Fashion brand Stella McCartney enters mobile with holiday campaign
Fashion label Stella McCartney, a joint venture with Gucci Group N.V., tapped mobile ad network Millennial Media to develop and launch a mobile marketing campaign for the holidays and beyond.
Running through January, the campaign marks Stella McCartney’s first stab at mobile marketing. The effort targets holiday shoppers in North America.
“Their intent with this campaign is to extend the brand into mobile while maintaining a stylish image and enabling the consumer to get a view into the spring and summer fashion lines,” said Eric Eller, senior vice president of products and marketing at Millennial Media, Baltimore.
Millennial Media created and implemented the campaign from start to finish, a service it offers about 30 percent of its clients. The effort’s goal is to build awareness and consumer interest for Stella McCartney’s spring and summer 2009 collections.
Stella McCartney
Landing page on smartphone site
Stella gets her groove
The campaign comprises banner ads across key mobile sites in Millennial Media’s mobile ad network. Clicking on any one of those banners takes consumers to an interactive experience that mirrors window shopping via a mobile phone.
Once at the Stella McCartney iPhone site at http://lp.mydas.mobi/custom/stella/iphone/index.php or the smartphone site at http://lp.mydas.mobi/custom/stella/index.php, consumers can choose the collection to browse.
Stella McCartney
Update signup page on iPhone site
The collections include pieces with Stella McCartney’s preference for “sharp tailoring, natural confidence and sexy feminity,” as the brand puts it. They target modern and style-conscious shoppers.
Visitors are then pointed to a mobile fashion show – a series of look books that showcase all items in the collection. Clicking on a specific design or accessory will offer a closer look.
The experience is topped off with a layer of practicality: a mobile store locator to identify the nearest Stella McCartney retail store.
The database marketing aspect is not ignored, either. The mobile site allows consumers to sign up for news and updates on the brand.
Founder Stella McCartney is the daughter of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney.
Stellar marketing
Mobile is the latest addition to Stella McCartney’s media mix for its holiday campaign.
Other components of the integrated effort include print, online, direct mail, point-of-purchase signage, in-store, public relations and channel marketing.
A major benefit of the mobile push is establishing the Stella McCartney presence on the mobile Web.
“They’re not looking for direct marketing,” Mr. Eller said. “They’re looking for consumer reaction and feedback on the site. “Indirectly, that will show us the styles of navigation, whether the consumer wants to flip through images or go through arrows,” he said.
“Hopefully, we’ll learn something about design and improve the site over time and add video and content that’s geared towards the audience.”
Launching a mobile presence during the holidays will also help Stella McCartney tap into a common habit: sharing information with friends. So the brand is banking on word of mouth for its mobile site.
“The demographic that they’re looking for is spending a growing amount of time on mobile,” Mr. Eller said. “Certainly a growing percentage of consumers are shifting their consumption from online to mobile.
“[Additionally] the focus on the iPhone and smartphone devices allows a more affluent audience to explore the brand via mobile,” he said.