by Lexi Fried
In the world of fashion, you don't just wear it – it’s a way of life, an all-consuming passion that you must feed every second, every moment, every hour.
We all remember the scene from 13 Going on 30, where Judy Greer’s character is holding up her mood board during the meeting with Poise Magazine’s lead editors, displaying all of the latest fashion news and trends. Before the days of live-streaming fashion shows, and real-time social media coverage direct from the runway, fashion fans would wait longingly by their mailbox for the latest fashion publications to release their POV on the newest collections from their favorite designs. Trends were shared with the public by editors like Judy Greer’s character, who waited weeks or months before getting to see the latest from the runway.
That specific scene may look a little different 19 years later, but the concept of highlighting trends still holds true to today. People who are interested in fashion are always hungry to see the latest and greatest in the industry. Long gone are the days of waiting by a mailbox months after a designer showcased their collection at New York or Paris Fashion Week. We live at a remarkable point in time where we have instant access to these shows, no matter where in the world they’re being shown.
In addition to the clothing trends themselves, we also see different marketing trends brands are using to reach customers. Here’s what we saw from a marketing perspective and how brands are tapping into the latest ideas and technology.
Spring 2023 Fashion Week Trends
Taking off the nostalgia of winter wear and stepping into spring season trends, there are a few paid media trends to make note of this most recent fashion month.
The most prevalent trend we saw was the promoted Livestream. Brands used the promoted Livestreams to show off collections in real time and promote behind-the-scenes moments, generating a more intimate and authentic angle for viewers.
Another social media trend that captured our attention was the variety of social platforms and formats utilized. The cultural behavioral shift towards instant shopping access and creator influence has prompted trends that include brands leveraging shoppable formats, creator content, and of course, tried and true ad formats such as carousel ads (scrollable in-feed or story ads), regular video ads in feed or on stories, and collection ads (shoppable in-feed or story ads).
Community Through Authenticity and Immediacy
In today’s advertising world, there are seven key platforms where you’ll find 99 percent of brands active in some capacity or another, within the retail and fashion vertical and everywhere else. Though the brands are typically active on all of the platforms, there are specific ones where we saw our favorite brands activate their show collections this past fashion month. Now more than ever, brands have a direct line of communication with their followers and can easily reach a wider audience through targeted advertising campaigns.
We know Pinterest is the go-to destination for inspiration - pinning for special moments, mood boards, and all keepsakes- an extension of ourselves in an online picture diary. The platform is quite literally a visual search engine, where users can discover and save images and videos related to all of their interests. This goes the same for one’s favorite moments in fashion.
The platform is gaining popularity among fashion enthusiasts, designers, and brands. With its focus on visual content and user-generated content, Pinterest has become a valuable tool for fashion brands to showcase their latest collections, connect with their audience, and drive users down the funnel.
This most recent fashion month, we saw brands show up on Pin by activating shoppable formats, allowing users to pin lust-worthy luxury products to their inspiration boards to save for a later time.
Luxury brands such as Fendi and Ralph Lauren showed up with shoppable ad formats displaying SKUs from their most recent collections. To the non-advertising eyes, this shows up in the Pinterest feed as a single image with a white background usually. You can either click to save the pin to your mood board, to come back to for inspiration or aspirational appeal. Or, you can click the pin to take you directly to the designer’s site to add to cart and bring the inspiration to life.
Twitter is where audiences go for conversation. “Did you see that look?" or “Are you watching this Livestream?” or “I need to have that look!” are just some of the tweets that gain traction during highly anticipated fashion show moments.
Twitter has been the home to both organic (not paid) and promoted (advertising) Livestreaming moments for fashion brands as well as a home to display highlights from the show for days after to sustain momentum. High-profile luxury brands such as Miu Miu, Prada, Hermes, and Chanel have leaned into this tried and true strategy for their fashion shows, allowing their audiences to feel as though they’re directly part of the process and interact with the brands in a truly authentic way.
A few favorite moments from Miu Miu’s FW23 paid Livestream show in Paris were:
- The behind-the-scenes footage prior to the start of the show
- Clips of the entryway with paparazzi capturing street style
- The "step and repeat," showing all of the big names coming out to support the brand.
At almost an hour long, the Livestream gave way to access Miu Miu in a way that other platforms and formats aren’t able to match that truly provides the viewer with an authentic experience. Not only did Miu Miu activate a paid Livestream on the platform, but to bring in users and garner that initial excitement and conversation, the brand also activated what’s called a “heart to remind” ad unit, which sounds exactly like what it is - an option to heart or like a tweet to receive a reminder notification of the Livestream.
This interactive unit, used to boost Livestream viewership, is a tactic we’ve seen other brands activate as well such as Hermes. It ensures strong viewership for the show as well as the ability to retarget these users down the line - and comes with a healthy cost of $50K.
TikTok
Throughout fashion month, we saw brands activate with a pre-show teaser, some kind of live stream or a push of clips from the show, and a moment to sustain the show’s buzz in the following days/weeks of the fashion show on TikTok.
Some of this past fashion month’s buzziest moments on TikTok came from brands such as Fendi, Boss, Loewe, Dior, and Louis Vuitton. These brands promoted their pre-show teasers, driving excitement for their upcoming shows with playful content that truly felt native to the platform. In other words, these brands aren’t just putting out content for the sake of it – they're putting out bespoke, curated content that speaks to their users.
We’d then see highlights from the show edited down to maintain this playful style instead of a typical cut-and-paste clip to continue generating momentum and buzz from the show. A few of these formats included everything from TikTok’s “Superlike,” which creates a playful confetti effect with an emoji once the user likes the video.
Other formats brands used to advertise and promote their show included tried and true in-feed video assets, TikTok’s premium “TopFeed” placement or the 4th guaranteed video slot, and video shoppable assets which display the SKU as a clickable add-on feature.
Through these types of assets, there’s a strong likelihood for content to go viral due to the nature of the platform which creates an everlasting halo effect on a brand’s paid media strategy.
Predictions for Cruise and Future Fashion Shows
Fashion brands have needed to evolve how they interact during fashion month. Likewise, brands also need to evolve their creative strategy to align with the new diversified platform mix for showcasing collections.
Gone are the days when brands could cut and paste the same 2-3 creative assets across multiple platforms. Creating bespoke creative based on native platform attributes and audience usage will help maintain relevance and further drive engagement to allow brands to seamlessly show up in their audiences’ feeds during cruise.
As platforms continue to evolve and push the boundaries with their tech, we may start to see Livestreaming evolve into shoppable off-the-runway capabilities.
Another prediction is the capability for a promoted Livestream on Pinterest to be part of a brand's tried and true strategy. This means that high-end brands would be able to tap into their audience’s mood boards/personal Pinterest boards, drive their audiences from the top of the marketing funnel all the way through the journey to eventually convert through their shoppable ad units.
Ultimately, the progression of brands’ media strategies for fashion shows is dependent on the available tech pushed out by the tried and true platforms. As new platforms gain popularity, there is always room for another platform to be the star of the show – and we can’t wait to see what the next fashion season brings.
Contact us now to learn more about how we can help set your brand up for success on social media and beyond.