Fashion and design partnerships are one of the best ways for brands to market their products to those trendsetters and influencers who closely follow – and lead – current fashion trends.
Fashion partnerships lead to an enhanced image and an overall sense of innovation and hipness for the brand. These partnerships tend to be different enough to stand out from the crowd, attract consumer interest, garner press, and capture consumer interest. In fact, fashion, like music, is one of the most popular categories globally in terms of online consumer interest, as it too transcends cultures and borders.
Fashion events and content are no longer limited to fashion brands – today, brands of all kinds are leveraging fashion, from the titular Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week to Subway’s runway dress from packaging, Moët & Chandon on the Golden Globes red carpet to Intel and HP’s multi-year partnership with the fashion television series Project Runway.
A fashion initiative can elevate the brand and give consumers the impression that it is unconventional and innovative. It is important to remember that there must be a purpose or reason behind the partnership. Keeping in mind the underlying goals and messages of the brand, a mutually beneficial campaign will lead to success for both the brand and the partner if they recognize the commonalities in the messages.
For savvy brands and marketers of all types, there is a wide range of opportunities (from very affordable to quite high) to create remarkable partnerships that get noticed by both media and consumers, while delivering content that significantly drives conversations on social media. Brands no longer have to go to Paris to succeed with fashion, and almost any brand can create a successful and revenue-generating organic partnership through one of these four platforms.
- Fashion Event Partnerships
Fashion event opportunities range from large-scale events like the “official” partnerships with Mercedes-Benz NY Fashion Week to smaller fashion week offshoots that are often just as press-rich and impactful, such as runway shows and celebrity gift lounges. There are fashion weeks in cities all over the world, the most famous in the U.S. being New York Fashion Week and Los Angeles
Fashion Week, takes place twice a year, in February and September. Also included in the category of fashion events are presentations by fashion designers, which take place throughout the year in various locations, or award ceremonies hosted by celebrities, where the red carpet is often the highlight of the evening.
Fashion events drive immense traffic and engagement on social media. Based on data collected by social curation and analytics firm Curalate, it was found that during New York Fashion Week 2013, 100,000 posts were shared on Twitter and Instagram by more than 33,000 unique users. On average, the best NYFW brand photos generated 37,448 interactions per photo, most of which were product-oriented. Marketing campaigns are especially effective when they are real-time and live at an event or venue. Of the more than 100,000 posts that generated the most interactions, 90% were taken on-site at NYFW.
As an example of this social success, Harman-Kardon created a three-day event during New York Fashion Week to showcase its fashion-friendly white headphones based on its “Beautiful Sound” platform. During and after the event, the brand’s social media traffic increased 970%, and it received more than 19 million social media views and 370 million national press views.
- Partnerships with fashion designers
Whether brands want to establish themselves as risk-taking and groundbreaking or more tried-and-true with long-standing character, there are tailored alignments with fashion designers and events whose personalities reflect the same valued characteristics. Celebrity and emerging designers offer the opportunity to partner and enliven brand campaigns, trade events or outlets for events.
- Partnerships with fashion TV series
Fashion on TV is a constant theme, with series that explore and showcase fashion trends. Networks such as Lifetime (Project Runway), E! (Fashion Police), Bravo (Rachel Zoe), and NBC (Access Hollywood, Extra) all offer sponsorship opportunities as well as options to integrate brands directly into the content. Even daily talk shows usually have a fashion segment that brands can creatively get involved in. In addition, scripted series can provide the basic fashion storylines, much like the earlier hit format Sex In The City. The target audience is usually the coveted female demographic with an average age of 25 to 49.
Pilot Pen created a 4-month digital partnership with the NBC television series Fashion Star. A custom fashion contest game was created to win a trip to New York Fashion Week, supported by ads on the NBC platform as well as on the series’ website and in print media. In addition, social media communications were promoted by both the series’ designers and the brand’s fan base. The partnership reached more than 14 million consumers, with website visits 184% above target and sweepstakes entries 85% above target.
- Partnerships with fashion bloggers
Fashion bloggers provide a very good platform for spreading strategies focused on the brand’s fashion and can include consumer samples and sweepstakes.
