Inline, Online, Off

Prada Suits Everybody: Delightful Original Film

I have little to add to this other than reiterating what we already know: Ben Kingsley is divinity.

Wonderful original short film for Prada. Now THIS is what original branded entertainment should be.

Your Very Own QVC? V-Commerce Is Heeeere

And there you were thinking F-commerce was de rigueur… While setting up shop on Facebook is yet to yield major sales for most merchandisers, verified YouTube publishers will soon be able to sell via the Merch Store and this, quite frankly, makes a lot more sense from a consumer mindset standpoint. 

Merch Store was initially rolled out in partnerships with music distributors and start-ups like iTUnes and the particularly fabulous Topspin. But according to AuctionBytes, “Over the next few months, YouTube publishers will see a new tab on their channel called “Store,” where they can choose merchandise to showcase to their viewers. “You’ll need to have an account with each company to list products on your channel, and clicking on the product will take you to the site where it’s for sale.”

So, while it won’t open up major new revenue channels for most beauty and apparel designers and bloggers, the bigger publishers (think: Glam, Gilt, Hearst, Conde et al) should be eyeing this very closely. When you couple existing behaviors around things like haul videos and styling how-tos with the ability to sell within the experience, I predict video commerce is going to significantly up the ante on commerce-driven-content. 

And if you’re a VC or you’re working at a start-up e-tailer or fashion site, I’d start loading up my basket with some of these eggs. 

Siriano Talks The Talk On Social Video And His Brand

Aww we have always loved Christian Siriano (I still say one day Dior will be his). And whether it’s his Project Runway/reality TV kickstart or his digital native status, he totally gets the power of social media in fashion.

Luxury Daily’s report on social video from 2012 Fashion & Retail Market Report: What’s Working Now and Why conference, highlights Siriano’s experience and perspective on the diverse and democratizing effect on his label(s), saying, “There is the fan who is shopping my line at Payless and another buying a $15,000 dress at Neiman Marcus,” he said.”They are all in the same world on social media, which is a bit strange, but it is important to keep everything new and fresh daily.”

The article goes on to explain that social media is also a place where he sees fashion magazines, writers and department stores connecting with one another and cross-promoting content.

“Retailers can support designers,” Mr. Siriano said. “It is really going full-circle, which creates a new kind of shopping.”

Magazine App-athy Among Publishers and Users

To know me is to know my deep love of print magazines. I’ve worked in digital for donkeys years and I follow and high-five news of digital subscriptions but to be honest, the magazines on my iPad just sit there, holding their breath and waiting for me to fire them up but I never do. Instead, my coffee table remains anchored by a stack of glossies and I am satiated by the hefty thud of a March or September issue, fragrance samples torn and wafting from their pages until they land in the recycling. 

It’s partly this paramour that puts me on the sidelines when conversations of web vs app arise. But separately, I don’t need to have conversations about HTML5 that much anymore, now there are more people far more passionate and adept at handling that part of the business. But from a consumer habit/culture and business/advertising standpoint, I remain fascinated.

While Advertisers Want More Data On Tablet Readership, according to the MIT Technology Review, “the future of media on mobile devices isn’t with applications but with the Web.” The article goes on to discuss Why Publishers Don’t Like Apps, revealing profit margins and rationale behind many magazines nixing their apps altogether. But the comments section gets really good, especially a point made by Bart S. (sorry, the anchor tag doesn’t seem to link directly to that comment but you’re one click away). He writes:

“The problem is a lot simpler than you’ve described: the publishers haven’t delivered a product that is truly designed for tablets that people actually want to use.

“Digital magazines don’t feel like real print products, yet I’m expected to pay for something that doesn’t feel like a real digital product. It’s the worst of both worlds.”

There’s a lot more to his comment that I think sits at the crux of the issue and I would hope his sentiments are being considered by UEX and creative teams in-house at publishers. Right now their editorial content is at risk of being completely overshadowed by the creative being driven by advertisers and you don’t buy the magazines for the ads. Well, not really. 

Style For Hire: Connecting the Dots from Runway to Retail

After months of planning @StyleForHire launched this week. The fashion startup co-founded by celebrity stylist Stacy London and Cindy McLaughlin, as TechCrunch puts it, “allows users to find a vetted stylist in their city to help them choose clothing for a special event, or more. With 135 stylists in 24 cities in the U.S., including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston; Style For Hire allows you to search for stylists by type of style and more.”

I’m biased because a friend of mine is one of their LA-based stylists but that’s not the main reason I’m cheering them on. After meeting with the company’s NYC-based head of biz dev, I think the real disruptor lies in Style For Hire’s on-premise activations: connecting stylists, consumers, and media at malls and department stores across the nation.

You see, the fashionista bloggerati and social media has created a little problem for the fashion industry (and retailers): with more access than ever before to real-time looks from the runways, content creators are publicizing and driving conversation six or seven months before any of that merchandize ever hits the shelves. So by the time retailers have stories to tell, it’s kind of old news. Pile on the direct-to-consumer e-commerce powerhouses and flash sales sites, and the retailers are left scratching their heads, trying to create excitement in-store without resorting to price elasticity tactics.

Enter personal stylists, whose expertise lies in helping people look their best by educating shoppers on how to integrate high-fashion trends with a streamlined, super-flattering set of wardrobe staples. Layer in celebrity and some media you’ve got a perfect opportunity for the retailers to sell new-in-stores, in-season stock at MSRP, while attracting shoppers on-premise.