What do you get when you combine the fashion industry with location-based social media applications?
Some very happy shoppers.
Take the below campaigns, for example. The following brands chose to use the location-based app Foursquare in
different ways to reach consumers; however, they all share one common
theme. Each campaign focuses on heavily integrating the consumer's
online-offline experience, allowing brands to directly and immediately
engage with consumers.
1. Catch A Choo:
In Jimmy Choo's first social media campaign, the luxury shoe brand is teaming up with Foursquare to lead consumers on a treasure hunt to find their new line of trainers. The shoes "check-in" to some of the most exclusive and fashionable locations in London. The first person to snag the shoes while they are still checked into that venue, get to keep them.
2. The "Fashion Victim:"
Marc Jacobs, who is considered a veteran to social media when it comes to the fashion industry, created a new badge for New York Fashion Week. Consumers were allowed to check-into stores and unlock the "Fashion Victim" badge. Four people who did so in New York were chosen at random and given tickets to the Marc by Marc Jacobs show.
3. The Faces of Stupid:
Diesel ran a one-day event (working in conjunction with their "Faces of Stupid" Campaign), where consumers who checked-in within a three-block radius of the Union Square flagship store, received their choice of specially designed T-shirts.
A Closer Look at Their Strategy
The fashion industry has decided to take a unique approach to location-based marketing and so far it's worked. The main and crucial difference between using location-based services (like Foursquare or Gowalla) versus other social media outlets (such as Facebook), is that brands have the unique ability to immediately alter and improve the consumer's experience. This is an extremely important factor for fashion retailers.
The above campaigns let Foursquare do the talking for them - that is, they used the app to fuel word of mouth - rather than pumping out a ton of additional promotion. As two of the first brands in the fashion industry to dive into the location-based social media pool, Marc Jacobs and Jimmy Choo have seen a significant return on their investment, garnering enough traditional media hype for their Foursquare tactics to make the campaign worthwhile.
In many cases, however, brands end up promoting themselves so heavily through traditional channels as well, that the "social" aspect of their social media campaign becomes completely lost.
As more fashion brands jump on the bandwagon, these kinds of campaigns will undoubtedly get a bit more creative, but for now, consumers are so excited by the spontaneous giveaways and treasure hunts that the fashion retailers can sit back, relax and watch consumers engage with their products in ways they've never seen before.
Knowing that the fashion industry has always been one to push the boundaries of consumer expectation, it will be interesting to see the new campaigns that emerge as more retailers (both high-end and mainstream) begin adopting a stronger social media strategy.
Source: Branding Unbound, the Blog
