a buzz around their designers and clothes during fashion week, you can learn how to apply them to your own brands to see the same success.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF AN AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
In the ever-evolving luxury fashion industry, the consumer demographic is undergoing a significant shift. With Gen Z and millennials set to make up 70% of luxury spending by 2025, increasing your brand awareness allows you to reach new audiences.
Whether your aim is to build brand awareness through media coverage with a PR stunt, or through a meticulously planned paid social strategy, the goal remains the same: get people talking about your brand.
Take Coperni’s viral spray-on dress moment with Bella Hadid. By combining their innovative fashion technology with the ‘it girl’ of the moment Bella Hadid, the brand racked up a media impact value of an estimated $26.3 million. Bella’s post sharing a video of the moment generated over $1 million in just one weekend, surpassing 2.8 million likes on Instagram.
Key learnings: To reach a wider audience, invest in your brand awareness campaigns. Don’t view your social media pages solely as a way to promote your products or services and consider broadening your content. Avoid overselling and, instead, treat your socials as if you’re a real person making friends, rather than a business making money. Be sure to regularly interact with your audience by asking questions, commenting on posts, and resharing content that resonates with your values.
HIGHLIGHTING YOUR VALUES BUILDS CONSUMER TRUST
During this year’s London Fashion Week, the topic of sustainability took center stage, with plenty of workshops on zero-waste craftsmanship and upcycling. This aligns well with the values of current and future consumers, with Gen Z and Millennials as the most likely demographics to make their purchasing decisions based on personal, social, and environmental values.
It’s also worth noting that 62% of Gen Z consumers prefer to shop with more sustainable brands, with 73% agreeing that they’re willing to pay more for products that are sustainable.
Key learnings: If your brand and its practices align with your customers’ values, ensure that they’re aware of them. Find different channels and formats to communicate your values, not forgetting SEO-optimized FAQ pages, paid social ads, influencer campaigns, and more. But be wary of greenwashing, which can actually do your brand more harm than good.
Influencer marketing is stronger than ever
Partnering with influencers allows brands to tap into highly engaged communities of followers.
During Milan Fashion Week FW20, Prada worked with one of the world’s biggest TikTok influencers, Charli D’Amelio. They invited Charli to their show and allowed her to choose from a selection of Prada outfits, in exchange for her creating several videos of her dancing at the Prada event. Charli’s predominantly Gen Z audience meant that Prada could reach a younger audience and cement themselves as a hot name within this demographic.
Key learnings: Working with social media influencers to create branded content, especially at events, can generate a huge amount of online buzz with low resources required. It enables brands to reach new, targeted, and engaged demographics.
EVENTS HAVE TO BE PHYGITAL
While nearly 80% of luxury sales are ‘digitally-influenced’, luxury shoppers still want the brick-and-mortar experience, with 31% still visiting physical stores monthly. But brands shouldn’t view online and offline shopping as mutually exclusive experiences, with 67% of consumers agreeing that stores should feature higher levels of digital integration. London Fashion Week has given us the blueprint to show us how.
Back in 2010, Burberry was a pioneer in the use of live streaming their runway, but it’s now become a staple practice. Digital runways this year included the likes of Ahluwalia, Accidental Cutting, Jakke, Vinti Andrews, and Mithridate.
More virtual events dominated London Fashion Week this year, with DiscoveryLAB sessions creating immersive showcasing environments that allowed audiences to explore new and emerging brands within the wider creative industry.
Key learnings: You can make your brands more accessible to bigger audiences beyond those who can make it to the physical event through digital experiences including livestreams, interactive events, digital workshops, and more.
ANTICIPATION AND SNEAK PEEKS ARE KEY
Luxury brands thrive on maintaining an air of mystery and intrigue. During Fashion Week, brands achieve this through sneak peek previews and behind-the-scenes content shared on social media. Designer Kim Perets showed us how it’s done, sharing small glimpses into the collection in the run up to the show.
Key learnings: By sharing small sneak peeks on social media, as well as anticipatory optimized blogs and more, your brand can build excitement and suspense for future collections and announcements. This can help to boost the reach and engagement at the time of your events.
The Luxury Marketing Experts
Whether you're featuring on the runway, hosting a stall at Fashion Week, or simply seeking inspiration from these fashion aficionados, these five lessons can be applied throughout your brand’s marketing strategy.
At Block & Tam, we’re the experts in luxury digital marketing. To see how your brand can leverage these proven tactics into its own campaigns, reach out to one of our specialists today.
