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Mr Porter refreshes style campaign through mobile challenge

February 21, 2013

Mr Porter spring/summer Style Wherever You Are campaign

Net-A-Porter’s men’s destination Mr Porter is enhancing the latest installment of its “Style Wherever You Are” campaign with new creative assets and an Instagram challenge.

The Style Wherever You Are campaign began in fall 2012 with images shot in metropolitan and remote areas to show the span of where Mr Porter ships. The retailer is introducing consumers to the spring/summer campaign with the Global Style competition on mobile image-sharing application Instagram.

“This season we are extending the campaign to our social platforms by inviting customers and fans of Mr Porter to share their own style, wherever they are in the world,” said Mario Muttenthaler, director of sales and marketing at Mr Porter, London.

Men of style
The multichannel spring/summer Style Wherever You Are campaign began Feb. 19 with placements in select print publications and online media.

The new images were shot by photographer Tom Craig in four global locations: Azerbaijan, Yemen, Fiji and the Seychelles.

Campaign image

The campaign is meant to show Mr Porter’s global appeal and its range of shipping options to 170 countries.

Campaign image

The spring/summer images feature apparel from brands carried by Mr Porter such as Burberry Prorsum, Gucci, Ann Demeulemeester and Simon Miller.

New this season is the Global Style Instagram competition.

Consumers can participate in the fashion challenge by taking self-portraits via Instagram that emulate the campaign images and show them in their most stylish attire.

The images must be tagged with #MrPorterGS and a hashtag that states the subject’s home city to enter the contest.

Consumers can browse all of the Instagram images that have been submitted to the style challenge thus far and “like” their favorites on a microsite at http://www.mrporterglobalstyle.com.

Microsite

The microsite contains an interactive map. Consumers can click on different spots on the globe to view images taken in the corresponding city, browse all contest entries and read instructions for entering the contest.

Images from London

Mr Porter will award four winners who receive the most “likes” on the microsite with a wardrobe worth $3,500.

“Mobile is a perfect platform to reach consumers on-the-go, and in real-time,” said Christine Kirk, CEO of Social Muse Communications, Los Angeles. “Given that Mr Porter is an online destination, extending their reach to mobile is a natural next step.

“Fashion brands, and digital and mobile platforms, are visual by nature,” she said. “They are ripe for visual content that is attention-grabbing, beautiful, and unique, and is a great opportunity for a fashion brand to shine.

“No promotional campaign today can be truly effective without incorporating some kind of mobile and digital component.”

First stop
The first installment of the Style Wherever You Are campaign was also shot by Mr. Craig.

The campaign images were captured from the Myrdalsjokull glacier in Iceland, a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles and two other areas outside of the two locations (see story).

But this season’s Instagram effort could help take the campaign to a new level.

In fact, other luxury marketers recently stepped up their marketing efforts with new social components.

Department store chain Neiman Marcus incorporated style tips from its Facebook fans into content for its online magazine InSite and an email campaign (see story).

Also, Italian fashion house Gucci leveraged its new Guilty Black campaign with a Facebook app that includes a video and fragrance locator (see story).

“Most of the successful campaign these days activate digital audiences in some ways,” said Yuli Ziv, founder/CEO of Style Coalition, New York. “Asking consumers to share their own style might not be the most original marketing tactic, but is definitely effective in the age of social media.

“We’ve seen similar campaigns targeting the women’s demographic, but not many targeting stylish men,” she said. “Inspiring the audience with beautifully produced photographs is a good idea and will probably result in a user generated content of a good quality.”

“It would be smart for Mr Porter to activate influencers as conversation-starters to help spread the message of the campaign and its interactive component to their followers.”

Final Take
Tricia Carr, editorial assistant on Luxury Daily, New York

Tricia Carr is an editorial assistant on Luxury Daily. Her beats are apparel and accessories, arts and entertainment, education, food and beverage, fragrance and personal care, government, healthcare, home furnishings, jewelry, legal/privacy and nonprofits. Reach her at tricia@napean.com.