MostContagious2012.pdf - Contagious Magazine

iMage sharing /
the year of
photo
Social Shopping /
Much like early efforts on Facebook and Twitter, brands that aligned
their visual social media strategies with people’s behaviour on the
platforms fared best. These either provided seamless added utility,
or entertainment and relevant information. Many brands nonetheless
simply posted ad-like content, missing the point entirely of a
mood board to aggregate inspiration.
Highlights on Pinterest included online fashion retailer ASOS’s
simple strategy of using the site as an editorial newsfeed: posting
catwalk trends, celebrity news and more across its 23 boards.
Better still was fashion brand Oscar de la Renta’s campaign, in
which it live-pinned the catwalk show of its bridal collection, tapping
the site’s heavily female-skewed demographic and the large number
of bridal-themed boards.
Other smart executions created tools to maximise the convenience
of the online pinboard: interiors magazine House Beautiful’s
print campaign let people pin directly to Pinterest via their smartphone,
for example. Gucci meanwhile cannily unveiled pinnable
online banner ads that led to the brand’s ecommerce site. Online
shoe retailer Zappos focused on Pinterest’s role as virtual wish list.
It’s gearing up for the Christmas retail bonanza with a service called
Pinpointing, which lets people enter a loved one’s Pinterest username
to get gift suggestions based on their pinning activity.
pinterest.com/asos
pinterest.com/oscarprgirl/bridal
pinterest.com/gucci
pinpointing.apps.zappos.com
Ones to Watch /
While the big three visual social networks work on monetising
content through brand partnerships, three youngsters have taken
a more explicitly commercial approach from the off. Social shopping
start up Svpply brings together influencers, retailers and shoppers.
It provides a real-time stream of images of products curated
by members from across the web, personalised to each user based
on their social network on Facebook, who they follow on the site,
and their interests. Influential Svpply’ers tapping the ‘Want’ button
are then offered deals directly by retailers who have partnered with
them.
In September eBay bought Svpply to bolster its personalisation
and curation capabilities. Reflecting the influence of visual social
networks, the world’s biggest online marketplace has since subtly
changed its homepage to ape Svpply and Pinterest’s personalised,
image-rich aesthetic. Working along the same curation lines, Svpply
rival Fancy has around two million users. Affiliated brands bid to sell
people products they’ve earmarked on the site.
Rather than build a proprietary system, in-stream commerce app
Chirpify (launched this year) aims to piggyback Instagram’s API. It
lets people enter their payment details, then buy directly from the
Instragram stream by simply putting the word ‘Buy’ in the comments
under any photo with the #InstaSale hashtag.
svpply.com
www.thefancy.com
chirpify.com
MOVEMENTs purpose sErVicE data technology design social biz sharing amplified screens augmented retail personalise new loyalty payment sbpf
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