Fashion Forward: Social Media is the Latest Industry Trend

• Aug 5th, 2010
• Posted by Isabella
• Posted in Fashion, Social Media

At first tentative and conservative, the fashion industry is now strutting at full force down the social media catwalk. Marc Jacobs pioneered the trend during Fashion Week 2010 by partnering with Foursquare to create a “Fashion Victim” badge. Users were able to “check in” to Marc Jacobs stores to unlock the badge. Four of the lucky badge holders received tickets to the Marc Jacobs fashion show. At the time, Marc Jacobs was one of the only brands in the industry experimenting with social media as a part of its marketing efforts. Now, Mashable reports that luxury brand Louis Vuitton is the 14th most popular brand on Foursquare (putting it ahead of the social media savvy crew over at Mashable).

Lately, the fashion industry is becoming a daring and innovative leader in the social media space. This month, Allure has partnered with Microsoft Tag for a $750,000 fashion and beauty product giveaway. Users simply scan a code at certain times of the day to enter the drawing for a wide variety of products (stay tuned for updates as I experiment and report on the ease-of-use and success of this giveaway). Calvin Klein also ran a mobile campaign on a smaller scale with the installation of a large QR code on an NYC billboard. Unlike Allure, Calvin Klein didn’t provide any monetary incentive to scan the QR code.

Old Navy recently caused a stir at the SCG office when it launched the “Booty Reader” web application that prompts women (and apparently, Cody Goins) to upload photos of their backsides to help determine which pair of Old Navy jeans will be the best fit. While Spring Creekers are doubtful of the accuracy and user-friendliness of the campaign, Old Navy put itself on the social media map.

While the success of some of these social media campaigns is yet to be determined, fashion brands are proving themselves as forward thinking marketers and at the very least they are increasing buzz not just in the fashion world, but in the social media world as well.