The State of The Fashion Union blogging carnival is yielding fruit in the form of my favorite discussion. The girls at Omiru broach the subject of The Future of Fashion Advertising: Branding or Direct Response
While I have written on the subject before in Denim, The Fashion Mafia, and Customer Demand as a response to Millionaire Socialite’s Premium Denim Brands: Is Denim Post Branding post, I think that Omiru hits on a different aspect of the branding dilemma.
She contends that fashion advertising will go towards a specialized fashion search vertical meaning that niche players will become more important and branding will give way to direct response marketing.
The question I then have is what will fashion advertising look like and where will it come from? We assume that if branding is less important then direct response marketing it will involve more small time ads on blogs, more text ads, more targeted ads. However, fashion has long been dominated by slick expensive ad campaigns shot by expensive photographers with exotic models. Making the transition to new media and direct response campaigns might be difficult for the fashion world. But so far new media has functioned extremely well on simple google text advertisements.
But as much as I want to believe that fashion and new media can and should work together to further the way we experience fashion, the way ads function on google now does not seem a functional advertising platform for future new media fashion content that Omiru sees emerging. Publishing 2.0 believes that google needs rich media in the future and has furthermore discussed the importance of visual marketing and the aesthetic appeal of old school ad campaigns over new viral marketing strategies especially given that viral marketing assumes marketers are willing to give up their control.
I believe that the future of fashion advertising will be some blend of old and new as we transition towards more new media content. But Omiru is right in saying we need more specialized fashion shopping search engines but I think we need bigger and better portals for online fashion content. But I think we need to take it one step at a time. But considering that there are roughly 2.5- 3 million blogs dedicated to fashion, shopping, and lifestyle that gives us 10 to 15% of the current blogging population which means our numbers are growing.
[...] February 1st, 2006 Julie of Almost Girl asks, "What will fashion advertising look like and where will it come from?" While the future is hazy (at best) to us as well, we’ll offer up our two cents.Question 1: What will fashion advertising look like?Fashion advertising, as discussed in Part One of this post, will likely be a combination of branding and direct response advertising—and more heavily weighted toward direct response than it is now. As for what it’s going to look like, we’ll throw our hat in the ring and offer up a few ideas:Branding isn’t going to go away. The “slick expensive ad campaigns shot by expensive photographers with exotic modelsâ€? described by Julie aren’t going to end. However, the measurability of direct response is likely going to affect the way branding campaigns are run. We predict that these branding campaigns (the ones with the beautifully blasé looking models) will be held to a higher standard, one that involves metrics in some shape or form. The fashion industry is waking up to the potential of the Internet, and though the industry will inevitably face a rocky road on its quest to embrace these online opportunities, they’ll get there.Direct response fashion advertisements aren’t going to look like your standard Google text ad. For one, they’ll have to include images—even a lengthy description of that perfect oversized teal sweater is far less compelling than a thumbnail image of the garment. Question 2: Where will fashion advertising come from?Right now, fashion advertising is dominated by Big Companies with Deep Pockets. Completely natural, given that they’re the ones that have the dollars to shell out on these expensive branding campaigns. Take a look at the latest Vogue (or other fashion magazine of your choice). Who do you see advertising? Luxury brands, big name designers—most, if not all, with financial backing. After all, that Versace ad with Halle Berry can’t have been cheap to produce. Fashion, however, is becoming more democratic (in part, thanks to the scores of up and coming designers looking to make their mark, and as The Fashionable Kiffen notes, thanks to fashion bloggers). Advertising in the future, especially as the industry shifts towards the scalable, affordable direct response ads, will include more of these voices. While the majority of fashion ads might still be from the Louis Vuittons, the Versaces, and the Calvin Kleins of the world, smaller designers will be able to speak as well. [...]
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Interesting article….