Elle Newman

Lane Bryant wasn’t the only company that was outraged with Victoria Secrets campaign, Dove was as well. In 2006 Dove’s advert ‘Evolution’ went viral before viral was even a thing! The advert showed a woman having her picture taken and then how easy it is for her to look completely different after she had been photoshopped this was completely unheard of in 2006 for a brand to show this kind of advert, it was the launch of Dove’s Real Beauty campaign and it’s still going even today and has even been voted the most successful beauty campaign of all time. The advert is shown below.

In 2013 Dove released ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ an advert where they got women to describe what they looked like to an artist, they then drew what the person had described as themselves and then the artist drew what they saw when they looked at the person. This resulted in a completely different image than the ones that the women had described. This advert has become the most watched advert of all time. (The advert is shown below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91UauE

When the company first started the first campaign imagery they ever did was the blue tick billboards. The billboards featured women with two tick boxes options next to them such as ‘Fat?’ or ‘Fit” and ‘Flawed? or Flawless?’ passersby could text their answers and the percentage was shown next to the image on the billboard. 1.5 million people responded to the billboards.

The real beauty campaign responded to the Victoria Secret campaign by shooting women in the exact same way that the victoria secret one was shot, the only difference being that the women Dove used were all different sizes and ethnicities.

I love this campaign I think it is fun and also really important. Dove is one of the only brands in the beauty sector that show real women and have done so since they started. With the Real Beauty campaign being the most successful campaign ever, it was important for me to look into it. I think the billboard idea with the interaction of day to day people is really clever especially that the number was shown on the billboards, that is something that will inspire me in my own campaign, that it’s important that the consumers feel involved and can see themselves making a difference.

In 2015 the underwear designer Lane Bryant launched the #ImnoAngel campaign, this was a direct hit back at the most popular underwear brand Victoria Secret’s ‘The Perfect Body’ campaign that featured supermodels all of which looked identical, with the same body types this campaign got a huge amount of backlash as it not only showed no diversity in race but all the women’s bodies looked the same tall and skinny and with their strapline being ‘The perfect Body’ it gave the message that that is the perfect body that women should be aspiring to.

Lane Bryant like many people were outraged by this campaign so created her own in response, #ImNoAngel as the Victoria Secret models are known as Angels this was clearly a response to them. Lane Bryant’s campaign features a load of beautiful models. The campaign’s aim is to redefine our standards of sexy and beautiful. The campaign was run online mostly through the Lane Bryant website, it also had very strong imagery that was shown not only online but in print on billboards and magazines. Some of the posters and website are shown below.

  

After six months the Victoria Secret campaign had to change its name to ‘A body for everybody’ due to a petition that went around that was signed by over 30,000 people. The hashtag I’m no angel was mentioned 24,219 times since the launch on social media. As well as the positive message the campaign sends they also encouraged people to donate to a charity called ‘I am B.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l’ that dedicates it’s self to building self-esteem and leadership skills in young girls and women. The campaign also gives you the chance to get to know the models on the website where you can read about them and how they have overcome their body issues. The campaign was so successful they have launched another one this year called #PlusIsEqual which is also providing very successful and some images from that campaign are shown below.

I really like this campaign I think it is shot beautifully and the women are stunning. I also think the message they are sending is really positive I want my campaign to evoke the same kind of feelings as this one is doing. This is a really successful online campaign and the fact they have brought it back with a new hashtag shows how well it is doing really.

In 2016 the plus size Canadian brand Addition Elle launched a bold new campaign called F* This during New York fashion week. It was mainly a social media campaign and used seven models, three of which are very well known Ashley Graham, Jordyn Woods and Nadia Aboulhosh. The campaign’s message is about body empowerment, body positivity and fashion democracy. This campaign was launched during New York fashion week, it was showcased on the runway and was also live streamed across there social media platforms. They also released a series of videos to go with the campaign which they put on their website and in America and Canada’s TV adverts. Also as well as being a campaign fronted by famous models the campaign also went along with a collection which was designed by Canadian Social media star Nadia Aboulhosh. I have attached some images from the campaign below as well as one of the TV adverts that went out.

  

I really like this campaign, its fun edgy and current, I also think they use the elements of the marketing mix well, they have a print element in terms of strong campaign imagery, they TV by having an advert, they also picked a good event to show their campaign so that it got the maximum attention, New York, fashion week! They also lived streamed the show on all their social media platforms gaining a huge amount of coverage. I think this is a campaign that I can definitely take inspiration from as it has everything and everything is executed well.

The first group I wanted to look into that I feel get excluded in the fashion industry is the so-called ‘Plus Size’, Plus size is considered anybody who wears clothing from either a size 12 or 14 depending on the shop onwards, some companies like ASOS just call the ranges Curve instead of plus sized. Recently this has been a really hot topic as Tess Holliday a plus-sized model from the US was the October 2018 cover girl for Cosmopolitan. (Pictured Below)

You would think in this day and age that people would be happy to see a ‘real’ women on the cover of a leading fashion magazine, but this was not the case and this cover caused an outcry in the Uk. On the morning news show called Good Morning Britan, they had a huge debate about the cover, and the debates even went on for the whole week with them having another debated called ‘Is it fine to be fat’ which I personally feel is disgraceful.

I am going to look into if there are any campaigns that have been done that promote ‘Normal’ women and if they have been successful. I’m hoping that this research will give me a better understanding of what the fashion industry is doing to try and stop this prejudice and if there is anything that still needs to be done.

From the Banksy and Icy & Sot exhibition, I went to I now know I want my Final Major Project to have some kind message behind it. I love the fashion industry and always have from a really young age, but unfortunately, fashion is always linked to exclusivity. In the past, people who have worked in the industry have excluded certain types of people as they are not seen in the industry’s eyes as beautiful. I think fashion has a chance to bring together all kinds of different people and really change peoples lives as the way you dress is proven to have a huge impact on not only how you feel about yourself but how other people see you and treat you. I have started my research by creating a spider diagram of all the groups of people I think get excluded from the fashion. (You can find the spider diagram below)

From my diagram I have found a number of different groups that I feel get excluded from the fashion industry, these groups are; Plus Size, LGBTQ community, Older Generation, Different races and ethnicities, People with illnesses/ receiving treatment such as cancer, People with disabilities and deformities. I have put a red star next to the ones I am most interested with and want to research further into, these ones are; Plus Size, People with Disabilities and Deformities, People who are unwell and the Older Generation. The reason I am drawn to these ones is that I believe that the fashion industry still to this day does not except that the average size of British women is size 16 and that beauty doesn’t mean skinny. I am interested in People with Disabilities as I feel like they are never really represented or seen in society and in fashion but there are thousands of people who are affected by disabilities all over the world. I have a special interest in people with Illnesses and the older generation as these two have both affected me personally so I feel very strongly about them.  The first one I’m going to look into is Plus Sized as recently this has been in the news, so I feel like it is really relevant at the moment.

While I was in Amsterdam I attended the Laugh Now exhibition at the Moco Museum. The Laugh Now exhibition was about Banksy a legendary anonymous street artist from the UK, the exhibition showcased a lot of his work from the Kissing Policemen, Girl with the ballon and Beanfield painting, which has not been on display since 2009. Having studied Banksey in Art when I was in school I knew a little about him and his work, I knew his artwork were fun and colourful and that they had a strong message about society and the world in them. Banksey is one of the most controversial street artists in the world. Banksy’s art can impact any location at any moment, his identity still remains unknown even though he has been around for over 20 years. The most common form of street art Banksy uses are stencils, these are often in the form of multi-layered spray paint, he also includes anything found on the street such as street signs to help convey his message. His artwork is often satirical and combines dark humour with graffiti and also spread messages across art, philosophy and politics. I have attached some images from the exhibition below.

      

Another exhibition at the Moco Museum was one about Icy and Sot, who before this I had never heard of. Icy and Sot are called the ‘Banksy of Iran’, in their own country their work is not only considered controversial, but it is also banned. The two brothers started doing stencils in 2006, they have been contributed to Iranian and international urban art culture, through their murals, interventions, videos and installations that depict human rights, capitalism, social and political issues. Icy and Sot now live in New York where they have found fame. I really like Icy & Sot’s work it is really thought-provoking and really evokes feelings that are not always nice feelings but sadly what they illustrate is some women’s and people’s lives in the world. I have also attached some photos from the exhibition below.

   

By seeing these two exhibitions I have been inspired to use my Final Major Project as a chance to make a difference and to use my voice as a student to try and change something in the fashion industry. The fashion industry is known for being exclusive, you have to look a certain way, or have a certain amount of money etc which I completely disagree with. Banksy and Icy & Sot have illustrated how you can make a point and difference by art most of which don’t even use words. My next step is to look into the parts of fashion and the fashion industry that I feel are outdated and need to be changed. As I love the fashion industry and want other people to feel the same way too.

I have been struggling to come up with an idea for my project, so I have decided to start by looking at what exactly a 360° campaign is.

A 360° campaign is a combination of platforms being used either online or in print that all convey the same message. A 360° marketing campaign might be used in a  company when they are either launching a new product or campaign or changing an old one. A 360° campaign is focused on capitalizing on catching the target market. The 360° marketing campaign uses its channels simultaneously to try and get people’s attention. This could be from sending personal emails to texts to adverts on the television or in magazines. The most successful campaigns will use most of it not all of the elements in the marketing mix. (I have illustrated the 360° marketing bubble, which you can see below. This shows all the different platforms that can be used in the marketing campaign.)

Next, I looked at companies that have used the 360° marketing mix successfully, to see if I could learn anything from them. The first company I looked into was Coca-Cola, in 2011 Coca-Cola realized they were down in sales in Austraila so decided to launch a new campaign ‘Share a Coke’. Coke knew that people love personalization, and so used the most popular 250 Australian names on their bottles and cans.  This was a huge success with a 7% increase in coke sales, so in 2014 they decided to roll the campaign out worldwide. They then started adding not just names but popular jargon, song lyrics and when the world cup was on they used countries names. They promoted there product in print with billboards and magazines, they used events by setting up pop up stores with interactive content and Social Media by starting hashtag trends such as ‘help us add names’ and you could even order bottles with messages and names on. This was a huge success for Coca-Cola as they saw a 2.5% increase in sales.

The next campaign I looked at was ‘This girl can’. The campaign’s aim was to inspire more women to exercise and was funded by the National Lottery. The campaign used all the marketing mix, it had an upbeat TV advert, strong social media presence, and print marketing such as posters. This resulted in 1.6 million women starting to exercise, the 90 second ‘This girl can advert’ has been watched more than 37 million times on Facebook and youtube alone. The campaign also has a social media community of 500,000 and there have been 660,000 tweets about it to date.

 

 

I now know what a 360° campaign is and by researching these two campaigns that successfully used the 360° marketing campaign. These two campaigns have shown me what my campaign needs to look like and how to use all the marketing mix elements coherently in order to have a successful campaign.