The Italian Fashion brand Benetton has always made waves around the world for its provocative and shocking advertising campaigns. Its most well known campaigns include ‘Food for Life’, ‘La Pieta’ and the UNHATE campaign. However, Benetton claims to be changing tact and wants the brand to become more socially engaging, rather than shocking.

Benetton’s new campaign, called ‘Unemployee of the Year’, raises the issue of youth unemployment. It consists of a short film, a printed ad and a contest for young people to present a project in support of local communities, and the winning entries will receive funding from Benetton.

The online apparel retailer in Russia, OTTO, have launched an interactive online campaign that creatively tackles the familiar crisis of having “Nothing to wear!” in an attempt to draw a younger audience.  

The protagonist of the campaign is the problem itself, in the shape of a terrible, albeit charming and cute, monster called NOTHINGTOWEAR (МНЕНЕЧЕГОНАДЕТЬ in Russian).

The interactive mock-horror video, starring Anna Kornilova, gives the viewer a choice between two options, such as (OPEN CLOSET) (DO NOT OPEN) and later (CALL BOYFRIEND) (CALL GIRLFRIENDS), allowing the viewer to dictate the plot of the story. Finally, it leads to OTTO's competition website encouraging the audience to participate with their own videos and photos of handling the monster.

Luxury goods maker Hermès has launched a French-made limited edition range of Indian saris in a bid to connect with the Indian market.

In our hunt for the Next 100 Global Challenger Brands that will feature in the next issue of M&M, we’ve come across an emerging paradigm in the luxury sector in Asia, aiming to recreate the authentic value of Eastern traditions and culture and replace the notions of luxury imposed by the West.

One example of this trend is the Hermès-backed Chinese luxury brand Shang Xia (meaning ‘topsy-turvy’ in Mandarin) that opened its first store in September last year in the upscale shopping area in Shanghai on Huaihai Road and has since managed to cause a great buzz without any advertising, PR or celebrity endorsements. 

Although Hermès had 20 stores in China already, Shang Xia was launched as a unique homegrown luxury brand led by a designer from Shanghai, Jiang Qiong Er, and is oriented towards traditional Chinese craftsmanship and materials in creating contemporary jewellery, apparel, housewares and furniture which is 100% manufactured in China. The move was initially received with scepticism, since Chinese consumers had developed a preference for foreign brands due to the perception that they are of better quality. Yet, Shang Xia successfully challenged this misconception and is now planning on opening another store in Beijing, followed by Paris as first steps towards going global.

Craftwomen display their skill on cashmere during the store opening of Shang Xia in Shanghai on 16 September 2010

According to Jiang Qiong Er, the Chinese homegrown luxury brands that had been present a century ago withdrew in the early 90s as the Western ones took over. However, gradually attitudes started changing as consumers stopped shunning all things Chinese aside, recognising a need to reconnect with their own cultural backgrounds and becoming more curious about their heritage.  

“I think more people in China realize the importance of looking back to our cultural roots, going back and trying to re-evaluate the value of Chinese culture,” Jiang says in an interview for Jing Daily.

“More people here are starting to realize that, in our lives today, we’re dominated by Western lifestyles. But if you look back at the history of the world, you’ve got both Western and Eastern cultures. At one time, Eastern culture was on the peak, but that flipped. So maybe it’s time to flip it around again in some way.”

Interior of the Shanghai flagship

One of the strategies that sets Shang Xia apart from other luxury brands is prioritising time over profit with goals set in a 100 to 200-year timeline; since the essence of luxury is, in fact, time. Additionally, the marketing philosophy behind the brand is based on word of mouth, in a way to make consumers feel that they are discovering something themselves, or relying on a trusted source. Yet, this doesn’t imply a lack of proactive marketing, in fact, Shang Xia have come up with some highly insightful and creative solutions. For instance, they recently sourced designs of a unique cultural object on the theme of “Heritage and Emotion,” organised a two-week exhibition to showcase the winning object: a box called “Pass it On,” designed to keep family pictures and objects. At the exhibition, the brand set up a post office where visitors could send Shang-Xia designed postcards across the glove, with Shang Xia paid postage.

 In India, established designers such as Ritu Kumar and Sabayasachi Mukjerjee, who have been drawing inspiration from India’s ancient craft and fabrics, equally recognise the revival of homegrown luxury. 

Sabayasachi Mukjerjee's bridalwear collection

“A lot of Indian women like wearing clothing which defines them as Indian. I might be doing Western clothing, I might be doing Indian clothing, but there is always a common denominator, and that is India.  If you look at the approach, if you look at the artistry, if you look at the textiles, there’s always a strong indigenous feel,” Sabayasachi claims. His designs focus on using local, handwoven fabrics like khadi, handloom silk as well as regional arts like block printing, bandhani and gota.

Likewise, Ritu Kumar’s designs draw heavily on the textile and embroidery heritage of India. Her work under the brand ‘Ri’ will be featured in an upcoming Hindi film, Love Breakups Zindagi, due to be released in early October this year.

Shraddha Kapoor photoshoot for Anita Dongre's Global Desi collection

However, blending the best of the East and the West through modernisation of Indian traditional styles is beginning to gain recognition beyond the luxury sector in India with Anita Dongre’s high street fashion brand Global Desi that capitalises on “global style, Indian trends.”

Perhaps the flip to the East anticipated by Jiang Qiong Er isn’t that far from gaining international traction.

ASOS has launched its digital menswear marketing campaign, titled ‘The ASOS Urban Tour’, for its Autumn/Winter 2011 collection.

The UK press has taken much delight in reporting the story of Roland Bunce. To bring you up to speed, Bunce is one of the contestants who took part in an online modelling competition with UK clothing retailer Next.

Next is a mid-price high street fashion name, present in most town centres across the UK. As part of its latest ‘Make me the Next Model’ competition, potential models can post photographs to a website for public vote. The highest scoring entries are shortlisted for final adjudication by jury and the winner gets to appear in a Next photo shoot and receives £2,000 for being good looking and popular enough to win the competition.

As marketing ideas go, this is a nice idea but fairly unremarkable. That is until 24-year-old Roland Bunce decided to take part. In modelling terms, Bunce is not what one might term ‘classically good looking’, but then since this is a competition open to the public, Bunce gave it a go and submitted his picture.

Next presumably wanted to encourage submissions from people of all shapes and sizes, but what they might not have counted on is the astonishing popularity of Bunce in the competition. His unlikely appearance in a competition of tall, dark and handsome men has struck a chord with the online audience, who have voted him into the top 10. To date his profile page on Next has been "liked" an astounding 32,000 times.

The UK press has reacted very strangely, with the Daily Mail claiming the competition has been sabotaged. The insinuation being that the competition is a mockery if Bunce wins. If the rumours surrounding the controversy surrounding Britain’s Got Talent are true, it’s nice to know that we can still have an honest competition in the UK.

Next were no doubt surprised – but since the final decision rests with a judging panel they can obviously pick a winner to suit their purposes, but I can’t help but feel that if Next had the guts to go with what seems to be the public favourite, there is massive PR potential in turning the Roland Bunce into a stylish man about town, kitted out in Next clobber.

I wonder if the people in charge are up to the challenge.

WHY IS THIS ON CREAM? Getting the public involved in a campaign is always going to be risky, but even the most unexpected result has potential – provided the brand involved has the vision to deal with and the backbone to see it through.

By Mark St. Andrew

There have been several attempts over the years at using augmented reality and mirrors to allow retail customers to try on virtual clothes.  This one isn't perfect but is the most realistic that I've seen.  The gesture based interface also makes any lack of realism seem much more acceptable.

Via electricpig.co.uk and OMD

When it comes to luxury brands, exclusivity is crucial to their survival as they thrive on their elite image. So how can these brands cope in today’s social media age where the power is shifting from the brand almighty to the consumer?

After all, marketers and so-called social media buffs all champion this new era as the time when consumers need to be listened to and appreciated. Many brands have even taken this a step further by giving up partial control, taking up the curious activity dubbed ‘co-creation,’ where consumers actually take part in the creation of the product.  

How can luxury and more specifically designer brands who rely so heavily on their unattainability survive in this brave new world? Few have succeeded. In fact, Gucci and Burberry are the only ones who come to mind. Burberry’s Art of the Trench website, where fans shared pictures and anecdotes via Facebook about the emblematic Burberry trench coats, was a triumph.

Thus, while every other brand is desperately trying to figure out how to jump on the social media bandwagon, luxury brands are increasingly pressured to follow suit. Gucci has succeeded in getting four million fans to “like” their page on Facebook. Does every single one of those fans own a Gucci product? Most definitely not, but social media is allowing the designer brands to communicate with their audience in whole new ways. These new digital platforms allow high-luxury brands to share pictures, videos, and all sorts of information about upcoming collections and events. While not everyone will be able to afford that five thousand pound dress, people can dream about it, talk about it, and who knows, maybe someday own it.

Oscar de la Renta is taking things to a bold new step, as it launches its first fragrance in ten years on Facebook. Indeed, in order to generate buzz over the new scent, these next few weeks will be dedicated to giving out samples of the perfume, Esprit d’Oscar, on a special section of the social media platform. Michele de Bourbon, Oscar de la Renta’s head of marketing for fragrance claims that through social media and its more affordable fragrance line, consumers have been able to “experience the world of Oscar.”

Although this is not the first fragrance to be launched via Facebook—Marc Jacobs launched a perfume through a Facebook game last year, it will be interesting to see how Oscar de la Renta fares with this digital launch. I certainly think it’s a brave move, but if the brand wants to make waves, it can’t do this halfway. Just giving out samples on Facebook seems a bit shy to me. But I’ll be watching this closely as this could mark a new era for the luxury industry and social media marketing.

See also "Watch Building Tutorial," where Jaeger Le Coultre creates an app that teaches people about the craft of luxury watch making and JCDecaux installs scented airport posters to deliver perfume sampling.