By Philip Guarino, Elementi Consulting

The fast-evolving world of digital marketing has undergone profound changes over the past year. 2012 will offer us some even more interesting developments.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Content will trump craftiness
• Influencer Management: A new kind of celebrity is born
• Mobile and Tablet: Leapfrogging
• Facebook: Watch those marketing budgets shift
• Video: Emotional and Viral
• Internationalization and Localization: Relevance Rules

For us, E-/MOTIONAL/, the most interesting “trend” is this one:

Video: Emotional and Viral

2012 is likely to be a banner year for video. Infinitely more emotional than text, video is a rich medium that fits perfectly within an ever more social web. 85% of Americans watch videos online, and they watch a lot of them too– over 1.3 billion (yes, billion) videos a day. Studies that show far higher levels of engagement and customer conversion among brands that use video on their websites. We will see the giant of the pack, YouTube, with its new organization and improved functionality make content creation and sharing easier- effectively solidifying its role among social sharing platforms. And innovative firms such as Boston’s Vsnap, whose technology allows users to create and send short video messages will tap into the democratization of content creation and desire for more dynamic sharing. Expect video advertising to grow significantly as it is a far less crowded a space than television.

Finally, 2012 may be the year in which video-powered social shopping technologies like (e)-motional, a tool that allows users to click on, share and purchase items without ever leaving a video, begin to catch on.

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2-nd Sportswear International E-Fashion Summit

22.11.2011, Steigenberger Hotel Metropolitan, Frankfurt / Main

The power of “e” – How to establish and sell your brand via web or smartphone

It’s round two for the Sportswear International E-Fashion Summit. An indispensable must for everybody in the industry who truly accepts the challenge to perform successfully online and mobile.

The Topics
• Hot stores and brands online – Highlights, developments and strategies
• Trends in e-commerce – How will the new retail landscape look like and what does this
mean for key participants and investors?
• Trade shows and showrooms – Where to present your brand online
• Local, social, mobile, online – How to sell today
• Tools of brand making, brand selling and brand advertising –
How to create an overall image of your brand in the online world
• Talkable brands – Commitment in times of non-binding nature
• Like, click and buy – How to turn a fan into a loyal consumer
• Shopping 3.0 – Outlook of retail and e-shopping. What is the recipe of e-success?
• Social media for fashionistas – How to get in touch with your brand’s consumers
• Facebook vs. Google+ – How many social networks does a fashion brand need?
• Fashion shopping experience – How to create customized and branded storefronts on
Facebook

MORE INFO, PROGRAM DOWNLOAD

E-(MOTIONAL) INTERACTIVE VIDEO TECHNOLOGY will be presented at the summit.

Marina Garzoni, Andrey Golub are the speakers!

Tg2 – Dossier: SFILATE DEMOCRATICHE

di Mariella Milani.

E’ cominciata la lunga stagione delle sfilate di moda. Un rito che si ripete da decenni, la vetrina dell’industria del lusso che ancora, nonostante la crisi, fattura miliardi. Ma qualcosa nel mondo della moda è cambiato. Oggi è possibile trovare le griffe anche nei grandi magazzini o sul web con collezioni studiate per un pubblico, soprattutto giovane, che non può spendere troppo ma non vuole rinunciare al gusto e alle novità. La chiamano “moda democratica”, un’autentica rivoluzione che, complice la crisi dei consumi, sta trasformando l’industria della moda. Basta navigare su internet per scoprire un mondo in cui le nuove tendenze sono scovate e lanciate in tempo reale dai blogger e dove la moda è in vendita a prezzi molto accessibili. E qualcuno si chiede già che ne sarà del mondo dorato ed elitario delle sfilate.

Providing seamless multi-channel customer experience has become the mantra of luxury brands, says Milton Pedraza, CEO of Luxury Institute.

Wealth and Luxury Trends 2011 and Beyond

Milton Pedraza, CEO, Luxury Institute

As the luxury industry enters the last quarter of 2010 and prepares for 2011, executives are grateful for what could have been a worse year considering the state of the world’s economy. The truly global top-tier luxury brands are surging in China, while holding their own in the US, Japan, and Europe. Leading public companies have done much better than privately-owned brands by using their heritage, innovation, and resources to gain market share. Many family-owned European brands, rich with history but lacking innovation, have suffered and are desperately looking for capital. Overall, the industry has seen tepid growth; this trend is likely to continue for the next three years unless some unforeseen, and highly unlikely, positive event occurs and saves the global economy.

Meanwhile, many luxury executives have not been standing still. Stripped of its facade by the combination of a severe recession and the dawning of the age of transparency, the luxury industry has been fighting hard to maintain its relevancy. Behind the scenes, several companies have already conducted some direly needed soul-searching that has begun to pay off. Here are seven trends that all luxury brands should follow in 2011:

1. Luxury CRM Culture Dramatically Supersedes Operational CRM
2. Focus on Brand Values and Service Values
3. Luxury Purges its Out-of-Touch, Arrogant Staffs
4. Man the Websites!
5. Clienteling Goes from a Hobby to a Discipline
6. Luxury Mobile Applications Come of Age
7. Luxury Equips Sales Professionals with In-Store Mobile Devices

More info and DETAILS: http://luxurysociety.com/

We find this reading very interesting now, in the middle of 2010, when the big crisis and its related downs and fails looks mostly the past (?).

A quote from “Strength by luxury goods shoppers in Asia and online bring glimmers of hope to beleaguered industry, says Bain & Company in release of annual worldwide market study“, Bain & Company press release 10/21/09.

Bain concluded the presentation with its prediction of 10 global luxury trends for the coming decade starting in 2010:

1. Younger consumers and new groups such as working women will become the dominant segments as baby boomers age and retire
2. Aspiration will evolve into new relationships with brands as consumers look to fill different emotional needs with their luxury purchasing
3. Retail networks and product offerings will see greater and greater customization by country and even by city-one size fits all has stopped working
4. Growth in China, South Asia and Central Asia may cause Asia to overtake Europe and the Americas as the largest global luxury market region
5. Asia’s diversity (more than 15 countries, more than 300 cities, and more than 50 million consumers) will stretch luxury brands’ marketing and supply chain capabilities
6. Market pressures in a turbulent recovery will drive a second wave of luxury consolidation
7. New luxury players will emerge as tastes and consumers change, including brands based in emerging market companies
8. The luxury shopping experience will transform as direct-owned stores, department stores and outlets look for ways to draw in the decade’s new luxury shoppers
9. Online retail is still in its infancy, but quickly becoming more than a niche
10. Retailers will treat new shoppers as “in play,” and offer competitive products to those produced by typical luxury brand.

Did it work, the prediction by Bain of the last October? You judge!