Fashion

Every day brings a new technology and another brand that tries to get a head start by implementing it before the rest. Polo Ralph Lauren has become the first luxury retailer to launch mobile commerce. In Asia, it is common for people to buy products like Coke from vending machines through their mobile phones - that started as early as 2001. What Polo Ralph Lauren is doing now, is aiming to attract business from the tech-savvy consumer in America by allowing them to buy products with codes that they intend to place in print ads, mailings and store windows, which will also be a feature of their sponsorship of the U.S Open later this month. Once users download the software to their phone, the codes can be scanned and they will be directed to a phone-friendly version of the Ralph Lauren site.

From Forbes, David Lauren, the Senior Vice-President of Advertising at the company and son of Ralph Lauren, said:

“We recognize that in America this is going after somebody who is more comfortable with technology. The truth is that in other countries, it’s becoming a part of their culture. The trend is coming, and as a fashion company it’s very important to identify trends and get ahead of them.”

[Via Forbes]

To create a buzz around its new fragrance for men, Infusion d’Homme, Prada has commissioned nine young directors from across the world (Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, France, India, Italy, Korea, Spain and the USA) to create films inspired by their individual interpretations of the scent. The only caveat to the directors was that the films should be visual representations of the sensory images triggered by the perfume, and not straightforward commercials - they were otherwise given a free rein. The nine works are going to be edited into one long piece by Pietro Scalia, two-time Oscar-winning film editor. The complete film will be a synthesis of Prada’s vision of Infusion d’Homme.

You can watch all the short films on Prada’s website.

Topshop fans in London, Manchester and Dublin can now create their own magazine-cover looks in-store, at the Helmut Newton Photo Machines which have been installed in Topshop stores in these cities. Helmut Newton was one of the most famous fashion photographers of all time. The Helmut Newton Estate has partnered with Topshop to recreate this ’70’s photographic concept that gives customers the chance to create their own fabulous photo by walking in, posing, and pressing a button.

Photographic history can now be yours.

The folks over at TBWA Shanghai have come up with a nice, even poignant video for adidas highlighting China’s rising Olympic stars. We like how the ad focuses on the star athletes leading China into the competitions and inspiring a 1.3 billion crowd of followers (depicted literally, though artfully, in the ad). Watch it here (sorry, no embed code).

The Mashable blog has a list of 35 companies who are experimenting with social media. They say that companies like GM, HO and Best Western are playing in a number of different ways. Here’s one example:

Nike started a social community on Loopd to connect athletes interested in surfing, BMX bike racing and similar activities with the brand.

Mashable

Dazed Digital are chronicling the Converse-branded four-week music tour around China that includes the making of a branded documentary. On the details:

The Converse Love Noise tour aims to give Chinese rock a bigger platform and will try to distract attention from the Olympics by taking two Beijing bands, PK-14 and Queen Sea Big Shark on a specially-designed tour bus through six cities, beginning and ending in Beijing. Along the way, the bus will pick up local bands, and documenting the ups and downs of the entire tour and the climactic event in Beijing will be two brave Dazed Digital correspondents.

On filming:

P.K.14 got kitted out in ripped Converse, the sky was dark above a large expanse of concrete, and the graffiti-ed bus squatted behind the band as the equipment van edged in on the stage to point its headlights at the action. Remarkably, a group of service station staff came to watch the band disturb the peace, as did a stray praying mantis. Praying mantises have been known to kill small birds, said Queen Sea Big Shark guitarist Wang Jing Han, as he held one between his fingers. (A brief aside: we asked the Chinese Converse blogger Lua why graffiti in her country often contains numbers. She told us that it’s not graffiti, these numbers are hasty adverts for lines to call if you’re after some sort of forged document.)

Dazed

Comscore reports that American Apparel is the top online advertising spender in apparel brands. They say that in April, the majority of their 483 million impressions were delivered via social media. Nearly half of AA’s ads appeared on top social networking sites - MySpace.com (24 percent) and Facebook.com (19 percent) and AOL’s AIM IM-chat service carried nearly 12 percent. Here’s a break down:

Comscore

Johnny Cupcakes just opened a new location in Los Angeles after amassing a line of people who waited up to four days for the grand opening. The store doesn’t actually sell any cupcakes but rather focuses on a quirky retail experience to guide you through the process of getting your paws on their coveted clothing. SlamXHype writes:

The attention to detail that went into every small aspect of the shop is unbelievable… everything from a fake stove that lights up underneath the counter where you pay for your shirts to the full wall of ovens that open and close randomly with steam coming out.

[via SlamXHype]

Grow Interactive is a smart out-of-town agency that can punch above its weight. But while it likes to take on as many national clients as local, it still likes to ensure that the team work on enough socially conscious projects too. We talked to Eric Green about what’s been going on in the agency.

Eric, It’s been a while since we last talked. How has the type of work Grow Interactive produces changed?

Since last we talked, our company has grown fairly substantially in both our size and capabilities. This along with our focus on building relationships within our industry has afforded us many great opportunities. So I’d say our work is definitely richer these days, filled with even more varying creative and technical executions. If you haven’t checked us out lately, please do so at thisisgrow.com.

You recentlty created a socially conscious project called The Girl Effect for Nike with W+K. Can you tell us about it?

I’m glad you brought that one up. We’re especially proud of it. When W+K first told us about the Nike Foundation led initiative, we were floored. A girl is a definitely an unexpected solution to many of the world’s problems so when we learned the facts like “when girls and women earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man”, it was immediately evident that the Nike Foundation had found a mission with enormous potential to start that change. At that point, the decision to get on board was a no brainer.

Are these types of projects important to you?

Very much. We spend the bulk of our time creating channels to promote brands and their goods, so when an opportunity comes up to create change for the benefit of others, we welcome the challenge. We also think it’s very important not to repeat ourselves because variety keeps our team sharp. Feel-good projects are always good for morale too.

You seem to have a good spread of big brands and smaller companies as clients - why the mix?

We spend a lot of time in the community, taking part in local design and advertising organizations. We do so because we believe that if our company is to remain strong at the root level, we have to participate in our community. This participation leads to organic relationships with the people around us. In addition, smaller companies afford us branding opportunities we don’t typically see working with our agency partners.

How have you been working with social media and sites like YouTube?

Done sensibly and right, social media can afford great opportunities. For example, we recently teamed with Saatchi & Saatchi New York to design and develop a karaoke music video contest website for JC Penney called “Rock Your Look“. The winner wins a trip to LA and presents at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards.Early on in the planning stage, Saatchi approached us with their idea. This allowed us to develop some key insights into teens we thought would be most likely to participate in our contest. We found these teens on YouTube and because we were aware of YouTube’s recently released APIs, we were able to suggest and interface our website with YouTube. This not only put us in front of these teens, but because our website enhanced their outlet for self-expression, our contest became a hit with them.

You work with a lot of advertising agencies. Sometimes you hear horror stories about the relationships between traditional and digital agencies - what tips can you share about successful relationships?

Beyond approaching us for our technical and creative capabilities, we’re happy to hear from our agency partners that they appreciate our heavy focus on communication and timeliness. We believe this type of relationship gives everyone the confidence they need to know the project will go as smoothly as possible. In addition, by making the most of the time we’re allotted for each project, we’re able to achieve the best end result possible.

And what’s next for Grow Interactive?

We’re really excited to announce the addition of our new Interactive Director, Benjamin Mace. That and we’ll keep pushing ourselves and our work. We’re only getting better.

Congrats & Thank You

Grow Interactive