Audrey Bazanella, journalist at Fashion Daily News, has published a relevant survey on participatory marketing in fashion universe… Given to the many examples, one might be tempted to say that this market is far more advanced than any others on the establishment of collaborative displays.

Here are some extracts from the article:

When the customer becomes a creative
To nourish the relationship between them to their customers, brands are increasingly tend to sollicit them for creation. Episodically and in a limited area.  But the initiatives are proliferating and the degree of involvement raises the temperature.
[...] Previously alloted to a status of a buyer, the customer is becoming increasingly active in the brands communication. Diversity of calls for entries on the online platform Eyeka, from Generali to Direct Energy through La Halle aux Chaussures and Lulu Castagnette, is a good tool for measuring  the growing interest in participatory marketing. “By appropriating the speech, people are becoming ambassadors of the brands,” says Gildas Piquet-FRIBOULET, the platform Communication Manager . It was precisely the effect sought by the Italian label Energy, that launched last year a video contest for his 20 years, asking film makers to resume its original values, based on the opposition between different creative universes. “They were so surprised by the richness of the CGM, [...], they have released a DVD inserted in the fashion magazines”, reminisces Gildas Piquet-FRIBOULET.

(Editor’s note: Here is the video of the contest winner to illustrate this point …)

For some brands, the willingness to involve the client is now one step climb up, trusting him even for the essence of their profession, their product.  Carnet de Vol and New Balance have recently tried the experiment. For its 20th anniversary, the label textile for men asked Internet users to draw T-shirts and then, asked its loyalest customers to elect the five winners. Visible results in the brand shops next May. [...]

A network of non-professional users
So how can we let the consumer take the reins of a brand? [...] (To be followed on Fashion Daily News)