Return of Print, New Age Celeb Stunts & The Ending of A Brand
Plus some recommendations
Hi!
First of all, thank you to all of you receiving this for signing up and subscribing! It has been so amazing to see familiar - and new! - emails and names coming through as new subscribers ,so I appreciate you coming along for the ride with me.
A busy couple of months in both my professional and personal life has meant a slightly delayed launch to the next send of this newsletter. But luckily in both the worlds of media and marketing, there has been a lot of good things happening in the past few weeks to jump into.
IS PRINT NOT DEAD?
Over the years, the declaration of “print as dead” has been a repeated mantra as traditional media houses have folded and costs have been cut in almost a completely digitised media landscape. Over the past couple of months, we’ve seen 20th anniversary of fashion media institution RUSSH, the relaunch of ELLE Australia and now Cosmopolitan Australia into print, and digital-first publication SIDE NOTE launch their first print edition.
Pre 2010s, magazines were held in high regard as the ultimate place for brand story-telling, particularly in the worlds of fashion and luxury. The highest point on the totem pole of media coverage, securing an in-print article was seen as a big win in PR and ultimately a key part of the marketing mix of any campaign. This perception is still evident with coverage in some of the print publications that are around and get the eyeballs in both print and digital formats - FTHTSI, NY Times T Magazine, the aforementioned RUSSH and a couple of the global Vogue issues.
Whilst it’s unlikely that the commercials of making print media have shifted to become more profitable, the magic of print may have become even more illustrious as it became more of a rarity. In a crowded digital landscape, brands and advertisers alike are looking for new (or old) ways to connect with customers and extend story-telling beyond the confines of a digital screen.
The challenge for these revived - and new - print publications will be finding audiences who are willing to purchase issue-after-issue, particularly with the challenges that come with distribution of these publication. For those of us who remember what it was like to see all newsagents filled with magazines, rather than the current situation of a handful of sad copies of the Daily Telegraph, it’s a welcome revival.
THE SUCCESS OF THE NEW-GEN CELEBRITY STUNT
Celebrity endorsements have long been a go-to for PR and marketing to generate buzz, build authenticity and create a connection between fans and commercials for both celebrities and brands. This week, the Business of Fashion released a new case study titled How to Create Cultural Moments on Any Budget looking at recent successes of celebrity endorsement including Monica Lewinsky for Reformation and Jeremy Allen White for Calvin Klein - a campaign which saw sales of underwear increase 30% week-on-week but ultimately had little impact on CK’s parent group overall sales performance for the quarter.
Whilst tapping into culturally relevant moments, or creating them, is often part of the celebrity endorsement, it’s been refreshing to see new takes on the format. Dan Levy & Aubrey Plaza’s Decades of Confusion video for Loewe, which parodies the pronunciation of the brand, was an intriguing concept but definitely failed to get the wider media cut-through of other celebrity endorsements. The most interesting campaigns have been the unexpected pairing of celeb & brand - the aforementioned Lewinsky x Reformation, and Cillian Murphy for Versace. Taking a notoriously media shy and recent Oscar winning actor to be the face of a brand which has previously favoured pop stars and supermodels felt like a massive statement in the direction of the brand at this time.
THE END OF A BRILLIANT BRAND
Unmissable in the world of retail in recent months is the news that Matches had gone into administration. Given my experience within the company (I spent over 4 years on the brand & comms team there), it is the incredibly sad ending for the brand after 37 years in fashion retail.
In what seems like a foghorn for the way that change in the retail sector, the announcement was big news. Without a doubt, people who had been with Matches for a longer tenure, or until more recently, will come out with their own analysis on what contributed to the business being no longer a viable future in its current form. The New York Times and Vogue Business have already done so several times here and here.
But for the people who worked within the business, there was a lot of nostalgia and a lot of sadness. I saw countless posts across LinkedIn, Instagram and even within my own Matches alumni WhatsApp group, of how sad the news was and a resounding agreement that what made the company what it was, was the people that worked there. I was lucky enough to join the business when it was in the hands of its founders Tom and Ruth Chapman. Despite the challenges and the incredibly hard work that people were expected to put it, it was a nothing short of brilliant place to work.
Joining Matches early in my career was fundamental to me. Not only did I get to work with some incredibly talented leaders, and work with some of the most creative partners around the world, it was really where I discovered the importance of building a brand.
Joining a business in its fourth decade of operation is a testament to the foresight of its leaders to innovate, embrace opportunity and build story-telling so strong that customers and employees alike will buy into everything you say. It genuinely felt that we were a part of an exciting movement, converting customers one event, one campaign, one activation at a time, to be a part of the most creative and luxurious shopping experience in the world.
Whilst it will likely continue in some form of Matches 3.0, things will never be quite the same. The challenge for companies, particularly in current times, is protecting the strength of brand whilst building the strength of business as one cannot exist without the other.
Recommendation:
My most recent recommendations all are looks behind the scenes at three female-focussed brands.
The Rhode Lip Case is Back in Stock – Now Meet The Marketing Mind Behind The Brand, via British Vogue.
There Are Plenty of Power Publicists. But Only One Works for Taylor Swift, via The Wall Street Journal.
This is why every fashion business needs to be looking at Toteme, via Screenshot This.