Archive for October 2006

Marilyn Kirschner’s Daily Fashion Report blog today is all about the 10th annual Accessories Council Excellence Awards event last night, created in 1996 as a way to “pay homage to those
individuals and groups that have made great strides in raising the awareness of
the accessories industry. The purpose of the awards is to celebrate those who
have had a positive impact on accessory sales during the prior year.”

Winners this year included Fendi for ‘Brand of the
Year’;
“O”, The Oprah Magazine, ‘Magazine of the Year’,
Rachel Zoe won a
‘Fashion Influencer’ Award (you just can’t get away from her LA boho clones at the moment); Tom Ford won an award for Accessory Brand Launch; and Jennifer Lopez for the overall ACE award, which I can only assume translates to the award for the individual who has spent the most on jewellery this year. Suzy Menkes won the Marylou Luther Award for Fashion Journalism, and apparently turned up sporting a cane- necessary due to a broken toe but conveniently packaged as a new accessory.

The most interesting part of the report however is a quote from Ms Menkes who ‘ was thrilled to
be given the award and observed, “Accessories are where it’s at now.
Who thinks about the clothes? It’s all about the accessories.” ‘ - As one of the most important critical voices in fashion, a statement like that is one well worth listening to.

Other points of interest in the article include how many of the guests factored the
theme of the evening into their choice of dress-

"Many of those who wore black (and they were out in force), used the
non color as a perfect foil to make their interesting bags or shoes stand out…
Proving that certain accessories never go out of style and always look great,
the one woman who really caught my eye was wearing a simple knee length scoop
neck black dress and accessorized with masses of long pearls (another ongoing
‘trend’ as of late)."

read the full report
the Accessories Council

To combat the local movie bootleg market (which continues to improve in
quality and sophistication), films in China and Hong Kong are being
released in legal DVD formats simultaneously with theatrical
screenings. The price premium of an authorized DVD has been reduced as
well in an attempt to lure buyers into "trading up."

An original copy
now costs around RMB 13 compared to a RMB 9 counterfeit. To offset the
reduction in premium, the new DVDs are front-loaded with advertising.
For instance, Motorola put an ad for their new Moto Krzr phone in The Banquet DVD.

Perhaps a modified product placement rate structure for DVDs/online video will also
be considered in the future?

Harvey Nichols has launched its first Turkish store amid the rapidly growing fashion market in
Istanbul, quietly opening its doors earlier this month in the new state-of-the-art luxury shopping mall, Kanyon. The store is the fifth extension outside the UK,
after the exclusive stores in Riyadh, Hong Kong, Dublin and Dubai.

According to the Harvey Nichols press release-

‘Unitim, a leading and diversified Istanbul based business group, has
signed an exclusive licence agreement with Harvey Nichols Group for
Turkey.
"We are delighted to announce our partnership with the world-renowned
Harvey Nichols Group, at the prestigious Kanyon Levent. It is our
endeavor to make a firm commitment to bringing the best brands to
Turkey and strengthen its image as the premier global destination for
shopping and tourism," said Burç Cemiloglu, Chairman and CEO of Unitim
Group’

As it-boy designer Zac Posen said on his recent party tour of the country "A lot of larger global companies are setting up here, it’s where the East and West meet" (and also happens to be the home of his recent collaboration with Turkish womenswear retail emporium Vakko!). But Posen makes a valid point, and as brands strive to understand how to adapt for the financially rewarding middle eastern market Istanbul is definitely a place to watch.

check out the Kanyon website which has a stewardess directing you around the site and an ipod menu so you can choose your music whilst you browse

Shocker: Does The Sun’s apparent move to cover green issues represent a real shift in eco-consciousness? Sure, this week British tabloid The Sun has featured global warming editorial written by Tony Blairbut could we conclude that this is really a shift? Well consider this: The Sun now offers Eco Tips given by a Page 3 Stunner!!

For those of you who may be unaware, The Sun has a delightful section each day where they present a topless girl as a ‘Page 3′ stunner. Today it’s Kelly Hazell and she’s been crowned by the paper as their very own, “green glamour queen”. She’s giving tips like turn off the lights during sex and, erm, car-sharing to meet dates.

The Sun Online - News: Keeley Hazell’s ten green tips

[Update: The image of lovely Kelly has been covered up subsequent to posting because our nervous ad-sales team think their puritan American advertising clients might find a pair of breasts offensive. Crikey…. we’re turning more and more mainstream everyday… what do you think we should have done?]

Circulation of newspapers has dramatically fallen over the last six months. Over all, average daily circulation dropped by 2.8 percent compared with the same period last year and circulation for Sunday papers fell by 3.4 percent. The NY Times highlights some of the biggest losers:

The Los Angeles Times lost 8 percent of its daily circulation and 6 percent on Sunday. The Boston Globe, owned by The New York Times Company, lost 6.7 percent of its daily circulation and almost 10 percent on Sunday.

The New York Times, one of the few big papers where circulation had held steady over the last few reporting periods, lost about 3.5 percent of its circulation both daily and Sunday. The Washington Post’s declines were nearly the same. The Wall Street Journal’s daily paper fell by less than 2 percent but its Weekend Edition, which comes out on Saturday, reported a 6.7 percent drop.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times is reportedly on course to make a double-digit profit and ts parent company Pearson says that it will produce a record result this year. The Independent reports:

At the FT, which has emerged from a severe downturn that plunged the newspaper into losses, advertising revenues climbed 10 per cent in the period. The title just broke into the black last year, with a £2m profit. Analysts said that yesterday’s update indicated that the newspaper will make some £13m in 2006.

The company said that the FT had attracted advertisers as a result of its global reach and “a series of product innovations” in print and online, such as a revamped How To Spend It quarterly magazine to go with the newspaper.

BL Ochman spots an interesting development at Coke where they seem to have bypassed the old ad agency model to deliver a marketing campaign. A few months ago Coke was criticized by the marketing community for not acting on a fad where films were posted on YouTube where kids would put a mentos candy in a bottle of Coke to fizz it up (and often bounce it).

The original film was produced by Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz and Coke has now turned to these guys to create a whole new campaign for them. BL says:

The extraordinary thing is that Grobe and Voltz created the promo for the contest — not an ad agency. Two total unknowns hijacked the Coke brand and gave it back to them in better shape. Coke was stunned, but they saw the light.

Coke has partnered with Grobe and Voltz’ independent production company, Eepybird.com. That’s a sea change for advertising, corporate sponsorship, and creative expression.

Their new campaign can be found here.

Over on Gizmodo, Brian L Clark writes an in- depth piece on the fate and fortunes of the video-recorder Tivo. He suggests that Tivo hasn’t been able to maintain its growth and now needs to look to advertisers to ensure that the technology is not consigned to history:

Frankly, TiVo’s 4.5 million subscribers can only take it so far. And the cost of acquiring new subs has increased by nearly 50 percent in the last year. Not good, particularly since the vast majority of its current subscribers came from the recently ended partnership with DirecTV. As a result, analyst Michael Kelman of Susquehanna Financial says TiVo’s best long-term prospects are in advertising. Ah, sweet irony–the service that allowed you to skip ads now needs advertising to survive. All that remains is to convince media buyers TiVo really has found the religion.

Point: How is TiVo Doing After Launching Series 3? - Gizmodo:

Josh Spear was in Las Vegas last night to watch the unveiling of a new car that has been inspired(?) by American chat-show host and car lover Jay Leno. Spear reports:

These shots are from the unveiling of his new brain child, the Eco Jet: 650 horsies, 583 lbs of torque, a Honeywell LTS-101 jet engine found in coast guard helicopters– all fueled by bio-diesel. In jest, Leno mentioned that you would only be able to drive this toy during peak harvest season in Kansas with bio-diesel availability where it currently stands; nevertheless, it is a concerted effort toward solid, environmentally sound design for GM– one of the foremost American car manufacturers.

…Jay said, “We live in an era where liking cars and liking the environment don’t really seem to fit– especially high performance cars.” He not only wanted to disprove that, but wanted to inspire America’s youth to explore the possibilities and follow their dreams– this car for Leno started as a pipe dream, “and went from zero to here in seven months.”

Josh Spear:

As a seasonal treat here’s a short film to chill your spine: It’s OK To Drink Whiskey. Paul Williams, Ben Moulden and  PSFK’s Piers Fawkes made this film a couple of years back for Fox Searchlight and it went on to get shown at Sundance.

Link

[insert evil laughter here]