French Connection launches social network

Described as ‘a website dedicated to self-expression in music, fashion and the arts’, www.anewmovement.com is actually a clever picture-based networking site set up by UK retailer French Connection.

Unlike previous retail offshoots, this site is not overly heavy on product promotion, relying instead on attracting customers through building a young network of music and fashion afficionados and offering them access to niche gigs and secret fashion events around the UK.

With four launch parties scheduled to start in May, the ‘movement’ is in early infancy, yet appears to already have a decent number of members uploading and contributing. Maybe the grandiose mission statement really does appeal to teens-

‘Every now
and then something special happens in contemporary culture. It starts
with a disparate group of people thinking and expressing themselves in
similar ways and slowly that group becomes a crowd. Then over time it
gains momentum before finally becoming a movement, an unavoidable
meeting of minds, a global shift in self-expression defined by fashion,
music and the arts. So, if you feel the rumblings of just such an event
beginning to happen, then you have come to the right place.

Over
the coming months anewmovement.com will be exploring all sorts of
self-expression, inviting our members to get involved and find that
state of mind and those magical links that connect us all and make us a
collective creative force, wherever we happen to be.’

Will the movement take off and the brand regain cool status or will teens see the free gigs and parties for the marketing ploy they really are? Either way it’s a unique and clever attempt by a brand to connect with and understand it’s customers.