Showing posts with label Fashion and apparel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fashion and apparel. Show all posts

1.8.11

Gap| Behind the Scenes.




From looking at just the first few pieces they've produced, it seems like this is an attempt to distance themselves from the pop advertising of the past — and maybe distinguish themselves from corporate cousin Old Navy. The work will take the viewer behind the scenes of the company's various departments, highlighting the people behind the products. It's not exactly a new approach, but it might just be what the clothier needs to do to relaunch their brand, one that has been the target of so much negative press. (Or was all that negative press just on design blogs? I can't quite tell. Ha.)
The first spot weighs in at 1:30 and features GAP's 1969 denim studio in downtown LA, and all the eager faces behind the product - considered by most to be GAP's best. It's hard not to appreciate the effort and passion they seem to put into their work, and if it doesn't exactly change my perception of them as a corporation, it might just start that process.
Pico 1969 Denim Studio

Here's a nice quote from wwd.com, It’s quite a shift,” from past campaigns, said Seth Farbman, Gap’s global chief marketing officer. “This is the beginning of a longer-term strategy” that continues for the holiday season and into next year at least, and also continues to feature different operations and people at Gap. Farbman, who is based at Gap’s Global Creative Center in New York, declined to disclose which Gap operation will be highlighted next."
1969 Denim Studio Profile: Rob Crews

1969 Denim Studio Profile: Masako

A product-specific ad/video/thing:









Gap is turning to storytelling in its new global campaign, promoting its 1969 denim collection with "real people" (to start with, the team behind the collection, at its Los Angeles denim studio) and some other local touches, including tapping into the mobile truck craze and even featuring the studio's resident dog.
The first major campaign by the brand's new CMO, former Ogilvy exec Seth Farbman, the "1969: L.A. and Beyond" campaign aims to tell "the story of its 1969 fall collection from the inside out. Starting with the personalities behind the denim, 1969: L.A. and Beyond gives a transparent look at the designers and how they come together each day to create the latest in denim fits, fabrics and washes. Taking it from the studio to the real world, the campaign also shows how the denim comes to life in various cities by the people who wear it."[more]

Gap, of course, isn't the first brand to feature "real people" including its own employees — J. Crew, Zappos andAmerican Apparel are a few brands just in the fashion/retail space who've been down that path, while Seattle's Best CoffeeRed LobsterDomino'sCathay Pacific, and Perdue Farms have . But Farbman, a former journalist, is eager to bring storytelling back to the brand in a Levi's-like move designed to give it more street cred and a variety of hooks to play up to its 1.6 million Facebook fans and also style bloggers, who've already started talking up the campaign.
“When I first joined Gap, I was surprised by the unexpected, untold stories across the brand—particularly about our people and the real-life experiences and situations they’re inspired by,” said Farbman in a statement. “Fall is our first step in sharing what’s different and inventive at Gap, and we’re starting with our 1969 studio. We want our customers to see who’s behind the product and how their individual personalities and lifestyles influence what we offer in our stores around the globe.”
While Levi's has been creating experiential brand stories with pop-up locations in San Francisco, London and now Berlin to play up its "we are all workers" theme, Gap is looking to tacos and celebrity chefs to bring the 1969 campaign to the streets.
According to Ad Age, there "will also be an experiential element, with a taco truck, inspired by the Los Angeles locale of the studio, set to make appearances in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Starting this week, the "Pico de Gap" food trucks will sell tacos for $1.69 (though if you show off Gap duds, they're free), as well as hand-out coupons." The trucks will feature celebrity chefs who will broadcast their location via Twitter.
More from Gap's press release on the campaign launch:
"Led by creative director Rosella Giuliani, the 1969 design team is a collective of artists, musicians, action sports junkies and trendsetters. Women’s design director, Nicole King-Burroughs, turns to art for style inspiration, while women’s merchant, Masako Konishi, views fashion as more instinct than intellect, applying emotion as opposed to regulated rules to make her fashion choices. Men’s design director, Jason Ferro, brings his background as a rebel skater, surfer and musician to the design table, while men’s merchant, Cale Margol, uses denim as a canvas to tell a modern and progressive story. Wash specialist, Rob Crews, started in the industry when he was just 16 years-old and fell in love with the creative process of taking raw denim into a washed state through different hand treatments.

Providing further inspiration to the design team, the 1969 studio feels like the personal atelier of a denim architect, not the headquarters of a global brand. Once a cigar factory, the vast and open loft studio is based in the heart of the garment district on West Pico Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles. This Gap denim epicenter is an ever-changing canvas for ideas, featuring art books, mood boards, vintage buttons, Japanese work wear catalogues and back issues of surfer magazines, set against a backdrop of sun-filled floor-to-ceiling bay windows.
Aligned with how people want to discover and share information, 1969: L.A. and Beyond will live primarily in the digital world via a series of video vignettes and sponsored editorial on Gap’s Facebook page and on outlets such as DailyCandy, FabSugar, Glam, Hulu, LookBook, Pandora, Refinery29, RollingStone and TrendCentral. The campaign will also run in the August issues of national magazines including Glamour, GQ, InStyle, People StyleWatch and Vogue. Customers will also see the campaign in Gap’s windows nationwide where each designer will be profiled with photos and quotes. 1969: L.A. and Beyond was developed in partnership with Ogilvy and Cool Hunting."
The campaign was developed in Gap’s Global Creative Center in New York, and is designed to be global with different parts of the campaign allowing international markets to balance according to their needs. According to Ad Age, "spending on the campaign will be flat compared with last year, though a greater percentage of the budget is going toward digital and social media, a spokeswoman said. In the third quarter of 2010, Gap spent about $30 million on measured media, according to Kantar Media."
Graphicology's take on the campaign (watch the initial L.A. spots below, with "beyond L.A." to follow): "On one level, this seems to be much ado about nothing, but it still works. A little transparency, even quite polished transparency, can be beneficial if your brand has a story to tell, and I think everyone can agree that GAP is one such brand. Even if these spots are not the most surprising pieces of communication - my hope for this campaign is that it is just a start of things to come. Hopefully, more heartfelt, intelligent and eager advertising from the company and agency Ogilvy."
Gap 1969 Denim Studio Los Angeles: Go inside the Pico creative loft in downtown Los Angeles, where Gap's 1969 denim design team works on fits, cuts, washes and other design elements to create a truly unique approach to affordable, cutting-edge jeans


Gehind the scenes at the 1969 Denim Headquarters in downtown Los Angeles:
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Gap 1969 Denim Profile: Rob Crews. "We take the raw denim and turn it into its washed and final state. We go into it wanting to make every garment the very best." 
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Gap 1969 Denim Profile: Masako Konishi. "What we challenge ourselves to do is to take the idea of denim as a staple and to move it forward; to keep it new and to keep it fresh," says Masako, Gap 1969 women's denim merchant. "Being inspired by truly creative people is what I love about my job." 


Gap 1969 Denim Profile: Cale Margol. "I wear jeans every day. I really don't wear anything else," says Cale Margol, men's denim merchant for Gap 1969 jeans. A background in surfer wear and architecture helps inspire his work on the 1969 denim men's line. "How do you do something that sets [you] apart from the next brand?"
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Gap 1969 Denim Profile: Jason Ferro. "I take a lot of inspiration from the street, from music, from the art world," says the head designer for Gap 1969 Men's Denim. "When you can capture your attitude and your self-expression through your clothing, that's what you want to do." Meet Jason, his band and his dog, Louie (also at top): 
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Gap 1969 Denim Profile: Nicole King-Burroughs. Nicole started her career as an intern at Gap. "I basically joke that I was born and raised at the Gap," she says. "Everyone here basically lives into the lifestyle as well. We're really designing for ourselves." 
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And there's a slew of Gap 1969 product videos, of course — a few:
Denim Skinny Boot Jean in Black: What's the newest denim cut? Masako, Gap 1969 Denim women's merchant, is betting on the skinny boot, a legging with a subtle bootcut flare at the heel:
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Gap 1969 Denim Men's Straight Fit Jean in Clean Gray. The Gap 1969 Men's team is thinking beyond blue: For fall, they've created a versatile dark gray color for their popular straight fit jean:
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30.4.11

Alternative Apparel| Rebranding


Problem: Alternative, Alternative Apparel, Alternative Earth. This brand has 5 different names and multiple websites. But when you say, Alternative Apparel, people wonder what kind of American Apparel product extension you’re talking about. That’s a problem for premium priced clothing company selling basics.
Insight: Inspiring creativity is the common thread through all of Alternative Apparel’s messaging. All creative people have to deal with the blank page and the first mark. The moment of creation.
Solution: Refocus the brand to their original mission–to create the world’s best T-Shirt. So we recommended that they drop the “Alternative” and just be “Apparel.”
We want to emphasize the brand’s muted soft cotton clothing. Letting their clothes become the blank slate of a wardrobe. So that creatives can dress quietly but create loudly.
Their messaging, clothing, website and in-store will all emphasize the infinite potential of a blankness.

New Proposed Branding:

Proposed Website

New Website Homepage

New Website Shopping Page

Flagship Store Design

New flagship store design
Catalogue
Redesigned Catalogue
Redesigned Catalogue

Old Branding:


Logo Evolution: Original Logo, Updated Logo, Our Proposed Logo


Old Website
AD: Sarah Kraus
CT: Josh Souter
CW: Adam Aceino (wrote, edited and co-shot video)
Brand Manager: Lisa Scotti
Planner: Jennifer Martin
CD: Kelly O’Keefe

11.10.10

Nike Argentina| Flying trainers at the Nike Air Show

Nike’s clever involvement of in-store and online players in the Air Show demonstrates perfectly the potential of customer facing brand activity.

If someone told you to blow into your computer’s microphone to make a shoe fly in Buenos Aires, you’d either think they’d been drinking heavily, or had fallen for some new internet hoax. However, Nike’s latest in-store promotion in Argentina requires visitors to do just that, and take part in the Nike Air Show. 
Without wanting to spoil the magic, Nike has used microphones, magnets and a little bit of internet magic to promote the Nike Air identity in a very literal sense. 

JDate Israel|Someone to zip you up

JDates's stroke of genius was to team up with a popular women's fashion chain, and promote their services in a fun, useful way that afforded customers a level of discretion in a potentially sensitive area.

Valentine's days are the perfect time of year for dating sites to advertise for subscribers to their services.  In Israel, the Jewish equivalent of Valentine's day (called "Tu B'av") occurs in July, which coincides with the end of season sales period for retailers.
JDate, a local dating agency decided to take advantage of the fact that the sales period means increased traffic in stores, and so teamed up with clothing chain Mango in an inventive in-store promotion partnership.
Like all the best ideas, JDate's idea was simple: To provide assistance in the one area that Israeli women still needed help - zipping up the backs of their dresses. JDate provided this assistance with the use of specially branded tags which acted as a coupon for a free one month subscription to the dating site. The tags helped single women zip up the clothes they tried on - meaning that JDate could help single women find a date, and an outfit. The tags were removable, in case customers decided they already had the perfect outfit.
The activity ran for the two weeks immediately prior to Tu B'av, and more than 300,000 Mango customers were exposed to the campaign nationally. 2,000 tags were taken by customers and JDate saw traffic for this period increase by 13%, with new subscriptions increasing by 15% - a new high for the summer period.
The activity was also covered heavily in fashion magazines, blogs and social media networks.



BRAND:JDate
CATEGORY:Internet
REGION:Israel
DATE:July - July 2010
AGENCY:McCann Erickson
MEDIA CHANNEL:Out-of-Home,PR,Retail/POS

8.8.10

Hedkandi salon|Love what you see.


All this for a beauty shop? Yes and Ilike both the insight that drive the creative process and the art direction of simple execution.

Woman and men feel good when look good and I appreciate the call for flattering individual entity and exterior 


hedkandi_1
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hedkandi_2




CREDITS
Advertising Agency: WAX, Calgary, AB Canada
Creative Director: Joe Hospodarec
Art Director: Brad Connell
Copywriter: Stephanie Bialik
Photographer: Gerard Yunker
Stylist: Leah Van Loon
Digital Retouching: Sheldon McLean
Published: July 2010

4.8.10

"Did the Old Spice campaign really work?"


Old Spice says it's ecstatic with the results, and most independent analysis appears to back them up. Until now, Old Spice agency Wieden + Kennedy has generally stayed out of the effectiveness debate. But now the shop has released a video case history of the campaign, shown below, explaining how it sought to reach women and men simultaneously. 


It's mostly a sizzle reel of the spots, their many imitations and the campaign's impact in pop culture. W+K marshals an array of data points to buttress the it's-a-success side. The agency's video doesn't provide source citations for the facts, so I guess we'll put them in the "assertions" bucket. With that caveat, here are some of the key stats highlighted by the agency:


• Old Spice accounted for 75 percent of conversations in the category in the first three months of 2010.
• Half the conversations came from women.
• The YouTube/Twitter social media response campaign was "the fastest-growing and most popular interactive campaign in history."
• More people watched its videos in 24 hours than those who watched Obama's presidential victory speech. (Which most of us can agree is kinda sad.)
• Total video views reached 40 million in a week.
• Campaign impressions: 1.4 billion.
• Since the campaign launched, Old Spice Bodywash sales are up 27 percent; in the last three months up. 55 percent; and in the last month up 107 percent.



30.7.10

Satisfied Users

dvice1

dvice2
dvice3

D.Vice is an online adult store.

Advertising Agency: BBDO, Auckland, New Zealand
Art Director: Lisa Fedyszyn
Copywriter: Jonathan McMahon
Photographer: Stephen Langdon

17.7.10

Havaianas | Why I will pay 20$ for an item does not worth more than 1$?




Havaianas are truly well developed brand and  2010 summer campaign supports strength and personality of the brand to stay true to what Havaianas stands for — a brand that expresses the Brazilian way of life, through vibrant, laid back, colorful and bold characteristics. "Havaianas. A Brazilian original since 1962."













$20 flip-flops are no luxury. Luxury is not having to wear shoes.
Live life unlaced.
Arrive in a convertible.
When it come to colors, less is not more. It's just boring.



Agency: AlmapBBDO, São Paulo, Brazil

Chief Creative Officer: Marcello Serpa

Creative Director: Luiz Sanches
Art Director: Julio Andery
Copywriter: Sophie Schoenburg
Planners: Cintia Gonçalves, Sabrina Guzzon & Amanda Thomaz
Typographer: Jose Roberto Bezerra


Havaianas: the story of a brand

The Alpargatas Group first designed inexpensive cloth shoes for Brazilian coffee farmers in 1907. Continuing the global footwear tradition, the Havaianas brand, owned by Alpargatas S.A, moved to launch its products worldwide, with the Pacific United States and Australia – both areas with a strong beach culture where consumers already wear sandals – becoming the first high volume international markets in 1998. Since that time, Havaianas has become an iconic brand with global reach.
Today more than 13 percent of the company’s sales come from overseas markets. With the set up of offices in New York and Madrid, the company is taking big steps towards dipping its toes into the US and European markets, but while their brand awareness in Brazil is 100% and about 45% in Australia, in the US and Europe it is still a mere 20 to 25%.
Turning a commodity into a brand of desire
In 1988 Havaianas was at a crossroads. The brand had only one style and one colour. It was “A commodity that had no emotional appeal” as Carla puts it. New manufacturers came into the market, eroding Havaianas’ market share, and sales started to decline.
Then in 1993, the company started to reposition the brand. New products were introduced – which have produced over 300 shoes of varying colour and style – and a new emotional personality was created for the brand. What the public sees now is the result of a carefully orchestrated brand reinvention strategy that took over 15 years to come to fruition.

The results
Since Havaianas emerged from its reinvention strategy in 1994, sales have been growing by a steady 8 percent each year. In 2008 the company sold 184 million pairs of its now famous rubber sandal, 25 million of which were sold outside Brazil. Inside Brazil, the company has achieved the amazing brand penetration rate of 850 pairs sold per 1000 inhabitants.

Our brand is fundamental for our expansion strategy…
Havaianas have a good product but it is their brand proposition what forms its DNA. “Our brand and the emotional and intangible aspects of it are fundamental in exploring new markets. This is what makes our product so seductive not only in Brazil but also abroad”.
…and successful outside means more successful inside
The interesting thing about Havaianas’ success is that the success of their brand abroad has a positive impact in the local market. ”The more successful the product was outside the more proud the Brazilians were of the product in Brazil”.
Own a big idea
Life is full of contradictions and good brands could provide a platform to resolve them. The beauty of Havaianas is that by expressing universal themes – some of them associated to Brazil and its people: optimism, freedom, joy and energy – it resolves some of the country’s innumerable contradictions. Havaianas are simple and sophisticated, for the poor and the rich, traditional and modern, fashionable and casual. “a brand of improbable combinations”.
Our brand is our personality
The organisations has a clear understanding of what a brand is and what isn’t. For Havaianas the brand transcends the visual realm, is more than the logo. “For us our brand is the personality and character of the product”.
Understand the brand internally
In Brazil the company has a 120 people working and 60 people on the sales force, 30 people in the USA and 30 in Madrid. They all understand what the brand is about and live it.
Establish bold and creative collaborations
The challenge for Havaianas is to grow without losing its edge. New ideas come from establishing a network of inspiring collaborations with people and companies. For example, the creative director of BBDO Brasil – Marcello Serpa, one of the most prestigious advertising men in Brazil – was crucial in repositioning the brand. He has helped to evolve the brand’s communications by adding edge and originality to its advertising. He acts like, and virtually is, the creative director of the brand.
Feed on the reputation of global brands
As a way to raise its profile globally, the brand has joint distribution and product development efforts with brands like Celine, HStern, The Gap and Swarovski.
Measure efficiency
For Havaianas, measuring all the different variables of the brand’s health is part of their success. More specifically they measure: brand perception, brand tracking studies in all the countries, awareness, trial, personality traits, advertising effectiveness, etc.
The brand in the future
Their ambition is to be bigger both inside and outside Brazil. The potential outside Brazil is enormous given the very high penetration in Brazil: 150 million sandals are sold in a country of 190 million inhabitants.
Finally, to grow and nurture a healthy brand:

  •        Pay close attention to customers: understand and observe how they use the product
  •        Be true to the brand essence and to what you stand for.
  •        Avoid making quick profits based on decisions that could erode your brand equity. Think in the longer term.
  •       Every touch point reflects the brand essence; make sure you answer the phone in a way that reflects your brand.
  •        Reinforce the brand message internally.

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