Díaz Soloaga, P.

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Article 1: Kiyosha Teixeira


The internet has changed the landscape of many different industries since its incline in the late 1990s and into the 2000s. With this introduction of web 2.0, people saw that they were an inclination to connect with others through online communities as well as creating their own content. The marketing and fashion industry has made it their sole purpose to create content that will connect to their digitally-savvy customers in a way that they will want to share with others. With the demand to have a presence online and off, brands had to create messages that span from traditional marketing tactics to ones that were not so traditional such as experiential marketing, for example. The article written by Paloma Soloaga and Leticia Guerrero review a recent concept of the "fashion film" in which luxury fashion brands use film shorts to create an immersive fashion experience for their consumers and add a complex strategy to their marketing mix as a format of communication.

Throughout the years fashion has been seen as becoming less static and more involved with the creation of environments with characters, music messages, and aspirations for all of those who choose to be participatory members. With technological advancements, brands were able to tell stories that expressed brand identity in a way that a runway show or print magazine could ever possibly do. Diaz and Soloaga provide a historical perspective pertaining to the use of film to provide explanatory production processes of the clothes from the 1950s and 60s however, to conclude their introduction they explicitly state that the digital revolution and the fashion films that have spurred from this are clearly distinct from the fashion films before it. They then situate the fashion industry by explaining the shift from retail chains to opening flagship stores – creating a deeper understanding of brand identity and thus, creating an immersive and interactive environment in which the patrons of these stores can come into direct contact with the aspirations of luxury. However, nearing the end of the first decade of the new millennium, the physical store has seen a decrease in which brands would have sought out new forms of engagement to encourage steadfast buying habits. Thus, the fashion film was a vehicle for seduction that leaned itself to the collaborative nature of the digital age and extended itself as being a form of branded content.

The two authors of this article had done an extensive content analysis where they defined the types of fashion film, main objectives of such promotion, aesthetics as well as the release and platform of dissemination associated with the particular fashion film (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Instagram)

There are many forces at work propelling the observations of the fashion industry however with experiential marketing and community building being at the forefront of luxury brands promotional strategy brands such as Chanel, Dior, H&M and Louis Vuitton have found a persuasive line of communication that allows reactionary comment to content from consumers in a same-time manner that has seldom been executed in fashion. The art of storytelling also goes hand-in-hand with the experiential marketing as the frameworks for each fashion film essentially encompass the ways in which a feature film would be constructed. Star power, luxury, branding as well as film theory come together in a high-budget and glossy synthesis to create carefully constructed branded content. Seriality and the concept of serialization would prove itself to be of use in creating the fashion film as most marketing campaigns would roll out many versions of an advertisement across different platforms. "Luxury’s digital branding is focused on communicating with large audiences to maintain the desire of distinction through knowledge. The bigger the buzz around a brand, the more viewers will want to be informed about it and express an opinion about its campaigns, collections, and videos." (p. 55) the customer along with their initial reaction and interaction and ultimately their willingness to make a purchase will be the main focus of each fashion film. Although this is a very strong article embarking on a brandscape (p.47) .not necessarily talked about, I would have preferred if the authors made an explicit correlation between the number of views, follows, and engagements online with the movement of physical product. In which for example the leopard-shaped jewel found in the short film L'Odysee acquired over 18 million visits on YouTube, however, it is not discussed if this immense viewership had any buying influence on the actual product of promotion or increased sales. The use of video as a marketing tool is beneficial for different types of industries such as food, nightlife, health, and wellness but especially fashion. This article is from the perspective of the brand to the consumer and in further research it would have a greater benefit to see whether or not this type of branded content serves purposeful in the case of sales and not just consumer engagement, brand loyalty, and brand identity.

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