Web3 Fashion: Brands Went All in on Web3 During NYFW

Marketers are continuing to contemplate how Web3—whether that be the metaverse or NFTs—will impact their digital strategies moving forward. To help understand the road ahead, one of the most powerful things we can do is observe industries who are creating the playbook around new technologies and platforms. In this case, that is the fashion industry, which has historically been early adopters and avid experimenters of new technology and platforms. In a time defined by the development of Web3, the experimentation and implementation of these new technologies and platforms was on full display during this year’s New York Fashion Week.??

Bloomingdale's launched its metaverse experience with Emperia, which allows customers to wander online through a shop resembling a spaceship and browse exclusive collections from designers like Polo Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs and David Yurman, which link to real-life product listings. Puma debuted their metaverse and Web3 experience alongside NYFW dubbing their virtual world, “Black Station”, which will reveal exclusive, never-seen-before sneakers that are linked to PUMA’s NFT NitroPass mint. Even The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) announced they will be launching their first metaverse experience in The Sandbox to celebrate their 60th anniversary. The event called, ‘Fashioning the Shades of American Design’ will feature designers including Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger, who have been commissioned to create eight anniversary designs and experiences to be minted into NFTs.??

The most prominent Web3 experience this NYFW was undoubtably Tommy Hilfiger’s runway event, which was the brand’s first outing since the pandemic. The show took place at Brooklyn’s Skyline Drive-In with live stream elements across the brand’s YouTube, Instagram, and website highlighting the new Tommy Hilfiger Monogram collection as well as looks from Hilfiger’s recently released collaboration with British designer Richard Quinn. Beyond live streaming, the brand built upon its TommyPlay world in Roblox, which featured a dedicated space to experience the Fall 2022 Collection and gave Robloxers an opportunity to purchase digital items for the virtual world during the show, tapping into the multibillion-dollar market of digital goods.??

Cheers,??

MikeWorldWide Digital

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Quick Hits: Data?

• NuVoodoo’s new survey found that the most popular podcast genres are True Crime and Comedy, Self Help and Managing Money. The report also found that the biggest discovery method for podcasts is word of mouth recommendation with nearly three in five saying they have learned about podcasts from friends, and two in three have recommended a podcast to a friend.??
• Pandora’s new Soundboard User Study found that daily podcast audiences are listening to more titles and more often. Nearly half (48%) of self-help podcast listeners and 42% of health podcast listeners are spending more time with their favorite shows than they were a year ago.??
• Spotify launched its Summer 2022 Trends analysis which found that the top track in the U.S. this summer was Kate Bush’s now-viral song from 1985, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God),” which became popular after being featured in the latest season of Netflix’s Stranger Things. This nods to the attraction consumers have with nostalgia. Watch the editors of Spotify share their insights from the report here.??
• Brookings Institute’s latest data around their Political Podcast Project found conservative leaning podcasts continue to outpace that of liberal leaning podcasts. As of Sept. 7, the more conservative hosts recorded three times as many episodes as more liberal hosts. Data is updated weekly here.??
• Public Radio Techsurvey 2022 found that public radio fans that listen to news-talk radio stations are most likely to also listen to podcasts with 43% doing so either daily or weekly. That compares to 37% among those that tune into public radio’s adult alternative music formats and 26% who listen to classical stations. The survey finds 72% of millennial public radio listeners also consume podcasts compared to 57% of Gen X and 35% of baby boomers.?
• VIP+ and Maru’s Entertainment and Technology team investigated the overall awareness of free video services and found that YouTube led the pack with an awareness index of 91% while TikTok scored a 69% awareness rating, above both Facebook (66%) and Instagram (57%).??
• Dia & Co. found shoppers embracing fashion nostalgia with big increases in Google searches around 80s and 90s trends. For example, search for rectangular sunglasses was up 309% , crochet tops up 124% and micro-miniskirts up 83% .?
• RivalIQ found that TikTok’s average engagement rate per follower is 4.1%, nearly 6x higher than that of Instagram. The study went on to show that TikTok is out-engaging nearly every other social platform.???
• YouTube shared that ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos drew more than 65 billion views in 2021. Consumers on YouTube see the platform as a safe space where they can press “play” and relax.?
• Google’s latest Global Insights Briefing which breaks down the month’s top trends in search found that searches for IRL events are growing. For example, searches for tickets going on sale have grown globally by 80% YoY while searches for national museums have grown nearly 200%. Consumers are also searching for travel with the report showing a 300% increase in “hotels near me” searches and a 90% increase in searches around last-minute flights.??

Quick Hits: Platforms?

• BeReal has reported up to 10 million daily active users, showing the popularity the app is gaining primarily among Gen Z and millennial audiences.?
• YouTube outlined plans for limiting the spread of political misinformation during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections ,including prohibiting inaccurate videos on how to vote, videos inciting violence and any other content that it determines interferes with the democratic process. YouTube will also direct voters to an information panel on voting and a link to Google’s “how to vote” and “how to register to vote” features.??
• YouTube has published a 31-page overview of YouTube Shorts, covering everything from creating video clips, to editing, to trend tips, analytics and more. One of the key insights from the deck was the importance of brands leveraging their back catalog of content, by turning old YouTube videos into Shorts.?
• Twitter announced the ability to edit tweets. The feature will allow users to edit their tweets for up to 30 minutes from posting. However, users can only edit tweets five times within this period.?
• Twitter will now enable Twitter Spaces broadcasters to schedule up to 10 Spaces at a time, up to 30 days in advance.?
• Twitter launched its “close friends” feature, Twitter Circle, to global users. The feature allows users to add up to 150 people to their Twitter Circle in order to make some tweets available only to those they know and trust instead of to the wider public.?
• Instagram will allow users to refine their Reels recommendations with the option to add topics to their own Reels uploads, in order to better categorize their clips.?
• TikTok has added more data to its ‘insights’ tool including a range of snapshots and notes on key market trends, which users can filter to hone in on relevant use cases.?

Quick Hits: Podcasts?

• ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith will be working with Audacy’s Cadence13 Partners to establish his own podcast called Know Mercy with Stephen A. Smith which will discuss issues in politics, business, entertainment, social issues and criminal justice.??
• Bloomberg is launching a new podcast called “Zero” hosted by Akshat Rathi which will explore the road to zero carbon emissions. The podcast will interview guests such as Bill Gates.??

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Quick Hits: Metaverse & Web3?

• For its 150th anniversary, Bloomingdale’s unveiled a new virtual store, designed by Emperia, that went live during New York Fashion Week. The virtual store will include “360-degree views of exclusive luxury products, an interactive 40 Carrots frozen yogurt experience, Big Brown Drones and lots of fun surprises” according to the brand’s CMO Frank Berman.??
• Ticketmaster has partnered with Dapper Labs' Flow blockchain to enable event organizers to issue NFTs before, during and after live events. Ticketmaster previously partnered with Flow to mint 70,000 virtual commemorative ticket NFTs for Super Bowl LVI. Since then, Ticketmaster has minted more than five million NFTs on the Flow blockchain for its clients, including the Apollo Theater, Gavin DeGraw, The Black Crowes and Sebastian Maniscalco.??
• LG Electronics has released an NFT platform LG Art Lab, which lets users discover, buy, sell and trade NFTs on LG’s smart TVs. The platform is now available in the U.S. only to those with LG TV running webOS 5.0 or later and is accessible directly from the home screen.?
• Roblox is rolling out a new ad product that will allow brands to place 3D promos within the virtual worlds and games hosted on its platform. The gaming platform plans to test new types of immersive ads for select brands in coming months with sights set on a full launch of its self-serve ad system sometime next year.?

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Quick Hits: Campaigns We Are Inspired By?

• The UFC has partnered with social messaging app IRL (“in real life″) to become its official group messaging platform. The partnership kicked off 9/10 and allows fans to engage with each other and with athletes before and during UFC’s events, prompting live conversations between athletes and fans around pay-per-view events and will encourage fans to partake in polls, memes and prompts.??
• OkCupid and Vote.org are teaming up to encourage young daters across the nation to register to vote and make their voices heard in this year’s midterm elections. From September through Election Day in November, OkCupid will be driving its users in the United States to Vote.org’s resources to help people register to vote, request an absentee ballot, and find their polling place. The platform shared that last year, people who said they vote in midterm and local elections got 35% more matches and 26% more likes than those who only vote in the general election. They also had 52% more conversations on the app when compared to people who said they don’t vote.?