It goes without saying that fashion has always been about forecasting future trends, but due to our attention spans lasting as long at the average tweet, the trend-life is shortening.
We have witnessed brands by the likes of McQueen, adopting Augmented Reality technologies, integrated with social commerce to allow shoppers to visualise garments on. It’s not just the luxury brands adopting this though, we’ve seen Topshop adopting real-time-adverstising strategies this season aimed to enhance the shopping experience. Oh and, Sienna Miller also sported this instant movement, in an Oscar de la Renta FW15 dress just days after the NYFW show. But maybe this is still too late? What about real-time purchasing, DURING runway?
The Social Media Commerce #SMC award has to go to Burberry this season. Our internet dominated lifestyles inspired Burberry to let us access our needs and wants fresh off the runway; as if it were a freaking supermarket conveyer belt.
The brand encouraged followers to tweet with the hashtag #tweetcam and @burberry twitter handle during the show to trigger a camera to take a photograph as models walked the runway. Burberry then tweeted each personalised photo, snapped from a prime vantage point at their live show to the user’s twitter handle. Immediately after the show, items were available to purchase and personalise as part of Burberry’s Runway Made to Order service. Burberry basically cured any #FOMO’s.
And after all, #SMC is a double whammy for brands and their marketing, because there is absolutely no way that we will make a live transaction at fashion week, without tweeting, sharing, liking, then probably re-sharing again, favouriting and nudging our friends to share our purchases. Then we’d definitely #hashtag the jesus out of it. We’d even hashtag #burberry with spelling errors, just incase those potential searchers/likers (todays self-validation approval) make a typo, or just simply can’t spell ;-) #burberry #burbery #beughberry #booberry and #bullbelly (for our Scottish fans) - ok maybe that’s too far, but you get my jist. Before you know it, your brand is trending in 5 different spelling formations.
Social-Media-Commerce will also enable brands to develop deep and meaningful relationships with consumers SOCIAL behaviour (FYI social behaviour and genuine, real life behaviour are totally different things) and living in the age where our online lives are probably, no definitely more important than our offline lives, this is just vital dahlings? It goes without saying.
I think we’re all over #comparethemarket, it’s just exhausting, we just don’t have the time. We’re constantly fretting about going OUT with a trend instead of coming IN with it. So what else? #SMC will deepen brand loyalty. We’re not gonna compare, we’re gonna trust you to deliver. The pressure is on. So if you’re not collaborating with an online vendor, what are you playing at? Seriously. Go chill with the laggards.
If you want some guidance in driving sales through online social media platforms, #SMC and more on social media optimisation, hola at B2B Media. We know what to do.