Maintaining the aura of exclusivity has always been a goal for luxury marketing. High end brands have been fashionably late to the social media party. However, it appears that at least a few players in the industry are finally making an entrance on the social media catwalk.
The trend started in early 2009, when new bloggers started appearing in the first row of fashion shows along high-stake buyers and fashion magazine editors. Bloggers like Bryan Grey-Yambao, the founder of BryanBoy.com (@bryanboy) and Scott Schuman creator of the Sartorialist Blog, (@sartorialista) were quickly able to demonstrate the power of social media with impressive reach and engagement. BryanBoy.com alone gets 215,000 unique visitors a day. Compare that to alternatives like, say, the British Vogue magazine, which sells just over 200,000 copies a month.
While it appears that the luxury fashion industry is continuing to embrace social media slowly but steadily, here are three reasons why smart high end marketers should fast track their social media efforts:
Fashion is innately social: Luxury fashion audience tends to be passionate about the products they buy. And they are more loyal to and more engaged with brand. And being passionate, loyal and engaged is what social media is all about. Diane von Fustenberg, (@insidedvf), who seems to have been focusing its effort on Twitter has now over 68,000 followers. In 2009 both Dolce & Gabanna and Louis Vuitton live-streamed their fashion shows on their website, giving the public instant access to their new collections.
The elite crowd you seek may already be on social media: According to Nielsen’s Q1 2010 Consumer Confidence Survey, 75% of the active U.S. Internet households now visit a social networking site. More importantly, 96% of Generation Y, the next generation of luxury consumers, is using social media according to Facebook statistics. Twenty-seven percent of these people also claim that their purchase decisions are influenced by information gleaned from these sites, according to a study by Hill & Knowlton. The Oscar De La Renta Resort 2011 collection that was live streamed on Facebook, (@oscarprgirl) in June 2010, reached over 35,000 fans.
Social Media offers a low cost way to grow the customer base: Social media happens to be a low-cost way of launching ephemeral new products in a tough economy. It shortens the cycle between launch and reach to their audience which normally averages 3 to 6 months. Diane Von Fustenberg has seen its web-traffic increase by 13% and a noticeable upward jump in sales. Oscar De La Renta, is more focused on diversifying their audience when using social media. In their own words – “We’re a family-owned, relatively small business competing against big players (…) We have to constantly be looking for ways to get an edge, to punch above our weight”.
While major players like Chanel, Gucci and Kenneth Cole are noticeably absent on the social media scene, we expect them to come up with their own spin in this new and emerging channel. Mainstream brands are already embracing social media as a viable and measurable channel and it is only a question of time before luxury brands figure out how to make it work for them. Will these high end brands lose their luster of exclusivity by going social? Will increased revenue offset the loss of luster? Let us know what you think by leaving your comments.
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Jul 10
The Social Soccer World Cup: Brands shift their marketing focus from the bleachers to the social field.
Matt Stone, head of new media for FIFA recently declared, “This is the first social media World Cup, where ordinary fans can become instant pundits from their living rooms.” And it might very well have been the first social media World Cup for advertisers. In 2010, your favorite brands’ ads weren’t on TV. During the this FIFA World Cup you are more likely to have found them on YouTube and Facebook. With some traditional sponsors going as far as forfeiting sponsorship to focus on Internet marketing and creating a buzz on social networks.
The Social World Cup is playing on Youtube
Most noticeably absent in the sponsor bleachers is Nike who launched its “Write the Future” campaign both on YouTube and Facebook. It has reached over 15 million viewers and has had more mentions throughout blogs and social media networks than Adidas, the official partner of the Cup. In the soft drink section, it’s Pepsi vs. Coke, with Pepsi’s (which is not a sponsor) joint Facebook/Youtube campaign “Oh Africa” racking up over 12 million views compared to less than 500,00 for Coke’s, a late-adopter, “longest celebration” campaign on YouTube.
Source: Nielsen
Other successful and buzz-worthy Youtube campaigns you might want to check out are Carlsberg’s “Team Talk” and Puma’s “Love Equal Football”
Brands are shifting their marketing and advertising budget from traditional to social-
The trend became apparent at the 2010 Super Bowl when Pepsi dedicated its entire Super Bowl advertising campaign budget to the now famous “Refresh Project”, an outreach campaign based entirely on Social Media engagement. Another example is Best Buy who bought some airtime during the Super Bowl but only to advertise their Twitter feed @twelpforce.
During the 2010 World Cup, advertisers such as major sponsor Sony Ericsson ($305-million, tier-one sponsorship agreement with FIFA until the 2014 World Cup in Brazil) has been focusing its advertising dollars on social networking, shunning traditional marketing in the process. Sony has launched the Twitter Cup, which will pit tweets from countries participating in the World Cup against each other.
For brands, “it’s a unique opportunity to tie your brand to the greatest sporting event in the world — in real time. So much in social media is about brevity,” said Jay Baer, a Social Media consultant.
The overwhelming presence of brands on Social Media networks during this 2010 FIFA World Cup only confirms that more and more brands are focusing their efforts and money on new media. According to Forrester Interactive, the compound aggregated growth rate for social media marketing through 2014 is 34% and some brands, such as PepsiCo (@pepsi) might have far surpassed that.
How do you feel about brands switching their marketing focus and budgets from traditional to social during large sporting events? And if you did, how would you go about measuring the success of such campaigns? Is “buzz” enough of an indicator? Leave us your comments.