The fashion industry is changing. Technology is being used in ways never imagined just a few years ago. From Oscar de la Renta crowdsourcing runway shows and live pinning bridal shows, to Burberry mixing models and holograms to showcase their latest fashions (Source: The Next Web). We have increasingly seen digital become more mainstream over the past two years with women’s fashion at Rightster. Seasonal runway shows like those produced by IMG Fashion are live streaming, social networking and even offering pre-orders online, and consumers are responding (Source: Rightster.com). 
During Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia (MBFWA) in April, online engagement surpassed the global fashion week standard 12-minute view time, as audiences spent more than 24 minutes watching the live stream with 61.5 % of viewers engaging with the shows during the live catwalk. Live-stream distribution resulted in more than 30,000 video views delivered via desktop (64%) and mobile (36%) in over 66 countries, with video-on-demand (VOD) extending reach to over 90 countries. That’s a whole lot of global interest in fashion!
Rightster’s partnership with British Fashion Council (BFC) over the past seven seasons for London Fashion Week continues to show seasonal increases in digital viewership as well. Mobile is increasingly becoming an important device and marketing opportunity for designers and fashion media houses alike. In the UK alone, 52% of UK consumers currently own a smartphone and 20% own a tablet (Source: KMPG). These numbers are also reflected in the Rightster network with 50% mobile and tablet users accessing video content.
The latest project with the BFC is for London Collections: Men on 16-18th June emphasising “both the creative and commercial potential of Britain’s brands” (Source: LondonCollections.co.uk). While women’s fashion continues to get most of the press, men’s fashion is increasingly becoming an e-commerce opportunity. According to Jonathan Bacon of Marketing Week, digital platforms are contributing to the rise in menswear sales as 68% of male shoppers online have used laptops or desktop computers to buy clothing, while 25% used a tablet and 15% a smartphone in the past year.
The interaction between online video and ecommerce is still in the early phases, but there are some great examples of innovative projects happening such as this shoppable music video featuring the music group Karmin trying on various different fashion designers clothes. Produced by music site Popdust and hosted on YouTube, the stars of the video encourage viewers to click on the link below to buy the clothes (Source: NY Times). Interesting indeed.
We are excited to see where the digital fashion trend leads us as we also believe “The fashion industry has the money and creative talent to not only keep up with the tech industry but also push it and offer a vision for new ways to encompass tech in our day-to-day lives” (Source: Amalia Agathou, The Next Web).
About Preview Networks
Preview Networks is a content marketing platform for brands and content aggregation and syndication platform for publishers. We provide the tools for brands to centrally distribute and manage marketing and PR content across media destinations, devices, and commerce platforms; allowing media partners to automate content acquisition delivering audience and advertising revenue growth. Acquired by Rightster in February 2013, our combined offering strengthens video distribution, marketing, and monetisation services globally.
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