Club Monaco proved that social can be a marketer’s best accessory with the launch of its new interactive Tumblr lookbook for its Fall 1 collection. The fashion retailer gave the conventional marketing and press tool a complete makeover by transforming it into a digital canvas for consumer engagement and commerce.
“[The lookbook] allowed us to give the consumer a deeper experience with the brand and product. With a social lookbook, we’re giving consumers inside access into Club Monaco—a look at trends, patterns, and colors months before the hit stores,” says Ann Watson, VP of marketing and communications for Club Monaco. “We’re giving them a more engaging experience, where they can curate, create, and share our imagery. In effect, consumers can become their own editors and develop their own wide-scale fashion community.”
Watson says that Club Monaco has included social and creative elements in its lookbooks before, such as by having blogger and photographer Garance Dore handle the curating and the casting for the Fall 2010 lookbook and by partnering with UK youth culture magazine Dazed and Confused for the fall 2011 lookbook. Watson says Club Monaco decided to use Tumblr this year because of its global social community, visual nature, and ability to create customized experiences for new and current customers, as well as for the editorial community—the brand’s target audiences.
“Tumblr was the first online social experience rooted in creation and curation; Tumblr’s DNA is about connecting users via creative content, which is a shared value that Club Monaco also believes in,” Watson says.”
To continue the social theme, Club Monaco had globally renowned Tumblr bloggers strut their stuff in the lookbook in place of traditional high-end models. Watson says each blogger represents fashion, photography, food, music, art, or travel, the six key components of Club Monaco’s tumblr: Club Monaco Culture Club. She adds that even lookbook’s photographer Justin Chung has more than 75,000 followers on his photography Tumblr page.
“By using a social-savvy cast and launching the lookbook on Tumblr, we give the lookbook legs to spread easily online and throughout the digital world,” Watson says. “We wanted this to be personal, and organic to the consumer, to our brand, and for the bloggers in the campaign.”
In addition, Club Monaco is inviting fashionistas to create their own lookbooks by downloading Club Monaco’s free fashion-inspired template from Tumblr’s Theme Garden, a collection of blog design templates. And if consumers want to buy the styles featured in their Club Monaco lookbooks, they can click on an image to be directed to the brand’s e-commerce site once the items are available in-store.
What’s more, consumers don’t have to worry about their lookbooks going out of style. Watson says Club Monaco will continue to revamp the lookbook every season with new content and partnerships. For example, Watson says each blogger featured in the lookbook will be a monthly contributor to Club Monaco’s Culture Club Blog—starting with A Well-Traveled Woman blogger Bekah Stewart followed by Le Blog de Betty by Betty Autier.
