11
Feb

LOVE HURTS [YOUR WALLET]

Posted by: John Capps in: Data Visualization , Data Visualization Infographics , market research No Comments on LOVE HURTS [YOUR WALLET]

Valentine’s Day is this week, so I hope everyone has been saving up for the big day. According to WalletHub, shoppers will likely spend over $27.4 billion on Valentine’s gifts in 2020, making Valentine’s Day the second most expensive holiday among U.S. consumers.

However, we should be careful not to overextend ourselves financially in the name of love. According to WalletHub’s 2020 Valentine’s Day Spending Survey, 4 in 10 people agree irresponsible spending is a bigger turn-off than bad breath and over one-half would not marry someone with bad credit. So, while chocolate, flowers, and fancy gifts are great, it appears financial responsibility is a bigger turn-on. We hope everyone is prepared for Valentine’s Day this year, but before you deplete your bank account, remember, the greatest gift is love (at least according to 86% of those surveyed).

29
Jan

A Glance at the Past to Inspire the Future

Posted by: Amy Castelda in: knowledge , market research No Comments on A Glance at the Past to Inspire the Future

A new year and new decade is upon us! Classic Blue 19-4052 is the Pantone color of the year (just look around), a deep shade that “represents the sky at dusk and what’s ahead.” For the Chinese, it’s the Year of the Rat, representing “the beginning of a new day.”

For W5, it’s a new decade and a time of anticipation―further exploring the world, providing understanding to the intricacies and nuance in human behavior. Given this, we thought we’d take a moment to look back at some 2019 highlights before forging into 2020:

  • One of America’s storied QSR restaurant brands engaged W5 to inform and guide a path forward into the world of plant-based protein options. W5 conducted exploratory qualitative research through a series of dinner discussions groups. These semi-structured, peer-to-peer discussions provided directional consumer insights to expand their menu for customers seeking non-meat options.

  • Partnering with a leading coffee producer available at retail and their advertising agency, W5 developed a quantitative behavioral segmentation identifying audience drivers, behaviors, and opportunities for understanding and communicating with the diverse spectrum of consumers in their product portfolio.

  • A legacy CPG brand and their advertising agency sought to consolidate and unify brand measurement to provide holistic periodic overview of their brand’s health to inform strategic positioning and marketing investment. W5 developed a customized, humanistic brand health initiative, encompassing quantitative metrics and qualitative interactive “Brand Humanity” exercises, that elicited instinctive emotional responses toward brand affiliation.

  • A global Fortune 100 CPG client was interested in designing an agile ideation process to kick start innovation for the cereal category. W5 leveraged a three-phased approach: an innovation workshop, followed by illustrated refinement of generated concepts, then collaboration with consumers to capture reactions and further refine concepts for future product development.

  • A premier luxury gift retailer sought to explore shopper attitudes and behaviors to understand their emotional need states and subsequent considerations when deciding on gifts―be it a satisfying or challenging experience. W5 developed a multi-modal qualitative, quantitative, and secondary research plan to capture considerations that shape decision making around gifting within the brand’s retail environments, both in-store and online.

We hope our noteworthy work in 2019 will inspire new ideas for you in 2020!

21
Jan

Volunteer’s Value

Posted by: Jonathan Morris in: Blog , culture , infographics No Comments on Volunteer’s Value

I recently joined the W5 culture committee―an employee committee tasked with building strong relationships within W5 and the community. This year the W5 team set the goal of increasing our commitment to serving and volunteering in Durham.

Which begs the question―why is it important that businesses play an active role in our communities? Research from United Health Group shows that not only is volunteering great for personal health, but it can be an incredible catalyst for building teams and learning new skills.

W5 believes not only can we be an agent of good in our community, but those around us can have a positive impact on our business as well. Our culture committee is on the lookout for fun, creative ways to get involved in 2020, so please reach out if you have any ideas you’re especially excited about. We always love new ideas!

08
Jan

The Big Picture in High-Tech

Posted by: Tom Daly in: knowledge , technology No Comments on The Big Picture in High-Tech

I am a BIG fan of macroeconomics. Macroeconomics tells the whole story of an economy, without getting caught up in the nuance of in-the-moment events or irrelevant small instances that cloud perception around the truth of human behavior. Trying to sift through today’s opinions and daily rumblings, I find relying on macroeconomics comforting.

Macroeconomic theory, as you know, focuses on the behavior and subsequent performance of society as a whole; macroeconomics doesn’t sweat the small stuff. Rather, it assesses aggregate changes in the economy such as unemployment, inflation, GDP, etc. – the things that really matter.

A great case in point is a macroeconomic factoid I came across regarding high-tech. We read about how high-tech is changing our lives every day in ways we never imagined. We also read how high-tech is transforming cities and towns, large and small. Cities like Austin and Raleigh/Durham are often written about as “new tech hubs for today’s Millennials.” At the same time New York City is being penned as an East Coast hub for the likes of Facebook, Alphabet, and even Amazon. I’m sure you have your own story to add to this list.

Unfortunately, macroeconomics has shown that high-tech only really matters to our economy if you live in one of five U.S. cities: Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, or Seattle. No where else. It may be personally relevant to you, or make a good story, but if you live anywhere other than these five cities high-tech is not a game-changer.

Why? Because macroeconomics, as outlined in a recent Wall Street Journal article, cites that according to research conducted by The Brookings Institution and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, that 90% of all high-tech job growth over the past decade has occurred solely in these five cites. That’s it! Everything else you read is fluff. The truth of macroeconomics has spoken – an ever-increasing concentration of high-tech resources has occurred in but five U.S. cities. Cities such as Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and Philadelphia are made irrelevant, i.e., with a net loss of high-tech jobs this past decade.  All the other cities, combined, account for only ten percent of high-tech job growth. Divide this ten percent across the nation’s other 377 metro areas and the growth per metro is negligible, at best.

What does this mean? It means these five cities will likely emerge as our centers of excellence as the century progresses. These are the five places where innovation and talent will commingle to change today’s world. New ways of living, working, consuming, and generally behaving will emerge from these five cities. The others will, in varying degrees, ape them and follow along. Some, such as Washington D.C. may catch up due to the new Amazon HQ2 set to soon open, as well as all the spiraling government space/defense-tech resources that spill over the Potomac. New York City is tough to bet against, yet the city seems at odds with itself with chronic congestion. The others?

It’s a sobering statistic and I still have trouble getting my head around it, given all the hype I read about other places. But this goes to show the power of the pen, digital or otherwise, to persuade. Plan accordingly!

10
Dec

Podcast Recs from W5

Posted by: Amy Castelda in: advertising , branding , culture , market research , study No Comments on Podcast Recs from W5

Today there are more than 115,000 English-language podcasts available on the internet. Not only are podcasts a great source for learning and entertainment, companies and brands see the untapped value of expanding into podcasting. Building recognition for certain SEO keywords, appealing to people who like to listen instead of read and offering a weekly reason for listeners to come back and engage with the brands are just a few.

With the holidays upon us and road trips, airport lounging and long flights on the horizon, we wanted to share a list of our favorite podcasts here at W5, along with a few others.

The Unconventionals is PJA’s award-winning podcast tells the stories of brands and business leaders doing business the other way

Radiolab is a show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.

99% Invisible with Roman Mars is a Tiny Radio Show about design, architecture and the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world. Check out Mars’ recent Ted Talk, too: Why City Flags May Be the Worst Designed Thing You’ve Ever Noticed.

Undisclosed is a listening experience that reframes, enhances or otherwise shifts everything you’ve come to know about the State of Maryland’s case against Adnan Syed, especially as you’ve come to know it through listening to Serial. (Highly recommend listening to Serial Season 1 first.)

Hidden Brain by NPR’s social scientist correspondent is a conversation about life’s unseen patterns

Stuff Mom Never Told You is the podcast from HowStuffWorks that gets down to the business of being women from every imaginable angle. Fueled by boundless curiosity and rigorous research, gender experts Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin skillfully decode the biology, psychology and sociology of ladies and gents.

You Must Remember This is a podcast created, hosted and produced by Karina Longworth, exploring the secret and/or forgotten histories of 20th Century Hollywood.

Pop Rocket is a high-octane weekly discussion of the culture we all love to love. Join host Guy Branum and the Pop Rocket team to keep up-to-date on what’s most exciting in pop culture this week.

WTF with comedian Marc Maron who tackles the most complex philosophical question of our day – WTF? He’ll get to the bottom of it with help from comedian friends.

And, because this is a blog about the “art to the science of market research,” here are the top five podcasts recommend for our clients: market researchers and strategist/planners:

  1. HBR IdeaCast: The Harvard Business Review has long been regarded as the leading resource for business research, and their Podcast doesn’t miss a beat on this. You can’t go wrong when some of its guests include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, as well as a slew of Harvard business professors and Wall Street exemplars.
  2. Data Gurus Podcast: Hosted by Sima Vasa, co-founder of Paradigm Sample and Infinity Squared Ventures, Sima brings a real-life perspective on what’s happening in the research industry and how successful companies and individuals in this niche navigate through the sea of change.
  3. Insightrix Podcast: Hosted by Duncan McGregor, the Insightrix Podcast shares informative stories and entertaining narratives within the field of market research. They interview international research and business leaders on B2B issues of interest to market research and marketing firms, marketers, business leaders, social scientists, public policy makers, business and academic researchers and more.
  4. Son of a Pitch: Two young strategists unpack the world of advertising, with the industries best planners and creatives. Expect interesting problems, lots of advice, and a whole lotta fun.
  5. Sweatheads: How do you get good at strategy? With over 300,000 listens, Sweathead tries to answer this question. Each episode helps thinkers realize they’re not alone and that thinking takes practice.

What’s in store for podcasting in 2020? Check out 20 Podcast Predictions for 2020 from Top Industry Leaders by Pacific Content to find out.

Happy listening!

07
Nov

Retail’s Task in Reimagining The Global Consumer

Posted by: Tom Daly in: culture , knowledge No Comments on Retail’s Task in Reimagining The Global Consumer

I recently wrote a blog on the opening of two large retail spaces in the U.S., Hudson Yards and American Dream Meadowlands. Both should put to rest the argument that retail is ‘dead.’ Retail is, however, quickly moving away from its strictly transactional nature to reimagined experiential moments for the consumer―fulfilling a desire, instead of simply a need or want.

If one looks closely enough, you’ll see experiential retail has always been present, dating back a century or more to the roots of department stores. When I think of the truly great retail emporiums of the world, most of them still exist, and are thriving. More importantly, each continues to play a decisive a role in defining and shaping―both visually and experientially―what it is to ‘be’ say a Londoner, Parisian, Berliner, or Tokyoite, respectively.

I’ve had the pleasure to visit each of them and personally experience their majesty in turning a transactional retail exchange into an enduring pleasurable memory. Each is a destination, and not simply a store, for travelers worldwide. Most importantly, while one can easily bring up their respective websites, browse, click, and purchase, these grand dames are best experienced the old-fashioned way―through the polished front doors and down the wide aisles. These brands endure with meaning and purpose:

Harrods, London

One can make a case that Harrod’s is the most famous retail store in the world and is by far the largest. Nearly two hundred years old, with over twenty-seven restaurants and spanning 330 different departments, the store is a massive five acres, complete with its own zip code.

Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, Paris

Over 125 years old, the flagship Parisian store is topped by a ten-story steel dome replete with stained glass that colors the floors below, where weekly fashions shows are held for customers, free of charge. It’s reach is broad, with branch stores scattered as far away as China and Indonesia.

KaDaWe, Berlin

The largest department store on the European Continent has endured difficult times. The 120-year-old store survived Nazi Germany and the war itself, despite an American plane crashing directly into it, exploding in flames when it was shot down in battle! Then, over half its customers and employees were kept away for thirty years when the Berlin Wall was constructed. Today the store is busier than ever, with over 50,000 consumers from around the world visiting daily.

Isetan, Tokyo

The flagship 130-year-old store located in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo is as much a tourist destination as a retail destination. It is known as a trend-setter in both fashion and food, often carrying new lines and items well before other innovative stores. Being a cultural incubator has served it well, with branch stores scattered throughout Southeast Asia.

The Future…Here and There

Yet, retail is in a dour state overall, with waves of store closings announced regularly, particularly in America. Perhaps in this age of cost-cutting mania we have strayed too far from the initial ‘wonderment’ of what shopping can be to an ever-persistent drive to achieve ‘value’ at the cost of experience, i.e., a “big box” mentality.

While store closings persist, over the past few years retailers large and small are fighting back and reversing the tide of negative sentiment by casting a fresh lens on shopping. By investing in new ideas retailers are beginning to turn the tide and offering “new” things, not just “newer” ways of doing things.

Nordstrom’s has just opened their seven-floor Manhattan flagship store at Central Park Tower. At 320,000 sq. ft. the company is making a firm commitment to Midtown New York retail. With seven restaurants and a full range of merchandise concepts and shops under one roof, the store is a compelling entry of convenience and choice, even for fashion-forward Manhattanites.

Today’s emporiums and malls located outside world cities can learn a thing or two from these notable retailers, albeit on a much smaller scale. A case in point here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina is University Place, a mall I now frequent almost daily for a wide range of activities―I use its gym and shower in the early morning, might stop in for lunch at a specialty gourmet shop, go for drinks or dinner at one of its new restaurants or bars, or see a movie at their reserve-only seating luxury movie theater. I even get my haircut or the occasional massage right within its walls.

Five years ago, I hardly went into the place. Then, it wasn’t a destination, rather a place full of traditional retail mall-centric stores. Nowadays, it’s quickly evolving into a venue where I can express myself beyond simply buying things I can easily purchase from home. Now I see it as a place that helps make me a better person, i.e., gym, massage, haircut, or just feel better, i.e. food, drinks, or a movie.

The mall is in its next phase of redevelopment that will take a few years to complete. This will bring new buildings that will house residences, offices, and a hotel. More green spaces are planned, including expanding a twice-weekly farmers’ market into a more permanent fixture, as well as green spaces for kids to play and dogs to run; yesterday’s mall, tomorrow’s workplace and home.

This local transformation demonstrates retail doesn’t have to be a crown jewel in a world capital to make a difference. It’s a combination of a lot of little things coming together that matter―this is something both the Harrod’s and University Places of the world are figuring out. Not all will embrace this change; many will falter and wither away, such is the nature of change. In the process, retail is being reevaluated, reinterpreted, and redefined, but definitely not disappearing.

05
Nov

2019 StratFest At-A-Glance

Posted by: Amy Castelda in: advertising , Conference , knowledge No Comments on 2019 StratFest At-A-Glance

The 2019 StratFest recently took place in New York with a “Power to The People” theme and top-notch lineup of industry experts and hands-on workshops. Keynotes ranged from Linda Yaccarino, Chairman, Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal to YouTube Creator Ingrid Nilsen. Over the course of three days, we celebrated the strategy community and saw awe-inspiring case studies from the 2019 4A’s Jay Chiat Awards winners. Overall, the key message was the need to swing the pendulum back towards staying human in the age of technology and data.

Given this theme, there was no better keynote to kickoff the event than Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Growth Officer, Publicis Groupe. His session, Welcome to The Era Of The Empowered Citizen Marketing To The Globally Conscious, Highly Connected Content Consumer, explored the new marketing ecosystem and how strategists need to reframe their thinking in this new age. Tobaccowala reminds us “if you optimize only for the consumer, you optimize for your destruction because people are people, not consumers.” He goes on to illustrate by stating “we forget people choose with their hearts and then use data to justify that choice” and cautions strategists not to lean on the idea data told someone to do something. If you do, you’ll find yourself outsourced by a spreadsheet. Tobaccowala elaborates on this idea, and much more, in his soon to be released book Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data.

In addition to a handful of keynote speakers, one of the most advantageous learning opportunities the StratFest offers are hands-on workshops. This year topics ranged from Planning In The Age Of Voice detailing actionable steps marketers can take to get involved in the voice space to Succeeding In The New Amazon Economy breaking down how Amazon is changing how brands sell products to customers and how brands can leverage Amazon’s evolution into a full funnel closed loop marketing platform.

One workshop that stood out for relevance and actionability was Mindsets Over Matter: Evolving Personas for Inclusivity and Reduced Bias In The Brief by Hunter Sunrise, Director, Business Strategy and Liston Pitman, Strategic Planner, McGarrah Jessee. We know audiences are craving authenticity from brands. But when bias and tropes are not considered in the briefing process, products and campaigns are released that do anything but offer authenticity. Sunrise reminds us as strategists, our job to bring human truth from the street into the boardroom and for that reason, we must evolve personas for inclusivity and reduce bias in the brief.

The workshop explored alternate persona-building methodologies that focus on mindsets, need states, and archetypes in an effort to reduce bias and create more inclusive and multi-dimensional audience descriptions that inform the creative briefing process. We know a strategist is only as good as the questions they ask, and therefore the best way to evolve our thinking is to evolve the questions we ask. One way is to make sure the audience and their needs are addressed in the question. For example, a few evolved questions might include:

CURRENT QUESTIONS

EVOLVED QUESTIONS

Get: [Audience] To: [Objective] By: [Strategy]

Get: [Audience + Need] To: [Objective] By: [Strategy]

How would a brand about [positioning] solve [business/marketing problem]?

How would a brand about [positioning] solve [consumer need/problem] for [audience]?

What are they thinking, feeling, and doing?

What do we want them to?

How do we get them there?

What are they thinking, feeling, and doing?

In a more favorable situation, what would they be?

How can we support making that a reality?

Additional ways to evolve our thinking and be stronger, more inclusive strategist is to uncover our own biases. One interesting why to do this is to look at what your inner circle looks like, and how that might be impacting your perspectives. To illustrate this, take a piece of paper and list 6-9 names of people you trust (not including family members). Now, across the top write gender, age, ethnicity, education, sexual orientation, ability/disability and other. Next, go down your list of names and check the box if that person is similar to you for each. Is your BFF the same gender, age, ethnicity – check, check, check. Do this for your entire list of names. How similar is your inner circle to you? It might be enlightening what you uncover. To make sure we leave biases and tropes out of the creative briefing process, Sunrise and Pitman provide a few helpful tools to consider:

Tool: Reexamining How You Work

Look around and ask:

  • Are we missing perspectives? Who has a voice? Who has a vote?
  • What current processes need to be adjusted in order to create access?
  • What current assumptions need to be challenged to allow for other perspectives?

Tool: Growing Beyond Biases and Tropes

  1. When defining an audience be aware of preconceptions and association; if someone feels too familiar, you could be leaning on an implicit bias or common trope.
  2. Work to grow relationships outside your familiar sphere—humanizing differences in real life helps dimensionalize audiences in our work.
  3. Withhold judgement of differences while staying committed to accountability for your own inherent biases and perspectives.
  4. Adopt a growth mindset: Welcome multiple perspectives and realities; Use ‘yes, and’ language, 5 whys and open-ended questions to demonstrate curiosity and facilitate others to open up to you

Overall, the event did a great job celebrating the strategy community (a function too often forgotten in the agency ecosystem) and reinvigorated the need for human truth in the creative process. If you’re interested in more highlights and the full list of Jay Chiat Awards winners, check out the 4A’s Post-Event Report. See you at StratFest 2020!

15
Oct

Growing Too Fast

Posted by: Jonathan Morris in: branding , culture , emerging technology , internet , Media , technology No Comments on Growing Too Fast

The Interbrand 100 is every marketers dream—to build a brand so large and well-known that its recognition spans the entire globe. Corporations spend decades and billions of dollars to build this level of awareness among consumers.

Top brands come from a wide variety of industries, but many of the largest brands are no longer confined to one industry. Apple is no longer a purveyor of niche home PCs, but a major player in the entertainment, publishing, software, and telecommunications industries. Amazon, “the everything store,” truly plays in nearly every retail industry. Conglomerates like General Electric have major footprints in a variety of industries, including aviation, energy, and home appliances.

But massive cross-industry brands aren’t built in a day. They’re built slowly over time and with careful precision. Amazon started with books and built out while Apple spent years in the PC market before moving on to other industries. But what happens if a company unabashedly lays claim to a piece of nearly every consumer industry there is?

Enter WeWork, now called The We Company. You’ve probably heard of WeWork, founded in 2010 focused on buying old corporate offices and turning them into the open-concept dream of millennial startups. Recently, the company filed for an Initial Public Offering only to have to rescind the filing after investors balked at their numbers.

Let’s rewind a little and see how the company got to their public offering meltdown. In 2009 Miguel McKelvey and Adam Neumann formulated the idea for WeWork. Neumann came up with the company’s mission statement—“to elevate the world’s consciousness.” A pretty lofty goal, but along with it came lofty brand ambitions. An initial outline of WeWork’s business model shows the company as an interconnected network supporting consumers’ work, day-to-day services, life essentials, social life, health, travel, and philanthropy. Basically, WeWork wanted to touch every part of an average office worker’s life.

The WeWork idea caught like wildfire. Companies from startups to Fortune 500 started leasing offices all across the globe. But Neumann and McKelvey wouldn’t give up their plan to have a company that encompassed an entire life.

The company launched new ventures to enter every aspect of consumers’ lives. Rise by We, a high-end gym chain; WeGrow, a private school for pre and elementary school; and WeLive, which is basically WeWork for housing. The founders pictured a reality where someone lives in a WeLive apartment, exercises at their Live gym, drops their kid off at a WeGrow school, all before heading into their WeWork office.

But the brand grew faster than the business could. When WeWork filed its IPO its financials were unveiled and scrutinized for the first time publicly. It became apparent that not only did the core business have many issues, but the new ventures meant to capture the non-work hours of people’s lives were hemorrhaging money.

Neumann was forced to step down as CEO and the company’s IPO was withdrawn. Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported the company would “look to sell business outside its core leasing operation.” Investors felt these peripheral businesses were detracting from WeWork’s core business of leasing office space. While WeWork in itself was fine, the company tried to expand beyond its core market too quickly and the projects.

So it seems the We Company, the business poised to take over every waking and non-waking hour of a consumer’s life, will retreat to being an upscale corporate realty company once again.

But this begs marketers to wonder how big can a brand get before it is too big? Building a cross-industry, global brand takes time, skill, and knowledge. Maybe one day an all-encompassing brand like WeWork envisioned will exist. Maybe that company will even be WeWork, but for now, the decades- and centuries-old brands rest safely atop the Interbrand 100.

15
Sep

Segmentation to Support Business Growth

Posted by: Andrew Willard in: knowledge , market research , study No Comments on Segmentation to Support Business Growth

Segmentation research has been a core competency at W5 for two decades with experience spanning industries and audiences. From healthcare consumers to volunteer advocates, from impaired drivers to cloud-computing engineers. While the target audience and vertical may vary, the W5 approach to conducting a solid, actionable segmentation is grounded in a blend of art and science.  

Segmentation research explores target consumer markets based on information beyond demographic characteristics and basic category behaviors. In typical market research studies, response variation can be identified based on demographics such as gender, age, ethnicity, region, and income. However, when examining the market as a whole, this method of analysis does not allow the ability to understand and tailor strategies to address the complexity of consumer segments and their decision-making processes.

Segmentation is a valuable research tool to develop and implement more effective strategies for all phases of the marketing process—from product development through advertising campaign messaging.

“We sought expertise in segmentation. Our client’s needs were somewhat complex, compounded by significant justification/documentation just to get the project off the ground. W5 worked closely and diligently with us, provided technical expertise/support, and your project leaders were available for multiple meetings/consultations. The ultimate study and reports have been well-received by the client and its stakeholders.”

– Senior Vice President, Account Planning, The Tombras Group

For a segmentation to be strategically actionable, members of each segment must think and behave similarly to one another while exhibiting attitudes, psychographics, and behaviors different from members of other segments. Additionally, the segments must be based on stable, real-world criteria, making intuitive sense.

W5’s approach to custom, strategic segmentation arms clients with knowledge to:

  • Determine what consumer segments exist and reveal the relative size of each segment
  • Evaluate the potential economic value of each segment
  • Identify the behaviors, attitudes, needs, and underlying psychographics of each segment and how these differ by segment
  • Inform strategies for reaching and relating to segments of greatest opportunity

Each W5 segmentation is customized and can answer a range of business questions. For our client, Rise Against Hunger, the challenge was to uncover actionable insights that would ultimately drive community engagement and financial support in the fight against world hunger. Presented at The Quirk’s Event New York, check out W5’s joint presentation as our client speaks to W5’s research and how clearly defined audience segments were used to inform marketing strategies.

The Role of Segmentation in the Fight to End World Hunger

If you would like to learn more about W5’s research capabilities, or how we can support segmentation needs at your organization or agency, don’t hesitate to reach out. Happy segmenting! 

12
Sep

NYFW Brand Powers, Activate!

Posted by: Kathy Justice in: advertising , branding , Fashion , Media No Comments on NYFW Brand Powers, Activate!

Every September I dream of bumping into Rachel Zoe on a bustling street in TriBeCa and rubbing elbows with Anna Wintour at a post-catwalk cocktail hour during New York Fashion Week (NYFW). Much to my dismay, I’ve never scored an invite to a runway show and my press credentials have grown dusty and outdated. Even though I can’t quite seem to ever make it to the big event, I remain an admirer from afar.

Aside from the return of the billowy, puffy sleeve trend from 2018, one of my 2019 obsessions has been the steady stream of “brand activation” events, featuring creative and sometimes kooky pop-ups to promote products to key influencers. With social media apps, particularly Instagram, bringing us the NYFW world 24/7, brands are smart to showcase their wares alongside the likes of Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty, Prabal Gurung, and Alice + Olivia.

One thing I find special about NYFW brand activation events is the ability of brands to show their wilder side – it’s an opportunity to break out of traditional marketing structures and apply an artistic edge or humorous take on brand identity. It’s more about pleasure, beauty, and the “story” of a brand than business principles and hard-nosed marketing tactics.

Below are a few “brand activations” from this year’s NYFW that really hit the mark:

  • Cheetos House of Flamin’ Hot – A runway show and beauty bar featuring Cheetos-inspired fashion designs by social media fans and curated by fashion influencers and stylists. Fans can get “Cheetos-fied” with salon services inspired by Cheetos flavors, including “Cheetah Tail Braids” and “Chester’s Ombre Kiss.”
  • Fresh Produce’s theCURVYCon – A three-day event and runway show dedicated to the plus size community. The goal is to unite curve enthusiasts in one space to chat, shop, and embrace body positivity for women of all shapes and walks of life. Fresh Produce, a women and children’s lifestyle clothing brand, sponsored the event.
  • Schicks The Baldest Party Ever – A party to celebrate the chic quality of a shaved head, Schick is inviting BIP’s (Bald Important People) to experience a club all of their own featuring luxury “red carpet” shaving stations, DJ-curated pro-bald dance mixes, and special appearances by bald influencers.

Take a peek at some more NYFW brand activation here. What are some of your favorite brand activations events from this year’s festivities? Share them with the W5 team in the comments.

Snack foods can be high fashion.
Snacks are finding their fashion groove at NYFW 2019.

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