ASOS Ramps Up Global Fashion Marketing

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

The other night I was spending some time browsing ASOS (one of my favorite online shopping destinations for the past three years) and noticed a few changes to the site, which led me to do some research on the brand. A lot of changes have taken place lately!

Three Website Updates

Three new sections of the site caught my eye, Marketplace, Outfits & Looks, and Blogs.

Marketplace

Under the Marketplace section of the site, users can now shop independent boutiques and labels. So far, brands from the UK, US, Ireland, New Zealand, Russia, and Sweden are participating. And, each boutique has a blog so visitors can see what’s new and learn about a brand’s view on fashion and lifestyle.

Outfits & Looks

Under the Outfits & Looks part of the site, users can assemble outfits (very Polyvore inspired) and can upload pictures of themselves (very LookBook.nu style) to be judged. Very smart of ASOS to incorporate ideas from two major fashion websites to make its own site more social. But, it would be nice to only see images that clearly include at least one piece from the ASOS site for inspiration. Maybe this could be an idea for a contest?

Blog focusing on music

The other new section is Blogs, which is comprised of five blogs. Each one has a different subject, including one about styles seen during Fashion Week and one with a music related theme (guess someone else reads The Vogue Vibes?). Personally I don’t see the point of 5 separate blogs on the main section of the website, unless the brand is trying to ultimately be both a social shopping destination and editorial go-to place. After all, fashion magazines and eCommerce are merging these days.

iOS App

In addition to making the eCommerce site more social, ASOS has also been busy delving into the mobile space by recently launching a shopping app (available on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad).

Source: http://www.powerretail.com

During a recent press release, E-Commerce Director James Hart said, “Following year-on-year growth of over 800% in mobile revenue, I’m delighted to release our iPad and iPhone shopping apps.”

Key features of the app include full integration between it, the website, and the mobile site, a “Save for Later” option (something I wish the website offered for a longer period of time), and GPS, for helping with locations where customers can drop off returns.

Global Strategy: with a Focus on Men

ASOS is also working on a marketing campaign to reach for a larger global customer base.

Specifically, the brand hopes to target more male shoppers through a new campaign for which brand has released a few videos that introduce the Urban Tour. ASOS hopes to entice more men to shop on its website by incorporating dance and other forms of pop culture, which is where most men get their fashion inspiration from (not runways). Soon, viewers will be able to click of dancers from some of the campaign videos and purchase.

Here is the teaser video:

Oh, and a few more things- ASOS has a section of the site dedicated to the brand’s favorite Twitter users, its Facebook page is constantly updated (with contests!),  and has found a way to incorporate Instagram. All in all, I’m impressed with all of the digital changes ASOS is making these days. Other fashion brands can learn a LOT by seeing ASOS’ fashion marketing lately.

Anyone else knock-your-stilettos-off impressed?

International Intrigue

Edited by Taylor Davies


This weeks selections for Links a la Mode take us all around the globe and back again. From vintage shopping in Paris and Istanbul to picking the best from fashion weeks abroad, our community is buzzing with news and thoughts from overseas.

Of course we couldn’t leave out some more local stories entirely, so we’ve sprinkled in a selection of fall inspirations from som American bloggers; from menswear to DIY projects to some ethical debates in advertising and journalism.


THE IFB WEEKLY ROUNDUP: LINKS À LA MODE: OCTOBER 6TH

PLEASE READ IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE

If you would like to submit your link for next week’s Links à la Mode, please register first, then post your links HERE. The HTML code for this week will be found in the Links a la Mode group will be published later today. ~Jennine

SPONSOR:

New Boots at Shopbop: Jill Sander, Sam Edelman, Jeffrey Campbell, KORS, Ash,Costume National, Hunter Boots, Sorels, Frye, Kelsi Dagger, Juicy Couture, Minnetonka, NDC, Coclico, Vera Wang, & Joie.

Kaboodle’s Fab @ Five Fête & Fashion Show

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

For those who don’t already know, New York is currently celebrating Internet Week. And these days, no such celebration would be complete without at least one fashion related event.

Last night, Kaboodle, the largest social shopping website, hosted the first ever crowd sourced fashion show in conjunction with Bloomingdales. The looks that went down the runway were selected through a Kaboodle hosted styleboard contest and worn by models of the media and blogger personality variety. Personalities like Meghan Peters of Mashable, and Yuli Ziv of Style Coalition strutted their stuff for the invite-only crowd.

I think creating a crowd sourced fashion show is certainly clever, especially considering how hot content (think, curated content through sites like Everlane) and events (think, Plancast) created and curated “by the people” have become these days.

Off the top of my head I can’t think of a better way for a social shopping to celebrate a five year anniversary, can you?

View photos of the event here and see a video of the event here.

Digital Fashion Trend: Content Curation

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

I’ve recently been involved in two conversations about curated content; discussing how it works, if it works, and if it’s the next big thing. I’ve also noticed that some of my favorite go-to fashion sites have content curated by their users. And just a few days ago, e-tailer Rue La La released a customer curated boutique. Fans of the brand’s Facebook page had the opportunity to vote for their favorite picks, which were then displayed on the Rue La La website.

Needless to say, this is one hot topic of conversation in 2011.

Defining Content Curation

An article I found from online marketing blog TopRank, includes insights about curated content by 10 thought leaders.

Paul Gillin, Consultant and Author of The New Influencers and Secrets of Social Media Marketing, defined content curation as, “the process of assembling, summarizing and categorizing and interpreting information from multiple sources in a context that is relevant to a particular audience”. He went on to suggest that this will be “absolutely essential” to content marketing’s future because of how media is evolving.

Another point discussed in the article was about who should curate the content. David Meerman Scott, author of New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave said, “… the challenge is how can you do it in a way that’s interesting. You have to make a decision: Do you let the machines do the aggregation and the selection or do you let humans do the selection. It’s a huge decision, humans or machines.” What Scott was referring to of course, is the aggregation of data that sites like Expedia and Google have been doing for years.

I agree with both thought leaders. Content curation has to have some human element involved to work properly, otherwise the data is really just as aggregated as it has been for years. And, in age where you can quickly bookmark your favorite articles and post live updates from events from Twitter categorized by hashtags, the online world is only getting increasingly full of “stuff”. It is becoming increasingly important to implement savvy ways of sifting through the clutter to find and organize the information you really want.

Since online content is forever growing in volume, and the media landscape is expanding far beyond traditional publications (New York Times, Elle, etc.) to user generated content, it may be only a matter of time before the “go-to” sites for news (and online fashion inspiration) are more often than not, curated sites.

Curated Fashion Sites
Everlane: This site brings creative thinkers with good taste together. Each creative has a profile page, which shows their favorite menswear items found across the web. The company’s next step is to launch a store, for which these people will choose what’s actually sold. According to the site’s About Me page, they aim to bring boutique shopping online.

Paper.li (The Pretty Innovative Scoop): Paper.li lets Twitter users turn their newspapers into digital newspapers. While my paper, The Pretty Innovative Scoop, shows content that select people in the fashion and tech scene tweet, there are a growing number of fashion related digital papers, like the popular The Fashion-Tweets Daily.

Polyvore: This site is an online social shopping hub where users can bring in content from across the web to create “sets”, namely fashion looks. With 6.5 million monthly unique visitors, Polyvore is chock full of creative styling ideas that can be found in the form of digital collage.

Club Monaco’s CM Culture Club:Retail brand Club Monaco created this addition to their site about eight months ago so that each month, employees around the globe could share photos of their favorite styles, foods, and people. The page also features content added by well respected industry thought leaders in fields such as fashion and media.

Things to Think About

  • Can content be fully curated electronically after initial setup is complete?
  • Do all of the above sites fit within the scope of what curated content is all about?
  • How do you feel that curated content will fit into the media landscape in one year from now?
  • What other fashion websites curate content in a unique way?

Polyvore’s Blogger Network Gets a Mini Makeover

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

Hey fashion bloggers, if you haven’t heard, Polyvore has upped the ante on set embed options so you can resize your sets before posting on your blog. And, the Polyvore Blogger Network now has a new home on the Polyvore site so bloggers can keep up to date on blog related developments.

As a member of the Polyvore Blogger Network, I’ve been added to their email list about blogger specific contests and information about upcoming meetups (when’s the next one in San Francisco?!).

After five years, Polyvore has 6.5 million unique visitors per month who create a plethora of digital collages featuring a super wide range of brands, celebrity style icons, and much beloved fashion bloggers.

Connect with me on Polyvore so we can inspire each other.

Introducing The Pretty Innovative Scoop

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback on my daily Twitter paper that I publish so let me make a proper introduction.

The Pretty Innovative Scoop is a daily publication that goes live every morning at 8 am PST. The paper is broken up into a few main sections, including Headlines, Arts & Entertainment, Technology, Education, Stories, Health, and Leisure. On the front page is the live feed from the list I used to create the paper (you can choose from adding a Twitter list or select hashtags to generate content).

Content includes tweets about fashion and technology, from more than 200 Twitter accounts on my digital fashion list. Categories include:

Fashion Magazines/Sites, Fashion and Tech Magazines, Fashion and Tech Blogs, Style Blogs/Bloggers, E-Tailers and Social Shopping Sites, Wearable Tech Artists, Analysts, Fashion Networks, Personalities, Fashion Brands and Designers, Retail Stores, Fashion Week and Other Events, Fashion Illustrators, Fashion PR/Marketing

What I like best about the paper (and reading others’) is the organized format. Considering that I spend way too much time on Twitter (for work and for play), it’s nice to see the same content spread out in a newspaper format. Besides, I come from a print background in writing, so it’s nice to see real-time news return to a print publication style.

Polyvore Introduces The Mini Editor… and a Chance to Win $1,000!

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

Polyvore, a social shopping site for digital collage enthusiasts, just introduced The Mini Editor. If we haven’t met, you probably haven’t heard me talk about this site yet, so first, let me explain what it is. Based in Mountain View, California, Polyvore is a “virtual styling” website that claims to have over 6 million users who’ve created more than 20 million fashion sets (and I believe it!). Every time I log in, I see the top trending sets others have made, works that my contacts have created, and new items from brands of all price points (from Target to Ralph Lauren).

So now, what’s The Mini Editor? It’s a new tool that Polyvore just introduced, that lets you create sets right here on my blog using some of my favorite items.


Even cooler? You have a chance to win $1,000 towards your fall wardrobe (thanks, Visa!) by entering the Fall Wardrobe Styling Challenge. Just create a set on here and you’re entered. Here are the official rules about how we’ll help each other out.


http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/embed?font_family=Arial%2C%20Helvetica%2C%20sans-serif&font_size=12&lid=582359&link_color=%230088CC&oid=942103&sig=75683445d60f1468b72d0852544b9153&size=536×570&title=The%20Mini%20Editor&uuid=3CLrWSGv3xGP9uKAdrrQYQ
Powered by Polyvore