Fashion retail has been strutting its stylish stuff on the catwalk at London Fashion Week, and we’ve been on the look out for the fashion forward video marketing campaigns.
Top fashion and high street brands alike are using content marketing to maximise the promotional opportunities. Long gone are the days when #LFW was a closed-off trade show for industry insiders; now brands want to open their catwalks up to their audiences online and create imaginative experiential campaigns.
Here are our fashion retail video and marketing picks from this year’s London Fashion Week…
Virtual fashion show
In a world first in virtual reality, Topshop offered customers a hyperreal front row seat at its Topshop Unique London Fashion Week show at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall. Shoppers in the flagship Oxford Street store could pop on specially commissioned (and very cool) headsets and be transported to the fashion show next to the likes of Kate Moss and Vogue editor, Anna Wintour.
The show was live streamed into a virtual and immersive world created by 3D agency, Inition, and reveals the potential future of the retail experience as the high street gets a new digital look. The live stream was a combination of the catwalk, animations, backstage and VIP sneak peeks and arrivals. In keeping with this democratisation of the elitist catwalk show, the brand also opened up the set and rigs in advance.
This youthful retail brand got social with their audience too with a contest to win a ticket to the events by sharing their fashion looks with #Topshopgoesvirtual. The campaign website continues the 360 degree experience by encouraging their audience to get the catwalk looks with makeup tips and practice their own moves to selected playlists, as well as using #Tweetwalk on Twitter.
In the competitive retail marketplace, TopShop is using technology in effective and innovative ways to engage with its consumers. The brand’s revamp of the fashion show and the retail experience was evident last year too where they partnered with Google to offer viewers a complete view of the fashion shows from the models on the catwalk to the makeup artists behind the scenes. Customers could engage with the brand on Google+ by sharing content and taking part in hangouts.
Fashion and technology
360 degree tech appears again in Canon’s campaign for Vodaphone’s London Fashion Weekend. For a consecutive year, they have a 360 degree photo studio which allows people to share an 8 second panoramic video via social media.
As sponsors they’ve created a film for London Fashion Week – ‘Canon – a Year in Fashion’ to celebrate the power of the image. This documentary features blogger, Andy Torres from stylescrapbook.com and interviews with fashion pros such as Henry Holland and photographer, Tony Wellington.
The brand, the film and fashion week are a perfect fit, but this perhaps plays safe rather than creating a doc that a wider audience would love to share.
Will you be wearing your mobile this season? Tech brand, Nokia opted for something a little different for their fashion marketing campaign by making the world’s first smart dress comprised of 80 Lumia smartphones – a collaboration with designer duo, Fyodor Golan.
As the models move the phones change colour and shimmer thanks to a specially created app. The phones can also show what the model sees on the screen. With smartphones becoming increasingly important for the fashion world to spread their new designs, this is an interesting collaboration highlighting the brand’s features and values.
Over to you…
Which fashion or retail brands have the most stylish video marketing campaigns?
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