The ‘#AySauce’ campaign, created in collaboration with Byte London, features a dedicated branded hashtag challenge, in-feed ads, a bespoke music track, and an interactive augmented reality (AR) experience with TikTok’s branded effects. Talent involved in the campaign includes Holly H, Luke Trotman from Love Island, the Neffati Brothers, Loren Gray, Micheal Le, and Jordan Fisher.

“We’re always evolving our content, social media strategy and channel focus to ensure we’re staying relevant to our fashion-loving 20-something customers,” said John Mooney, Brand Creative Director at ASOS. “TikTok is a growing part of that mix, and we’re excited to see how our social content team can engage our customers in new ways through the #AySauce hashtag challenge over the coming weeks.”

Starting today, all TikTok users in the UK will be greeted by ASOS content when opening the app. Then, from 31 August, the #AySauce challenge will ask target audiences to showcase three outfits of their choice in 15 seconds. Those participating in the challenge will be able to explore more ASOS content via an extra ‘Explore’ tab on the challenge page.

In-feed ads will run throughout the campaign to reach users in their personalised ‘For You’ feeds. And ASOS has commissioned and produced its own track with KARM and co-created a branded effect AR experience with Byte.

In the US, ASOS will run in-feed ads from 31 August until 14 September alongside creator content.

“TikTok’s format and joyful tone encourages brands to be authentic and creative in a fully immersive, no judgement world,” said Inam Mahmood, Managing Director of Global Business Solutions UK at TikTok. “The team at ASOS has really leaned into this and shown with its campaign that it understands what makes the platform unique – community, music and creativity. We’re excited to see the results we can help to deliver for ASOS across the UK and US.”

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The newly launched ‘Mix and Match’ Bitmoji feature will display 12 real Ralph Lauren looks for Snapchatters to dress their Bitmojis in. Users opting for a Ralph Lauren look will see the designs in digital experiences both on the Snapchat app and off it, including chat, games, on Snap Map, and in Bitmoji Stories.

“Ralph Lauren is excited to embark on this innovative partnership with Snap,” said Alice Delahunt, Ralph Lauren’s Chief Digital Officer. “With Ralph Lauren’s respected reputation as a global leader within the luxury fashion space and Snap’s undeniable creative prowess and expansive reach to a younger consumer, we feel inspired to explore disruptive ways to tell our brand’s story, drive social commerce and engage with a new generation in an authentic and empowering way.”

Designed as an extension of Ralph Lauren’s physical collection, the pieces include classic double-breasted blazers, a branded racer jacket, a striped rugby shirt, and a track jacket. All the looks will also be available to purchase in real life through the Ralph Lauren website and select Ralph Lauren retail stores.

Eventually, over the next six months, every Polo shirt within Bitmoji will be branded with Ralph Lauren’s signature polo player logo.

“This partnership is an expansive and holistic venture to bring the Ralph Lauren brand into the digital world,” said Selby Drummond, Snap’s Head of Fashion and Beauty. “Bitmoji is the world’s most personal avatar, and with a new virtual wardrobe experience, it’s possible to feel even more closely and authentically connected to your avatar when wearing the labels you love. We’re thrilled to see Ralph Lauren leading the way as brands embrace the world of digital fashion.”

Ralph Lauren and Snap have also linked up on a series of interactive street artwork to celebrate the brand’s famous Polo shirt. These ‘Polo Public Art’ project murals from local graffiti artists in New York, Chicago, and Dallas are enabled with augmented reality animation via Snap Codes to bring the art to life.

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Mobile-first advertising company TabMo works with some of the worlds biggest brands to help them engage their audiences across mobile devices. Its DSP, Hawk, automates the process of buying mobile inventory and provides access to mobile data sources, geo-targeting technology and advanced mobile tracking solutions. TabMo provides creative support to ensure brands are communicating with their customers as effectively as possible. Through Hawk, advertisers can also activate digital out of home, connected TV and audio campaigns to further enhance their mobile advertising activity. 

As part of our Mobile Spotlight series, we talk to Jessica Chapplow, head of digital transformation at KR MediaCom about the luxury fashion industry, and how brands are adopting digital marketing.  Selected as one of MediaWeek’s 30 Under 30 2018 and nominated for Women in IT’s Young Leader of the Year award (2019), Jessica specialises in digital transformation, focusing on the role that cutting-edge technologies ranging from artificial intelligence, blockchain to augmented reality. She advises KR MediaCom’s clients across the luxury industry on embracing emerging technology, and consulting on the implementation of best practices for innovation.

For those who aren’t familiar, shall we start by defining who KR MediaCom are? The agency’s position within the group? And, also, your role?

KR and MediaCom united in 2009 to combine specialist luxury sector knowledge with hands on account management and the benefits of being part of the UK’s largest media agency. Today KR MediaCom sits within the main agency, offering the highest level of service, high net worth (HNW) knowledge and expertise to a portfolio of industry leading brands and clients.

The speed of change is only going to increase, not just for digital but in terms of the cultural trends playing out in society. My role focuses on future proofing KR MediaCom’s clients to be (and stay!) ahead of the curve and to activate and innovate across media, technology and insights.

How do you think luxury fashion differs from other fashion sectors and what opportunities and challenges does this pose from a media perspective?

Technology has increasingly become part of the conversation for fashion brands and it affects all aspects of the ecosystem. Finding the balance between exclusivity and accessibility is the tightrope that luxury marketers continue to walk. This is the challenge that keeps us coming back into the office here at KR too.  It’s easy for brands to mistake communication for connection when it comes to digital marketing. However, the unique DNA of luxury brands is rooted in a deep sense of authenticity, heritage and savoir-faire. The platform might be new, but the timeless nature of the strategy opens a wealth of opportunities for luxury brands to leverage their core values to create intimate experiences with intelligent context.

• Relevancy is the new legacy: In the current complex digital landscape, authenticity loses meaning without context. According to McKinsey, today’s luxury consumer has up to 15 different touchpoints with a brand. Whilst this is significantly less than other industries (airlines can have 500-plus touchpoints), the challenge for luxury brands is to craft compelling stories that are highly relevant across an increasingly fragmented digital landscape. To ensure a successful strategy, marketers need to prioritise platforms; determining where to be (and even where not to be) is the first step to ensure that the core audience is reached in the correct environment. Content is context-dependent (a mobile user has different needs to a desktop user, similarly, an Instagram user will have different expectations to someone using Facebook) and therefore needs to be designed for the selected platform(s).

How do you feel that working with TabMo helps you to overcome these challenges?

Creating synergies between paid, owned and earned media is a task that is easier said than done. However, Tabmo’s diverse capabilities allow us to connect multiple channels (display, audio and digital out-of-home) with retail locations which create powerful insights so we can look past traditional display metrics to quantify ‘real life’ behaviours. TabMo’s Hawk platform allows us to access a wealth of data sources and by fusing together location, socio-demographic, income, interest, app usage and purchase data, we can build a highly qualified audience. Combining this with TabMo’s high quality premium inventory sources, we can run relevant, brand safe and carefully targeted campaigns that put luxury brands at ease with using digital advertising.  Connecting the O2O (online to offline) properties is also of paramount importance as luxury retail brands invest significantly on the in-store experience; Hawk provides real-time footfall measurement so we can optimise a campaign whilst it is live to drive the most efficient performance.

What are the trends you are currently seeing within the luxury fashion sector, and how is this reflected in marketing / advertising activity?

Traceability, data privacy and gaming are just three forces that are impacting the fashion and retail industries. As always, clients want to know at what point they need to venture into this space themselves.

• Traceability and transparency: If transparency hinges on trust, then traceability is about accountability. As the relationship between trust and truth comes under ever-more scrutiny, platforms such as Everledger use a combination of blockchain, AI, and intelligent labelling technologies to introduce transparency to the supply chain of luxury goods. Emerging technology used in the right way can reinforce a brand’s purpose and tackle culturally relevant issues. The key is to begin with a solution in mind that improves outcomes and the consumer experience.
• Gamification as a way of re-humanising luxury brands: The mounting momentum in digital and mixed reality fashion has been largely driven by significant technology improvements. Gamification offers luxury brands an interactive way to immerse a consumer in the brand’s universe, making them a participant in the product development (customisation), or giving them a sense of belonging (matching a product to a personality). Whether customers go on a treasure hunt with Dior or toss horseshoes with Hermès, they need to form social connections and get more than just a product from their experience with the brand.
• Desire-driven data collection: No industry will remain untouched by customers’ increasing sensitivity towards privacy. However, in a post-GDPR world, luxury brands are poised to offer more personalised products and services to their customer base, although this makes it crucial to incentivise consumers to share their data. Personalised service, recommendations, private appointments, and so on, are intrinsic to the exclusivity of luxury brands. These components are difficult for mid-market retailers to replicate, which provides luxury brands with a clear advantage in the race to understand consumers better.

What are your digital predictions for 2020 and beyond?

When it comes to shopping and consuming, the influences on purchasing decisions are becoming ever more decentralised, personal and visual thanks to the increasing sophistication of technology. As mentioned earlier, we are now experiencing a shift in the way consumers interact and transact with brands. This will continue to be fuelled by two key developments across the emerging tech space.

• Transcending the emotional intelligence ‘tech-lash’: Having grown up online in the era of misinformation, Gen Z are very sensitive to authenticity and demand a greater connection with brands. According to the Marketo Engagement Gap Report, 56 per cent of consumers believe businesses need to have a deeper understanding of their needs. Emotional intelligence and connections – both real and digital – will be cornerstones of digital innovation beyond 2020. In short, as humans become more digital, technology will become more human.
• Visual recognition collapses the purchase journey: AI is already powering image recognition to make product selection easier. Pinterest, Google Lens and Snapshop (backed by Kim Kardashian) allow users to simply take a photo or screenshot of a product they like to find similar options at any price – accelerating the purchase journey by shrinking the steps between desire, discovery and shopability. Amidst all the benefits of visual recognition in the context of ecommerce there are some obvious concerns around safety, privacy and legislation when using facial recognition software in particular. Could we soon experience – or are we already faced with – a situation whereby our face is the next computer cookie?

What challenges and opportunities do you think the recent news around third party cookie data will present?

We all know that there are flaws in the cookie-based system that make it appear clunky and outdated.  Is historical data based on behaviour indicative of audience relevance? Should this single factor influence who we target? The increasing sophistication of machine-learning techniques have created a wealth of opportunities for intelligent targeting that doesn’t require user-profiling – without compromising user privacy. Data collection and targeting are key ingredients to a successful campaign and are the source of both challenges and opportunities as we move to a cookie-less world.

For example, contextual targeting will be reimagined to give advertisers the opportunity to see and react in real-time to insights from audiences’ live content consumption. These dynamic datasets can be used to target and scale campaigns as effectively as cookie-based targeting. This is the same user journey that is constantly discussed; however, by analysing consumption patterns of particular content at the point of when the ad is served, the need to profile a user based on their browsing history is eliminated.

What is your advice for any young marketing professionals with an interest in pursuing the luxe fashion route?

• Read and then read some more! Diversity of thought is key in any industry but for luxury marketing in particular it’s important to stay on top of the rapidly changing environment and form an opinion on how these forces will impact your clients’ businesses in both the short and long-term.
• Always trust your gut! Good intuition is the GPS system for life and a great asset whether you’re just starting your career or are a seasoned professional. Luxury and digital are both impacted by a constantly evolving set of trends and external forces – some more transient than others; trusting your instincts to know what to dismiss or what to double down on is crucial to succeeding.
• Don’t be content with the conventional. ‘The challenge is not the learning curve. The challenge is the un-learning curve’ is a good life lesson in general. The ability to challenge conventions and think outside of the box is rarer than you think in this industry, especially at the beginning of your career, but it’s a key ingredient to succeeding.

Thanks Jessica, for great insight into the workings of the luxury fashion market.  It’s particularly interesting – and gratifying – to see a sector that has traditionally been synonymous with glossy print magazines start to embrace the opportunities that digital marketing offers.  It’s also a useful reminder about how critical it is to deliver advertising that accurately reflects a luxury brand’s quality and heritage. 

The post KR MediaCom on how luxury fashion brands are tackling digital marketing appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

EE 

Film and fashion fans on the red carpet will be able to watch the spectacle unfold as Maya makes her entrance at the awards ceremony. The dress will transform before their eyes as she makes her was along the red carpet, while spectators outside the Royal Albert Hall will see the dress come to life digitally via Samsung Galaxy Fold 5G smartphones, situated along the red carpet to capture the AR transformation as it happens. There will also be a live stream on @ee’s Twitter feed from 4pm on the day.

The AR dress was designed by London-based fashion designer Richard Malone in collaboration with EE. Made from ethically-sourced fabric, including recycled, regenerative ocean waste, recycled wool and wadding from ex-factory waste, the dress is hand-sewn, with over 100,000 stitches and took over 250 hours to complete. Made up of six layers in total, the dress contains over 12 body-length wires, totalling over 18 metres in length, and 18 sensor bulbs which, on the night, will transform to create the world’s first 5G-powered AR dress.

Film and fashion fans at home who want to be a part of the world first can tune into EE’s official live stream by visiting @ee’s Twitter from 4:00pm on Sunday 2nd February to watch the unmissable moment unfold at the Royal Albert Hall. Live updates will also be available across @ee’s Instagram and Facebook channels.

“This year, we will open the red carpet of the EE BAFTAs using our award-winning network and its unique capabilities to turn red carpet fashion on its head, as we bring together physical and digital fashion to create the world’s first 5G powered AR dress,” said Pete Jeavons, director of marketing communications at BT and EE. “In a never-before seen moment in film awards history, we will be using our network to show how the seemingly impossible can be made possible through 5G technology, giving fans a taster of the future of fashion.”

The EE British Academy Film Awards red carpet will be broadcast live on BAFTA’s official Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds from 5pm to 6.30pm on Sunday 2 February. For film fans who live in the UK, the awards ceremony will also be aired as-live on BBC One and BBC One HD from 9pm to 11pm, with the opportunity to watch online or on catch-up via BBC iPlayer.

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Oasis, a well-known fashion retailer in the UK, aspired to reach a more personalized customer pool by using auto-play videos imbedded in its email campaigns. To do this, the retailer teamed up with data driven email marketing specialist Playable, and AI marketing platform Emarsys. After executing a responsive video campaign with the aid of Playable and Emarsys, Oasis experienced a jump in both revenue and customer engagement rates.

One specific email campaign resulted in a 175 per cent increase in revenue, compared to the email campaigns that didn’t use responsive videos. Additionally, video-led campaigns executed through the Emarys platform resulted in a 20 per cent rise in click-through rates.

“At Oasis, we know that video is an incredibly popular and important media format amongst our customers thanks to the consistently impressive engagement we’ve seen through the platform. Our challenge was to find a way to introduce it into our email campaigns. We therefore wanted a partner that would enable us to embed and edit video into our email campaigns, and in doing so drive significant shifts in engagement and response” commented Sophia Holland Thomas, digital marketing manager, Oasis.

Holland Thomas continued, “In the past we have used GIFs within emails, which worked relatively well to tell a story, but we were looking to introduce bigger and better movement to our content to tell richer and more consistent stories, which is where Playable came in. They say that if a picture is worth a thousand words then a video is worth a million, and Playable enables us to quickly and easily configure our video content to embed edited highlights into our emails. The Emarsys platform then provides the intelligence to ensure our content is delivered to the right people at the right time, and in the right format, to generate positive interactions and drive interest in our brand.”

As part of the new targeted video marketing campaign, Oasis partnered with Frankie Bridge from The Saturdays to create a short-form teaser trailer, which gave clues to the reveal of a new brand ambassador. Using Frankie Bridge’s content and Emarys’ platform, Oasis received an overwhelming number of sign-ups waiting for the full video debut.

“Videos are capturing consumer attention like never before and video marketing is becoming an increasingly important vehicle for companies looking to engage with a millennial audience, where they can enhance their outreach and revenues. With Playable, you can easily evolve your email marketing to include auto-play video and enjoy the benefits of increased engagement and response,” said David Bradbury, SVP Strategy at Playable.

“This is an example of where a technology partnership is helping a brand win in a challenging trading environment. Personalisation is a smart way to create cut-through and a mechanism to secure recipients’ consideration of marketing communications. We’re delighted to be able to help Oasis bring innovation into its campaign execution, through strategic and tactical recommendations from Emarsys’ AI-enabled platform, and further enhance the customer’s overall experience,” said Dave Littlechild, global head of partners and alliances at Emarsys.

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The German sports company’s take on self-lacing footwear comes two weeks after Nike showed off the second generation of its own self-lacing trainers – the entirely smartphone-controlled Nike Adapt BB basketball shoe. Puma’s version features ‘Fit Intelligence’ (Fi) technology, which uses a micromotor to power a cable system that laces the shoe through swiping up on down on the Fi module.

The workout shoe, which was introduced at a reveal even in Hong Kong, learns the shape of each of the user’s feet and adapts fit. This can also be adjusted using the companion smartphone app or by connecting it to an Apple Watch.

“We have created a product that speaks to the future of sport which is life in motion. It’s fast and changing all the time,” said Charles Johnson, global director of innovation at Puma.

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Enty, founded by entrepreneur Sophia Matveeva, enables users to get professional advice from more than 140 global fashion professionals Through artificial intelligence, the app is able to learn user tastes and global trends.

The fashion app only lets fashion professionals provide comments in response the phots uploaded and questions aske by users, eliminating the possibility of trolling.

“Women often have a very different experience online to men, they are much more likely to be bullied or get unwanted attention. I knew that to set up a platform for women, we had to put the female experience in the centre of everything – our design, our business strategy and our marketing,” said Matveeva.

“From the start, we knew we wanted to build a platform where women would feel comfortable posting photos of themselves, when they are not feeling super confident, so they could get professional stylist advice. Given the experience women have had online, this idea would have never worked unless we put user safety first and reassured users that they would not be bullied or harassed.

“Most women have either been trolled themselves, or have friends who have been abused online. Twitter is one of the worst offenders, and I have been harassed there, but I was even trolled on LinkedIn! The big tech giants are not taking this issue seriously enough, which is why we have to build the new internet – one where women can get confidence, not lose it.”

Enty is available to download for free from the App Store. However, to unlock the full experience, users have to pay a monthly subscription fee starting at £4.99 per month. An Android version of the app is set to arrive at some point next year.

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Prior to engaging with Return Path and Emarsys, Radley had faced issues with email open rates on their customer campaigns and suffered low enagement rates over their share IP pool. As one of the first brands to use Emarsys and Return Paths combined solution, the firm saw a 288 per cent boost in open rates.

“Understanding who our customers are, and how they want to be engaged with, all starts with an effective email strategy,” said Kieran Walker, senior digital marketing manager at Radley. “For us to be efficient with our marketing spend and win these seasonal sales peaks, we need to maximise every single communication on this channel. With Emarsys and Return Path, we saw an immediate impact, with increased deliverability during a critical period. We can now use these insights to power more engagement across channels.”

With email still one of the best digital channels for delivering marketing revenue and often acting as a foundation for omnichannel campaigns, the partnership between Return Path and Emarsys enables the formers inbox placement and reputation data to power the latters Deliverability Advisor Solution, providing enhanced deliverability insights.

“Adding value to every email communication is high on every marketers agenda,” said Dave Littlechild, global head of partnerships and alliances at Emarsys. “Thanks to our partnership with Return Path, marketers can provide recipients with an engaging email experience, meaning increased inbox placement, open rates and, ultimately, revenues.”

“Were thrilled that Emarsys clients are now able to take advantage of our Certification program to optimise their email deliverability,” said Ken Takahashi, senior vice president for corporate development at Return Path. “In fact, were already starting to get good feedback from marketers who are seeing results from Certification, including increased inbox placement and better subscriber engagement, allowing them to reach more subscribers and increase revenue.”

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The AI-powered platform was created by personalisation specialists Qubit, who used its Aura solution to bring the brands in-store shopping experience to online customers. LOccitane also made use of the firms personalisation platform, Qubit Pro, to launch various personalisation initiatives designed to maximise the brands impact across its web properties.

“Our customers now expect the same personalised services they receive in-store online,” said Loanne Le Gac, eBusiness product coordinator at LOccitane. “Our eCommerce team is committed to ensuring that thats the case, and on a worldwide scale. Qubit allows us to deliver a personalisation program on multiple domains to ensure a consistent level of quality and service across channels.”

Qubit Pros behavioural data-based personalisation platform has been used across multiple domains and locations by the brand, from Japan to Brazil, London and Australia. Among the techniques used was social proof, which informs shoppers of how other customers are behaving in similar customer journeys. Use of social proof on the UK site resulted in a 2.86 per cent uplift in revenue per visit and 3.55 per cent uplift in revenue per customer.

“We are thrilled to partner with LOccitane, harnessing the brands behavioural and intent data to scale personalisation efforts,” said Graham Cooke, CEO and co-founder of Qubit. “The ultimate goal of our collaboration is to ensure that all LOccitane customers, regardless of channel, have fulfulling and meaningful experiences with the brand.

“By adopting technology that allows them to prioritise the shoppping experiences they deliver to online and mobile shoppers, LOccitane can continue to provide the highly personal service their customers have come to expect.”

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The Look integrates a hands-free depth-sensing camera, built-in LED lighting and a computer vision-based background blur feature to provide users with high quality images. The Echo Look is being marketed as a style-focused device, enabling users to build up a personal lookbook using their photos.

Among the features that focus on fashion at Style Check, which combines machine learning algorithms and advice from fashion specialists to help you choose between two outfits. The Echo Look will also catalogue your existing wardrobe and recommend clothes that will pair well with your clothes, all of which will be shoppable through Amazon.

“Like a trustworthy best friend, Alexa helps you nail your look every time,” said Linda Ranz, director of Echo product management at Amazon. “Over hte last year we invited customers to use Echo Look and give us feedback, which led to the launch of many new features – we re now excited to make the device available to all customers, with even more fashionable features and functionality to come that will help customers look their best every day.”

The Looks accompanying app can be used to automatically organise clothes into smart collections, access style tips from partners including Vogue and GQ, and submit their outfits to the Amazon Spark community for feedback and voting. In addition to the fashion-focused capabilities, the Echo Look has all the normal functionality of an Alexa-equipped device, such as voice search, news updates and IoT controls.

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