Saturday 5 August 2017

The success of social media fashion campaigns

The power of celebrity endorsement on social media is becoming more apparent – with the number of likes measuring the success of many campaigns. In the worlds of music and fashion, ‘likes’ are now essential to a clothing brand’s or artist’s overall success.

Once upon a time, traditional methods such as billboards and TV advertisements led your campaign along the road to success – however, with the rise of the digital age and celebrity influencers, Trilogy Stores, retailers of J Brand Jeans, investigate how and why social media is having such a significant impact on the world of fashion.
High Rise Jeans
Who are the most liked?
The figure who leads the way within the worlds of music and fashion by claiming the most liked title is Queen Bey herself; when BeyoncĂ© posted herself with a picture of her baby bump on February 1st 2017, she gained 11m likes, a dramatic increase of 4.3m on Gomez’s record the year before, when she participated in the Coca Cola campaign.

If popular figures such as BeyoncĂ©, Selena Gomez and Kendall Jenner create such an impact on social media – whilst influencing the world of fashion with the clothes that they wear – then how is social media influencing and changing the way the fashion industry operates to suit millions of users every day?

What comes first, the model or the followers?
Does success come with the model, or with the followers? In previous years, the popularity of a model would be founded upon their success within the fashion industry and the modelling shoots they appeared in. Now-a-days, have circumstances changed?

The model
At the age of just 15 years old, Naomi Campbell got her first break, and then went on to grace the covers of Time magazine, French Vogue, Russian Vogue, and was the first black model to appear on the cover of British Vogue. Her success then is based on how long she has been in the industry and how popular she has become over the years. Based on this fact, it has meant she is now known as one of first five original supermodels.

However, with new celebrity influencers such as Kendell Jenner, has the industry changed for good? Kendall Jenner is currently the world’s most popular and in-demand model, but was already famous before she became the model she is today. By appearing on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, her involvement with the world’s most televised family still has a direct impact on her popularity on social media, and consequently, her exposure within the world of fashion.

The followers
Kendell Jenner has over 81.6 million followers with 2,796 posts, almost guaranteeing a campaign some level of success on her social media account – it’s no wonder she has become the face of global cosmetics giant Estee Lauder. Having Jenner as the face of a campaign carries the already established success of the ‘ultimate Instagirl’, which encourages the industry to choose these popular faces over newcomers who haven’t already had their first break.

Similarly, when Brooklyn Beckham had 5.9 followers in 2016 – now 10m – Burberry approached him to photograph Maddie Demaine for Burberry’s Brit fragrances ad campaign. After being chosen over many professional photographers in the industry, this created a new precedent within the fashion industry. Now, fashion campaigns can be dictated by the level of followers a particular model or person has, not their knowledge of the industry or their contributions to popular culture outside the online world of social media. It’s not just the model that needs social media leverage, even the backstage team (make-up artists, stylists, and producers) need to be known on social media before they can be involved in a major fashion shoot.

Helping to change consumer behaviours

Evolving tradition
If the fashion industry and social media apps such as Instagram are joining forces, in certain instances, the celebrity endorsed image can be used to help drive sales and increase consumer awareness regarding branded products from fashion retailers.

Shifting away from the tradition fashion industry, which has been built on exclusivity and a ‘private members club’ mentality, social media is presenting campaigns with a more casual look – as though users are being exposed to this secretive world for the first time.

Buying the image

Now, some of the biggest fashion houses are starting to combine the ability to purchase their products with the images and catwalks that help to build-up their brand identity. By doing so, their online businesses receive more customers through greater engagement with smart devices.

Burberry was the first fashion house to integrate their fashion catwalks with their social media and buy platforms online. They were the first to stream their catwalk online, and in some instances, guests at the show were able to buy a garment on their smartphone as soon as the model walked past them. As well as this, to debut their spring/summer collection in 2016, Burberry previewed it on social media platform snapchat before its official release.

Michael Kors have also taken advantage of this by using smart hashtag campaigns. The fashion house sent an email to users who liked their products with the link to buy the product online, with the hashtag #InstaKors. Through considered hashtag campaigns such as these, fashion houses are able to bridge the gap between a fashionable image, and their ability to buy the product.

As a result of higher levels of engagement on Instagram, fashion brands are starting to increase their product portfolio online, and they are growing their online sales faster than competitors that aren’t taking advantage of online social platforms. If companies within the luxury brand market are unable to take advantage of how consumers are interacting online, in the future, they may lose out to their competitors who are.




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