As we discussed in our previous Comm 464 E-Marketing class, companies that fail to jump on the digital bandwagon are going to be left behind. Topshops’s marketing chief Justin Cooke was quoted in “The Guardian” today saying, “Brands without a strong digital vision will struggle in the future”. I strongly agree with this statement because it seems unthinkable that a professional company that wants to stay competitive, wouldn’t be interested in utilizing the benefits of social media.

For instance, until this year the biannual London Fashion Week typically attracts less than 50,000 people. However, its recent partnership with Google, which used YouTube videos and Google+, reached up to 4 million viewers. It is no recent news that social media is the fastest way to reach more viewers so I don’t understand what took them so long to implement it.

Now that the fashion industry is starting to incorporate technology in their marketing, the competition is high to see who can add the most creative digital touches to their shows. For example, the British Fashion Council is including live streaming multiple catwalk shows that for the first time, link directly to their Twitter account. This gives the public the opportunity to interact with the fashion industry via a weekly #FashionFriday news bulletin.

Another point that was mentioned in this article that I would like to highlight was the use of personal messaging for Topshop’s latest Christmas message. Recording Kate Bosworth saying each individual name before the generic message is a great example of how technology can help a company personalize an experience. We have been discussing in class and in our lessons on Hootsuite the importance of personalization and relationship building. The more personal you can make a message on Twitter and Facebook, the more your client will appreciate it and the stronger your relationship will be with them. Technology, if used correctly, is the most efficient way to reach an audience and it is great to see another industry taking advantage of the benefits of social media.