When Two Tribes Go To War
Reaching audiences used to be straightforward: brands just had to go through media owners. Now with brands, media owners and influencers all creating and distributing content, the uneasy truce between fashion editors and bloggers has gone nuclear again. Where should brands place their bets in 2017?
Twice annually, the world’s fashion elite and their social media counterparts meet in the back streets of London, Paris, New York and Milan to re-enact the battle scene from Anchorman, trading well-heeled shade and Instagram insults in an attempt to claim the right to tell the fashion news. Long may it continue, as it produces a wonderful fringe atmosphere, in an otherwise perplexing sequence of queues (if Prada did food banks), fuck-off vibes and people-carriers wrapped in privacy glass.
The verbal arsenal on both sides is epic: “You have no style!”, “You have no audience!”, “You have to borrow your clothes!”, “You’re not even on Snapchat!”, and I totally get Vogue’s role in this pantomime. However, last time round, one of the Vogue team turned up with a proverbial hand grenade and it was this:
“It’s not just sad for the women who preen for the cameras in borrowed clothes, it’s distressing as well to watch so many brands participate.”
This statement cuts right to the heart of the matter. It’s an economic cry for help. It’s a classic “Who Moved My Cheese?” moment. ‘Why, in god’s name, are you, the stylish brands, with whom we’ve weekended on luxury yachts with Mert and Marcus, spending your marketing dollars on horrible, little influencers?’ It may seem as out of touch as a Baz Luhrmann-directed perfume commercial, but when a journalist’s salary barely covers the cold-pressed juice subscription, these perks are really, really important. Then, suddenly, here comes a bunch of Instakids, with zero training and no visible scars from flat white-schlepping internships, who can command double-page spread fees for rolling out of bed (eclipsing even the supermodels of yesteryear).
Fashion and luxury brands have tracked publishers’ ABC figures in free fall, recoiled in horror as organic Facebook Page reach evaporated and are left lunging wildly in the direction of an attainable media channel. Hello Instagram et al. If getting your message across really is 70% how you look, 20% how you sound and just 10% what you say, then this is truly the medium to be in.
But look beyond Vogue’s dystopian vision, where all influencer content is little more than crap modelling: were it not for the most persistent bloggers breaking the Swarovski-encrusted ceiling, we would never have evolved from the House of Chanel to the Burberry Shoppable Runway.
So how can brands work effectively in these channels? And can the Empire strike back? It comes down to understanding the nature of influence, which ultimately is seeking to affect purchase behaviour. Across both editorial and commercial lines, we’ve seen the role of influence shift away from the Hollywood red carpet (also little more than preening for cameras outside large tents, but whatevs), to these Instagram Millionaires. Fortunately, the phenomenon of social talent has been around long enough for mass reach to no longer be the only metric that counts.
The early adopters to YouTube were able amass millions of subscribers through little more than breaking wind for grins, but that doesn’t necessarily align with every client’s brand positioning. If, however, an individual with a highly engaged social footprint shares a brand’s values and beliefs and in partnership can create something original that works for both parties, then I’m all ears. Increasingly we are seeing a return of craft and creativity as a differentiator, particularly on Instagram, which is a welcome shift away from the lowest common denominator of subscriber league tables.
Meanwhile, publishers can learn from their cousins in film and television. These production businesses were built around linear, specialised career paths: they were industrialised, unionised industries where people spent entire careers pulling focus. Today’s progressive media companies hire young, multi-skilled creators, provide them with the resources to make things they would want to spend time reading or watching and distribute across multiple channels where their audience is already hanging out.
Fashion publishers have cottoned on to cultivating journalists’ twitter and Instagram reach. But as long as the business priorities remain focused on owned and operated destinations the ivory towers will continue to crumble.
In today’s media environment, brands can still access audiences via media owners. But with search and social algorithms defining our information flow, a social engagement is what they are looking for.
Digby Lewis is Head of Platforms and Distribution at Iris.
