Written by: TSUI Yuen Shun, Audrey

As Covid-19 has resulted in city-wide lockdowns and stay-at-home regulations, many fashion brands had to find creative alternatives in showcasing their newest collections. Spanish fast-fashion brand Zara was one of the first to join the new advertising trend with their selfie campaign. This method only requires the model, their smartphone or camera, any lighting devices available at their homes, and the outfit which was couriered to them.

The result was Zara’s 2020 Spring Summer collection, which caught traction on Twitter due to many of the “selfies” with odd artistic choices. One commenter wrote, “My friends have always got lovely clothes from Zara but whenever I go on the website I get this? Am I doing something wrong?”. This tweet crticizes the images below: first, a model balancing a book on her head, hands on her waist; and second, with the model peeking out from her stairway, outfit barely seen, and a towel turban on her head. The campaign’s unique approach and humorous attitude, with the timely demonstration of how the outfits can be styled in our home-bound lives provided both informational and emotional appeal for audiences, which ultimately lead to the increase of curious netizens browsing the Zara webpage.

On a similar note, Jacquemus’ Spring 2020 Campaign, titled “Jacquemus at Home” featured super-model Bella Hadid posing in a white room. She later shared the process of the photoshoot, captured by photographer Pierre-Ange Carlotti via Facetime. The entire shooting only involved Hadid, Carlotti and Simon Jacquemus, the creative director of the brand. The unedited photos creates a sense of authenticity and rawness which is rare for luxury brands, and is effective in appealing to new audiences by making them feel involved with the brand.

Gucci took a different approach for their 2020-2021 Fall Winter Campaign, where they requested models to take videos alongside photos, under the coordination of art director Christopher Simmonds. Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele noted in AnOther Magazine, that the models were handpicked “for their uniqueness…Because they radiate joy and cheerfulness”, to express the message of finding hope and beauty even during the quarantine life. The result are the visually intriguing images of the models wearing Gucci in their daily activities. This campaign is currently used in Gucci storefronts worldwide, and consists of the images overlaid with the Gucci label, with the models’ credited below as both the model and the photographer. This campaign proved that “selfie campaigns” could be created with equal professionalism as traditionally photographed campaigns.

This advertising trend has exceeded the fashion industry and even reached television. In May, L’Oreal released the first selfie TV advertisement where American actress Eva Longoria demonstrated how to dye her hair on her iPhone. Due to its ease of access and production, the “selfie campaign” is a desirable way of creating connections with audiences. With the advancement of technology, and benefits of requiring less resources, it is safe to assume that “selfie campaigns” will continue to be relevant in the near future.

Written by: WONG Wing Yan, Viann

Within the rapid-changing influencer marketing industry, brands are looking for fresh innovation that helps them stand out from the crowd. Traditional influencers today have lost its edge. Virtual influencers, or Computer-generated imagery (CGI) influencers, appeared in 2016 and rose to prominence thence after, have drawn massive attention among teenagers, making waves in the marketing field.

As the name suggests, virtual influencers are artificially and digitally generated personas. They are equipped with distinctive backgrounds, personalities and appearances, along with a well-organized and executed social media feed – literally what traditional influencers did.

Lil Miquela, known as the queen of the virtual influencers (Deighton, 2020) and one of the most influential people on the Internet (TIME, 2019), is currently experiencing an Insta-fame with 2.8M followers. Besides, she is also a musician and a fashion model. She has ‘showcased’ her talents and ‘partnered’ with various brands such as Spotify and Prada.

In 2019, Miquela joined Samsung’s global digital campaign #TeamGalaxy with Steve Aoki, Millie Bobby Brown and Ninja, delivering the virtual realm to the world of advertising. Through a series of mini-films, the campaign demonstrated how Samsung smartphones can be embedded into users’ daily lives and manifested the professionalism and creativity in the products, especially targeting Gen Z and Millennial users.

Due to the exclusive collaboration between humans and robots in this campaign, Miquela has played a crucial role in raising awareness of the campaign. According to research from UK’s Mindshare Futures (2018), 54% of teenagers find virtual characters appealing, and 70% of them dwell in technology (Torres, 2020). Without a doubt, as a fascinating virtual character and with a huge fanbase on social media, Miquela has significantly increased both Samsung’s brand and product awareness by creating a word-of-mouth effect among teenagers.

Furthermore, being a symbol of innovation and the future, Miquela has successfully built and enhanced Samsung’s brand image. Samsung’s partnership with Miquela has shown its definite cognizance and enthusiasm in recent technological trends and products, which aligns with its brand vision – to discover the future and create superior products (Samsung, 2020). Pairing the brand’s message to the right influencer strengthens the brand to the consumer directly, especially fostering the B2C (Business-to-consumer) market.

This campaign has favourably generated 126M organic views and 24M engagements on social media platforms, while it also increased Samsung’s mentions on Instagram by 12%. More notably, it has attracted consumers to reconsider buying Samsung’s products (We Are Social, Samsung Electronics, 2020).

Due to their ability to grab substantial attention and engagements among teenagers and on social media platforms, an increasing number of brands have started to adopt virtual influencers endorsement as their marketing tactics. Also, they are regarded as more accessible and efficient compared to traditional influencers as simultaneous projects can be done together, just by different coding.

Despite being an effective marketing tool, there are controversies and uncertainties about their unreality and authenticity, and they lack expertise in a certain field – what traditional influencers usually have. Also, some argue that they are encouraging the spread of ‘fake’ contents (Deighton, 2020).

The influence that they brought and the potential to be widely used and developed is undeniably strong and powerful. It is dubious and worth investigating that: Are virtual influencers able to surpass or even replace traditional influencers?

References

Alexeeva, K. (2020). Virtual Influencers: What Are They and Why Your Brand Wants Them. Retrieved from https://blog.combin.com/virtual-influencers-1f0f1e684408

Barker, S. (2020). What is the Future of CGI Influencers in the Marketing World? – Shane Barker. Retrieved from https://shanebarker.com/blog/cgi-influencers/

Deighton, K. (2020). Virtual influencer: for or against?. Retrieved from https://www.raconteur.net/marketing/b2c-marketing/virtual-influencer-for-against/

Samsung #TeamGalaxy – The Shorty Awards. (2020). Retrieved from https://shortyawards.com/12th/samsung-teamgalaxy

TIME. (2019). The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet. Retrieved from https://time.com/5626827/the-25-most-influential-people-on-the-internet/

Torres, R. (2020). The Future of Influence is Virtual. Retrieved from https://nowfashion.com/the-future-of-influence-is-virtual-29761

Travers, C. (2020). 5 Notable Virtual Influencer + Brand Partnerships. Retrieved from https://www.virtualhumans.org/article/5-notable-virtual-influencer-brand-partnerships

What Are CGI Influencers? Meet Instagram’s Virtual Models. (2020). Retrieved from https://mediakix.com/blog/cgi-influencers-instagram-models/

Written by: Lai Ho Ting, Kevin

#pinpointblogpost

2020 has been a rough year for airlines across the globe, especially for Starlux, a Taiwanese premium airline which only commenced its operation on 23 January 2020, two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe. Starlux was forced to suspend most of its services. Though the situation was dire, the airline was able to sustain its business through the pandemic with creativity.

Despite not being able to launch flights to different destinations, it didn’t stop Starlux’s determination to promote its premium onboard sensory experience to its customers. In late July, the airline has announced its latest travel offer, the ‘flight to nowhere’. Passengers can enjoy a 3-hour trip onboard Starlux’s brand new Airbus aircraft while enjoying its in-flight service and the view of the South China Sea, before returning to Taipei. The campaign received massive support from the public, with tickets for the first trip sold out in just 30 seconds. After achieving this level of success, the airline continues to launch additional travel packages for customers. So far, every seat has been filled on their ‘flight to nowhere’.

This campaign has cleverly made use of existing resources of the company to  promote itself. During the pandemic many flights were suspended and aircrafts were left idled. Through “the flight to nowhere” campaign, Starlux found an opportunity to utilize its fleet to earn money.

The campaign also catered the market demand in Taiwan. With careful monitoring and quarantine measures, the COVID-19 pandemic has been largely under control for months in Taiwan. However, citizens were grounded in Taiwan as other countries were tackling the epidemic with strict border control. As a result, their urge to travel and demand for leisure activities has never been higher. Starlux spotted the opportunity and launched the company-saving campaign while expanding the brand community.

Above all that, the campaign has successfully highlighted the strength of Starlux Airline and its unique brand positioning. Unlike traditional Taiwanese carriers who adapt the cost-down approach in competition, Starlux adapts the value-added approach by providing its customers with a premium sensory experience. This establishes Starlux’s luxury brand image and thus setting a brand premium. For a start-up luxury brand with so many cheaper alternatives, it is hard for Starlux to persuade its potential customers to make their first purchase. This campaign allows Starlux to offer an identical flight experience to potential customers at a discounted price without hurting its premium image. All in all, the campaign is a success in many aspects.

Marketers should keep in mind that such campaign success cannot be merely replicated without careful planning and analysis. Take HK Express as a cautionary tale: In late September 2020, HK Express had announced that the airline will launch their own ‘flight to nowhere’ travel package in early November. The campaign has received many negative reviews as HK Express failed to consider the epidemic situation in Hong Kong where any form of gathering is still discouraged. Besides, as a budget airline, HK express has a completely different positioning from Starlux, the strength of HK Express lies in its competitive pricing strategy but not the flight experience. Marketers must consider the context and brand positioning when developing their own creative campaign.

Reference

CNA. (2020, September 19). Taiwan travellers take sightseeing ‘flight to nowhere’. Retrieved from https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/covid-19-taiwan-travel-sightseeing-flight-nowhere-13125970

Loh, C. (2020, September 08). Starlux Airlines Plans Six More Flights To Nowhere. Retrieved from https://simpleflying.com/starlux-airlines-flights-to-nowhere/

Lu, A. (2020, August 27). Starlux airlines second-mover advantage brand marketing. Retrieved from https://blog.withdipp.com/tw/starlux-airlines_second-mover_advantage_brand_marketing

Sammi. (2020, September 30). HK Express 11月環港遊一面倒負評！網民：「買塊厠所板咪得囉」抵死留言逐個看！. Retrieved from https://pretty.presslogic.com/article/445217/hk-express-11%E6%9C%88%E7%92%B0%E6%B8%AF%E9%81%8A%E4%B8%80%E9%9D%A2%E5%80%92%E8%B2%A0%E8%A9%95-%E7%B6%B2%E6%B0%91-%E8%B2%B7%E5%A1%8A%E5%8E%A0%E6%89%80%E6%9D%BF%E5%92%AA%E5%BE%97%E5%9B%89-%E6%8A%B5%E6%AD%BB%E7%95%99%E8%A8%80%E9%80%90%E5%80%8B%E7%9C%8B

STARLUX Airline. (n.d.). STARLUX Airline Official Site. Retrieved from https://www.starlux-airlines.com/