Report/ Fashion/2012 Brandwatch Report/ Fashion Book a demowith us in particularthe‘bigfour’fashionweeks. sector, fashion the surrounding discussion online into report A Social mediaandtheFashionSector. brandwatch.com/demo /2012 on trend! 2 Report/ Fashion/2012 Fashion Brandwatch Report Why read this... Book a demowith us Intrigued? Let’s takealookatwhatweuncovered... reach. mass broader achieve and smarter market brands fashion help can that insights and trends reveal results The buyers tick. and enthusiasts fashion makes what exactly glean to events into dig to decided we Week, Fashion 2012 of honour in So sales impact. real have can which brand, your of perception market droves, in web social the to take fashionistas Consumer centre. and it’sopportunity... front and out get to time market and brand big a missing you’re conversations, online into tapping yet not you’re and fashion in work you If brandwatch.com/demo /2012

Contents 10 5 4 3

London FashionWeek study/ Case Conversation Analysis Key Insights Introduction

Fashion /2012 Introduction/

The fashion industry is loved and hated in equal measure, but there is no denying that fashion is big business. This is never more evident than during the ‘big four’ fashion shows held biannually in the major fashion capitals of the world – New York, to the cities to see the next big trends.

As the great Coco Chanel said: Fashion is discussed online on a daily basis – whether it be a about a new designer, a ‘must have’ designer handbag or “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in just photos of new shoes posted on . All that noise is the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, holding the secrets of the consumers, and an understanding of what is happening.” that online chatter – what consumers, bloggers and news outlets get excited about or dislike – can be a powerful tool for those In the past, a great deal of secrecy surrounding new collections dealing with a brand or designer’s PR. Imagine being able to and shows meant that was an enemy rather than measure the effects of your PR activities and track a brand’s a gift, but the fashion world is slowly waking up to the possibilities growing popularity: this is what social media monitoring offers.

/2012 of welcoming social media into its exclusive circle, rather than shunning it. These days designers have learnt to embrace it and This report aims to provide insight into how the fashion industry – tweet news and photos in particular fashion week – is discussed online, including from backstage and invite fashion bloggers onto the front row. how consumers compare to news outlets in their tone and topic of discussion, and how online buzz for different fashion

Report/ Fashion weeks compares. 3 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Key Insights/

To understand trends in chat about the fashion industry, we took a look at discussion online surrounding the four major Fashion Week shows in order to explore how the industry’s key events were discussed on social media sites.

This analysis revealed the following key insights:

New York and Fashion Weeks generate the most Many of those individuals are likely to be tweeting from buzz on English-language social media. the actual shows; the volume of tweets peaked at the The two four-week fashion week seasons experience start of the shows each day. incredibly similar patterns of conversation. News stories are more likely to designers Conversation in each of the seasons than consumers are. two weeks – New York and London – with interest waning post-LFW. aspects of a show, whereas individuals on tend UK social media users tend to discuss London Fashion to discuss celebrity appearances. majority of conversation by individuals discussing it /2012 on Twitter. Report/ Fashion

4 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Conversation Analysis/

New York is the most discussed fashion week, We found that between June 1 2011 though London dominates UK conversation. – March 31 2012 Fashion Week was mentioned nearly 750,000 times worldwide (75,000 a month, on average), with New York being the most discussed show.

However, UK social media users % 34 were more likely to discuss the New York London show with a massive 64% of % UK conversation concerning the 32 capital’s shows, suggesting that London homegrown talent is still close to 22% British hearts.

% /2012 12 Milan Report/ Fashion

5 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Conversation Analysis/ cont...

Fashion Week is discussed on social media regularly Fashion Weeks are held in each city throughout the year but peaks in the middle of twice a year in quick succession– in February/March (Autumn/Winter each season. collections) and September/October ALL FASHION WEEK CONVERSATION (Spring/Summer). Normally, New York 20,000 kicks off the season, followed by a week in each of the other cities.

15,000 There are clear increases in buzz at these two times of the year, as shown in the chart below, although Fashion Week enjoys a steady level of 10,000 conversation at other times of the year. MENTIONS PER DAY 5,000 /2012

0

AUG 11 1 JUN 11 1 JUL 11 1 OCT 11 1 NOV 11 1 DEC 11 1 JAN 12 1 FEB 12 1 MAR 12 Report/ Fashion

6 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Conversation Analysis/ cont...

The two fashion week periods in the year experience Comparing the two 2-month time incredibly similar patterns of buzz. periods against each other reveals that the rise and fall of online chat follows a similar shape in each season. COMPARING ALL FASHION WEEK CHAT IN EACH SEASON 20,000 Online conversation volumes peak during the New York and London weeks, and then interest wanes and

15,000 levels drop over the rest of the period, with Paris Fashion Week driving another slight spike.

10,000 With this information, we can predict the shape of buzz surrounding each

MENTIONS PER DAY fashion season and this knowledge 5,000 can, in turn, be used for PR and

/2012 marketing purposes – understanding when buzz is present means

0 understanding when content and announcements are likely to have AW 12 SS 12 most effect. Report/ Fashion

7 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Conversation Analysis/ cont...

London Fashion Week conversation fell after day 4, The chart below shows the buzz for whilst other shows had more consistent levels each city’s AW ‘12 show during the corresponding weeks in February and throughout the week. ALL FASHION WEEK CONVERSATION each show, with the following 6 days 20,000 also included for analysis (the fashion shows are usually between 4 and 7 days long). 15,000 London enjoyed the highest volume

10,000 days of the show, with conversation dropping off shortly after day 4. Other cities enjoyed a smaller but more

MENTIONS PER DAY stable volume over the entire week, 5,000 with conversation levels staying much

/2012 the same, if not rising, over the period.

0

DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5 DAY 6 DAY 7 NEW YORK LONDON PARIS MILAN Report/ Fashion 8 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Conversation Analysis/ cont...

Much of the discussion about the shows featured on Twitter and on a range of fashion , including popular YouTube channel threadbanger.com

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the shows attract the attention of Label 1 tweeters, including celebrities such as Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian and Charlie

Sheen, among many others. Even got involved,Label 2 tweeting a link to their own blog about New York Fashion Week.

Label 3

Label 4

Label 5 Some pic! Rise & glam!!!! Its Might have to start Discover fashion at 5:45am I’m actuallyLabel wide 6 stalking you...again! awake! Family commercial /2012 today! Then off to Paris Label 7 http://bit.ly/x6KhIg

Twitter/ @Twitter Twitter/ @kimkardashian Twitter/ @charliesheen Report/ Fashion

9 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Case study/ London Fashion Week

Given that London’s Fashion Week is the most discussed Week on UK social

We have analysed data from both the February (AW ‘12) and September (SS ‘13) London fashion weeks for this case study.

We found that, generally, trends in social conversation from AW ‘12 were mirrored during the recent SS ’13 shows.

The shows in London attract thousands of visitors from over 25 countries to discover the new looks from a wide range of designers over the week. We tracked mentions of London

/2012 Fashion Week terms on UK social media over the AW ‘12 event (Feb 17–22 2012) and the SS ‘13 event (Sep 14-18 2012) to explore the buzz generated and to discover any recurring themes. Report/ Fashion

10 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Case study/ London Fashion Week/ cont...

Platforms used for LFW chat were dominated by London Fashion Week always garners Twitter, with 91% of AW ‘12 London and 92% of SS ’13 much coverage in traditional media, but our research shows that it also gained chat comprising of tweets. considerable attention on social media this year. The vast majority of AW ’12 LFW CHAT SS ’13 LFW CHAT this conversation took place on Twitter.

SS ‘13 saw a slightly increased volume of conversation compared with AW ‘12. 31,275 38,429 News articles accounted for MENTIONS MENTIONS a slightly lower proportion of conversation for SS ‘13 than for AW ‘12, which could be attributed to

/2012 the increased number of Twitter users as the platform grows.

VIDEO BLOG FORUM GENERAL NEWS TWITTER Report/ Fashion 11 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Case study/ London Fashion Week/ cont...

Twitter buzz peaked at the start of each show day At its peak (which was the start of the in London during AW ‘12 LFW Mulberry show at 10am on Sunday 19), AW ‘12 LFW was being discussed on Twitter nearly 1,000 times an hour. FRI FEB 17 SAT FEB 18 SUN FEB 19 MON FEB 20 TUE FEB 21 WED FEB 22 1,000 Analysing the timing of all tweets about 900 LFW revealed that guests were likely to tweet as they arrived at the 800 shows at 10am, whilst volumes of 700 conversation slumped in the afternoon 600 and evening.

500 Each day of the event enjoyed a 400 VOLUME (HOURLY) 300 though Tuesday 21 experienced more LFW tweets than any other 200

/2012 day, much of which was due to the 100 shows of ‘emerging talent’ award- 0 winner Mary Katrantzou and Edinburgh designer Holly Fulton. 00:0006:0012:0018:0000:0006:0012:0018:0000:0006:0012:0018:0000:0006:0012:0018:0000:0006:0012:0018:0000:0006:0012:0018:0000:00 NON DESIGNER CHAT ALL TWEETS DAILY AVERAGE Report/ Fashion 12 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Case study/ London Fashion Week/ cont...

Twitter buzz during SS ‘13 LFW followed a similar During the SS ‘13 London Fashion pattern to that for AW ‘12. Week, tweets were again posted frequently around the timing of the start of the shows each morning, FRI SEP 14 SAT SEP 15 SUN SEP 16 MON SEP 17 TUE SEP 18 and conversation levels followed a 1,400 similar pattern to those seen during AW 1,300 ‘12. However, conversation in the 1,200 afternoon dropped off less sharply 1,100 for SS ‘13, with buzz more prominent 1,000 in the afternoons for SS ‘13 than it was 900 during AW ‘12. 800 700 The large peak on the Monday was 600 caused by tweets about the Burberry 500 VOLUME (HOURLY) Prorsum show. 400 300

/2012 200 100 0

00:00 06:00 12:00 18:00 00:00 06:00 12:00 18:00 00:00 06:00 12:00 18:00 00:00 06:00 12:00 18:00 00:00 06:00 12:00 18:00 00:00 NON DESIGNER CHAT ALL TWEETS DAILY AVERAGE Report/ Fashion 13 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Case study/ London Fashion Week/ cont...

The common phrases and words designers, which dropped slightly to 28% during SS ‘13. found most often within designer-led chat about AW ‘12 and SS ‘13 LFW are AW ’12 LFW designer chat shown in the word clouds (left)..

Antoni Alison AW12 burberry Burberry features heavily in both Bora Aksu show live stream PPQ Corrie Nielsen clouds, though whilst Mulberry was Bora Aksu Super Lee the big designer for AW ‘12, they were Loving ASOS Orla Kiely Fyodor Golan replaced by Topshop Unique as the MulberryCentral Saint Martins Simone RochaAquascutum most commonly appearing designer Love front row Stella McCartney House of Holland in SS ’13 chat. Maria Grachvogel Clements Robeiro GlamourMagUK John Rocha Gorgeous Gemma Arterton LFW show show space SS ’13 LFW designer chat /2012 Report/ Fashion

14 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Case study/ London Fashion Week/ cont...

News articles tended to be more designer-focused and more positive than consumer chat.

News articles accounted for 5% of AW ‘12 LFW conversation, Top news sites discussing LFW included most major British which dropped to 4% for the SS ‘13 shows. Whilst this is newspapers (such as The Sun, The Guardian and The Daily a fraction of the number of Twitter mentions, news articles Mail) along with internet news providers such as the BBC, Yahoo! and MSN. their reader numbers and ‘authority’. For example, the top ten most prominent UK news sites for AW ‘12 chat had a potential combined readership of nearly 3 billion (up to over 5 billion for SS ’13); whereas the top ten most followed Twitter accounts had a combined follower count of just over 7 million (12 million for SS ‘13). In fact, around half of those top ten most-followed tweeters discussing LFW were news and magazine accounts, so these sources were /2012 Report/ Fashion

15 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Case study/ London Fashion Week/ cont...

News articles were much more likely than twitter chat 70% of news stories were designer-led, to mention designers. compared to 32% of tweets. For SS ’13, the divide grew wider, with 74% of news Themes in Stella McCartney Twitter conversation: , compared to only 25% of tweets.

The topics of discussion about designers were also different when comparing news stories and tweets. For example, the topic clouds (left), generated by the Brandwatch app, illustrate the main themes within discussion about Stella McCartney on Twitter and news sites during AW ‘12 LFW. Themes in Stella McCartney news stories: Brandwatch automatically pulls out the top themes in the conversation, and as we can see below, Twitter conversation

/2012 about McCartney was much more likely to focus on the celebrities and personalities involved with, or present at, the shows, whereas news stories tended to focus on the shows, the

Report/ Fashion designs and the models. 16 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Case study/ London Fashion Week/ cont...

News stories were also much more likely to be positive about the designer, though negative conversation was minimal on both platforms.

STELLA MCCARTNEY CONVERSATION (BASED ON A SAMPLE OF 250 MENTIONS)

100%

75%

50% PERCENT

25% /2012

0 NEWS TWITTER

NEGATIVE NEUTRAL POSITIVE Report/ Fashion 17 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Fashion /2012 Tap into Brandwatch… and a new dimension of fashion. If you’re a fashion industry executive, keeping current with online conversations is just about as essential these days as staying on top of the latest styles and collections.

Brandwatch can help you tap into new aspects of the fashion Interested in learning more? industry, new market segments, consumer trends, brand We’re proud to say that our social media monitoring solution perception, and more. That means you can turn social media outperforms all other tools on the market - making the most chatter into real business opportunities: reliable, targeted social market data available to you in user- friendly dashboards. Expand your market reach Manage your reputation We’re also not shy, so we’d love the opportunity to show it to you in action. Contact us today at Brandwatch.com/demo to Capture consumer feedback & market research request a demo Turn buyers into brand enthusiasts

/2012 Mitigate PR crisis & risks Report/ Fashion

18 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo 19 Report/ Fashion/2012 Fashion Brandwatch Report Book a demowith us market trends, andengagewithcustomers prospects. predict research, market conduct analysis, data deep through insights business glean interests, brand their around conversations online monitor to provide we data spam-free reliable, highly and coverage media social real-time the on relying solutions, Brandwatch use agencies and brands global 500 than More analysis. and monitoring media social of world’s the providers of one is leading Brandwatch /about Brandwatch utilise thepowerofsocialmediamonitoring. monitoring of potential the realise to order in about, care they conversation the of analysis deeper with along these, like insights them give to order in needs different with and industries of range wide a across clients with Wework interest. of been has industry fashion the surrounding buzz media social about report this Wehope Thank you brandwatch.com/demo /2012 / Germany: +49(0)711 91244159 UK: +44(0)1273234 290 US: 12122292240 visit Brandwatch.com/demo. demo, a schedule to or business your improve can Brandwatch how on information more For /info