DDB Influences 7.16
Welcome to a new edition of DDB Influences - August 2016
In this edition:
1. Better together - How brands benefit from collaborations
Collaborations are all over the place: H&M and Kenzo, GoPro and Red Bull and many more are doing it already. But what is the mechanic behind it? And what is the outcome of these partnerships?
2. Sonar — The result of a transformed festival
It started as a festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art. In the last few years it turned into a festival of music, creativity and technology. But does it have the influence it wants? Critical analysis of a festival that has changed.
1. Better together — How brands benefit from collaborations
With the new collection of H&M in collaboration with Kenzo on the horizon, it is a good time to take a closer look on brand collaborations and partnerships. Especially in the fashion world collaborations between brands or between brands and artists have become more and more common. But other industries can benefit from brand partnerships as well.
The upcoming collaboration between H&M and KENZO includes wild zebra-print bodysuits, boots, bags, caps and a fabulous…www.highsnobiety.com
What are the motivations of premium brands and retailers to join forces? Who benefits how when two brands decide to work together?
What’s the Influence?
When done right collaborations create a win-win-win situation, for the customer and for both brands involved. For this to happen, the role each brand has in the partnership must be clearly defined and brandfit between the collaborators is crucial.
H&M — The Mothership of Collaborations
It all started in 2004 when retail giant H&M teamed up with star designer Karl Lagerfeld to give the world a special fashion experience — affordable designer clothes, designed by a real fashion icon. Many collaborations followed, including the likes of Alexander Wang, Balmain or Lanvin.
Now Kenzo will be the next prestigious name collaborating with the Swedish brand.
What made these collaborations so effective for both sides? Here are some insights on what made them so successful.
When H&M drops one of its collaborations, it is always a guaranteed hit. The latest collaboration with Balmain was (as well as the collaborations that came before) sold out everywhere and even though the retailer doesn’t release actual numbers, the fact that just under 80.000 Instagram posts were tagged with the official hashtag of the campaign, speaks for itself.
Considering the scenes of total carnage that made their way onto social media come Thursday, the fact that the Balmain…www.dazeddigital.com
Analytics company Crimson Hexagon analysed the general sentiment towards H&M in social media channels before, during and after its Alexander Wang collection dropped. When the collaboration was announced, 25% of the conversations conveyed general positive sentiment towards the brand and when the collection was actually released it soared to 34%. Both impressive numbers compared to the average 10% during the months prior to the announcement. At the the release, half of the conversations showed an intent to buy, a huge rise compared to the average 14%.
NEW YORK, United States - On Tuesday night, fast fashion giant and Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing will host a…www.businessoffashion.com
But it is about much more than just the sales figures. The real payoff manifests itself in exposure and attention. Media impressions are the currency in which these collaborations are measured. Through this exposure the collaborations serve as a tool to drive people to the stores who otherwise would have never considered H&M.
“It’s brand building, of course. It creates a buzz and maybe gets people who never shopped at H&M before to shop with us.” (Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M creative advisor)
NEW YORK, United States - On Tuesday night, fast fashion giant and Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing will host a…www.businessoffashion.com
But what can an already renowned fashion label like Balmain gain from a collaboration with a fast fashion giant like H&M? Wouldn’t it water down the image of a prestigious brand like Balmain?
The truth is, the benefits go both ways. The partnership offers labels a huge platform that results in exposure usually unattainable for sub-scale luxury labels like Balmain.
Exposure is essential for luxury brands like Balmain or Alexander Wang. They gain their appeal through desirability which is driven by exclusivity. Exclusivity in turn is created by having a highly visible product and very low availability.
There is no better way to sustain your visibility than collaborating with one of the biggest fashion retailers in the world and thereby gaining access to its communication channels and its audience.
Red Bull X GoPro — Take Collaborations to New Heights
Successful brand partnerships are not limited to the fashion industry. To the contrary: When two brands from different industries work together, the combined effort can create a real added value for customers.
For this to happen it is fundamental that value perceptions and goals of both collaborators align properly, brandfit between both brands is always crucial otherwise the partnership will not appear authentic and may have a negative impact.
GoPro does not only sell cameras as much as Red Bull does not only sell energy drinks. Both sell an adventurous lifestyle. Both are brands for daredevils and people who want to push the limits. So it is only natural that they both teamed up to realise one of the biggest stunts of the last decade: Project Stratos.
Red Bull sells experiences and Project Stratos was their biggest experience yet. By attaching cameras to extreme athlete Felix Baumgärtner, GoPro made it possible to document this monumental event.
A natural fit, a huge success for both brands and an epic experience for the audience.
When it comes to filming yourself skiing or skateboarding or base jumping or driving race cars - pretty much doing…digiday.com
Conclusion
Brand collaborations are a powerful tool to build your brand and the list of collaborations can be extended at will: BMW and Louis Vuitton created a specific luggage set for the BMW i8,
When choosing a sports car, how do you ensure there's enough space for your mini-break gear? Simple - choose one which…www.telegraph.co.uk
the Fur Baby Rescue and Buzzfeed not only created amusing content for the site but helped raise awareness for puppy adoption
"Why did God gives us puppies?"www.buzzfeed.com
and lyrics site Genius and streaming service Spotify came together to give people further information on the lyrics of the songs they were listening to.
http://genius.com/a/genius-and-spotify-together
The foundation for a successful partnership is the brandfit between both brands otherwise any collaboration will appear unauthentic and the customer will make it out as a marketing hoax.
When the common ground is established both brands need to formulate a common goal, so that one brand does not exploit the other. Only then it can be guaranteed, that both parties bring their best to the table.
With these factors given, two brands can create an experience for the customer that is more than the sum of its parts, thus creating a true benefit for everyone.
By:
Frederick Braake // Junior Strategic Planner, DDB Germany
2. Sonar - The outcome of a transformed festival
Sonar is a festival that brings together avant-garde electronic music, technology and new media art. It takes place every year in Barcelona all around the city. Founded in 1994, it is now one of the biggest in its genre.
I decided to go there for the first time this year — to hear great music, get inspired, experience creative projects and to see what young, tech-affine people do nowadays.
What’s the influence?
There is a jungle of tech-events out there around the globe: SXSW, Tech Open Air, TechCrunch, and so on. Each of them has a good reputation and its reason to exist. Compared to those, Sonar is rather old school in regard to tech. The question is, whether it’s still on the pulse of culture.
A few things become clear when seeing the exhibition. Generation Y is hungry to use the newest technologies, as the exhibitors present mostly innovative projects. Reflecting the aim to create new services and products and looking for uses of daily life. Here are some examples that fuse technology and every day relevance.
Mobile Tech meets music.
The project “smartphoneorchestra” is based on a technology, which connects smartphones, gives each of them a unique sound and forms an unusual orchestra. It is a clever engineering performance but maybe it could be used for something even bigger.
Sensual Experiences.
Another truly impressive project was “Absolute Relative”. It’s based on the concept that our perception is never absolute, but always relative. An easy experiment about temperature proved the point: a metal panel with narrow slots heated up to 35°C, and cold air was constantly blowing through these slots. This tiny contrast made it feel like a burning stove plate. It was an incredible experience, because the mind needs some time to handle it.
Black boxes are devices to gather and access information, even though their content and ways of working are opaque and…sonarplusd.com
New ways of creating music.
Sonar is a music festival, so music was the main focus of most of the projects, like “reactable”. This company uses the newest technologies to switch an iPad into a mixer. They developed tiny glass cubes. By turning and moving them on the screen, each of the cubes made different sounds and effects. It is a new way to mix music, bringing this kind of music creation to a new level. The interface and the playful handling made it easy to operate.
The Reactable was conceived and developed since 2003 by a research team at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona…reactable.com
And of course “Virtual Reality”.
One of the most used technologies at Sonar this year was VR. The experience of switching the environment all around them catches people instantly and is just impressive. Like “In The Eyes Of The Animal” by Marshmallow Laser Feast. The viewer is going on a captivating journey in the Grizedale Forest (North West England) and is able to zoom in on tiny details and see into the eyes of animals from the park. The visualisation of the forrest made it truly impressive.
Another VR project was “Job Simulator” by Owlchemy Labs. Based on the idea that in 40–50 years robots will probably do every job and humans will have forgotten the meaning of a job. It’s a simple game where the player imitates a gourmet chef, office worker or the like. Neither difficult or complex but meaningful through the insight, letting it win a bunch of awards.
Job Simulator was unveiled at the worldwide announce of the Vive at GDC 2015. Since then it's been announced as a…jobsimulatorgame.com
We Are Europe
A part of the festival is the “We Are Europe” project, an association of eight events across Europe, e.g. in Norway, Germany, Greece and Austria. The aim is to build an open environment to create, promote and produce innovative cultural practices, diversity and exchange to solve societal problems. The project supports different artists and gives them a stage for their visions, products and projects. “We Are Europe” can be a good detector to learn which problems society is dealing with. Like James Vasile’s “FreedomBox”, which creates a network of servers to protect privacy in telecommunications.
We are Europe is the newly-created association of 8 major European events joining forces in order to promote, create…weare-europe.eu
Live Music Experience
Electronic music has become mainstream, but Sonar is the perfect place to see and hear where the genre is heading. Nicola Cruz is a good example, giving an insight into young musicians mindset — as he combines smooth electronic beats with traditional South American rhythms. Not stopping at successfully proven styles, but trying new things, experimenting and mixing totally different things, ending up in great experimental music. Combined with a breathtaking light show, it became a musical work of art.
The outtake: Many playful ideads — but not neccessarily need based. The exhibition was really inspiring and showed how diverse new technology can be used. The festival gave a good overview how technology, art and music fit together. What I sometimes missed was the seriousness and necessity of some of the projects. Most of them are driven by the instant experience and had a playful character. Some artists are concerned about interesting topics but don’t integrate any sustainable issues like political or environmental problems. It’s to question whether the festival needs to either focus on pure entertainment aspects or should grow into dealing with societal issues in a larger way.
By:
Tom Hormann // Junior Strategic Planner, DDB Germany
