The next session in our WWDMagic seminar coverage is The Evolution of Digital Media in the Fashion Industry by Yuli Ziv of the Style Coalition.
Here’s a breakdown of what Yuli covered during her seminar. Hopefully, you’ll learn a bit about the challenges that the digital revolution poses, how the fashion industry has adopted these changes, how your brand can stand out, and the where digital media is headed in the future.
Challenges the Digital Revolution Poses
- Disorientation and chaos have erupted as a result of breaking the old rules. It is now realized and accepted that the real value is in people and everyone is entitled to an opinion about fashion and, frankly, the old heads can’t stand it.
- Free access to information and increasing transparency have made it so that every moment and every object can be and is documented.
- Group consciousness vs. personal expression; we are unifying as a world. We are grouping and connecting with people globally. The impact of this on brands is huge.
How Has the Fashion Industry Adopted These Changes
- Social media has changed everything and bloggers are at the forefront of this change as a key way that brands have adapted to the changes in how products are marketed.
- Brands have become human and have created their own voices.
How Can Your Brand Stand Out
- Consistent brand messaging across all channels is key. Your brand must remain recognizable.
- Know that people don’t like talking to logos, they want to talk to people.
- Understand and truly embrace the fact that it is not about you, it’s about your customer.
- You need to become a publisher; constantly communicating and creating content. With an emphasis on constantly.
“Understand that people cannot afford to buy your products everyday…but they can afford to consume your content everyday.” —Yuli Ziv, Style Coalition
The Future of Digital Media in the Fashion Industry
- Trends are becoming less important. Style influencers are creative and don’t stick to traditional trends. They create their looks using fashion from various seasons, vintage, mom’s closet, etc.
- On top of that, seasons will start to become non-existent. Delayed delivery should disappear as street style becomes more eclectic and people no longer care about what the industry says they should be wearing.
- We’ll start to see seasonal collections transition to individual products a la the sneaker industry.
- Search is being replaced by discovery. Help people discover your brand and products!
- Personalization is the new made-to-measure. We should stop seeing the same brand home pages as our neighbor, these pages will be tailored to our preferences based on past purchases (among other things).
- The implementation is smart and digital fabrics; clothes that can change shapes, change sizes,and become devices.
So what do you think about what Yuli had to say? Have you embraced the changes and do you agree with her future predictions?