The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
After building the world’s biggest clothing empire without using TV and billboard ads, the owner of fashion brand Zara is trying another way to market its dresses, jeans and jackets — video games.
Spain’s Inditex SA is responding to the shift from physical stores to online sales by teaming up with Facebook and Instagram to develop “Pacific Game” to attract younger buyers to its Pull & Bear brand.
It’s not about clinching a direct sale but building a relationship with younger customers. E-commerce brought a third of Inditex’s revenue last year and a chunk of the $3 billion it’s earmarked for new investments will go to making sure the digital boom doesn’t run out of steam.
There’s been a flurry of deals where clothing brands get to tout their wares inside video games. Now they’re taking their involvement a step further with games of their own to bring more traffic to websites, boost downloads of mobile apps and offer more fun ways to distribute discount codes.
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Pull & Bear’s retro-style caper sees a shopper travel from California to Tokyo collecting clothes and avoiding obstacles along the way. Players control the character by turning their face. The game is accessed from Pull & Bear’s Instagram and Facebook accounts and website.
Luxury brand Burberry Group Plc launched a surfing video game as part of its TB Summer Monogram campaign fronted by Kendall Jenner last year.
“It’s about adding that extra piece of magic to a brand so that you’re memorable in the minds of your audience,” said Tim Cooper, director of brand game maker Peek & Poke which has produced games for JD Sports Fashion Plc and online clothing retailer Boohoo Group Plc.
By Macarena Munoz and Ivan Levingston
The algorithms TikTok relies on for its operations are deemed core to ByteDance overall operations, which would make a sale of the app with algorithms highly unlikely.
The app, owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance, has been promising to help emerging US labels get started selling in China at the same time that TikTok stares down a ban by the US for its ties to China.
Zero10 offers digital solutions through AR mirrors, leveraged in-store and in window displays, to brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Coach. Co-founder and CEO George Yashin discusses the latest advancements in AR and how fashion companies can leverage the technology to boost consumer experiences via retail touchpoints and brand experiences.
Four years ago, when the Trump administration threatened to ban TikTok in the US, its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. worked out a preliminary deal to sell the short video app’s business. Not this time.