STORYTELLING Gaming and tv series: how fashion storytelling is changing

STORYTELLING

GAMING AND TV SERIES: HOW FASHION STORYTELLING IS CHANGING

By Matteo Melani

With the outbreak of the pandemic, streaming has become the most important marketing tool in fashion, including for the biggest names in the industry, which are adopting new ways to advertise their clothing.

Stockholm Fashion Week FW 21-22

In fact, the biggest fashion shows took place digitally from the Milan Fashion Week to Etro. The latest fashion parade, the Stockholm Fashion Week Fall Winter 2021-2022, also was digital and saw the alternating of the most emerging signatures. In addition to streaming, digital offers other marketing opportunities that can reach new customers and influence the market, because it holds the attention of teenagers and young adults through a completely innovative narrative. A good example is Luis Vuitton who in 2019 signed a collaboration agreement with the League of Legends gaming platform for which it created t-shirts and accessories. To date, the country with the most fans is China with 484 million players (about a third of the population) who log in to play almost every day. And while gaming appeals to a younger target, TV can reach an even broader audience, both in terms of age and taste. On the occasion of Guccifest, an entirely digital festival of fashion and cinema conceived by the famous brand, a webseries entitled “Overture of Something that Never Ended” was launched. The format features actress Silvia Calderoni and the cast includes personalities such as Achille Bonito Oliva, choreographer Sasha Waltz, musicians Billie Eilish, Harry Styles and Florence Welch. The series of 20 minutes episodes showcases the new collection by Alessandro Michele, creative director of the Gucci fashion house. Digital clearly offers a world of a thousand opportunities which, if exploited with the right strategies, can significantly raise the visibility of brands and fashion collections.

THE ADVANTAGES OF GAMING

The growth of online games is now in full swing and, in addition to men, more and more women are playing online. The traditional stereotype of a videogame player being a nerd is over and today’s users look for quality, not only in the enjoyment of the games but also in merchandising. In the clothing sector, it now offers a completely revolutionary form of advertising. Co-branding remains the only way for fashion brands to enter the world of animated games. Last year Valentino, with the help of visual artist Kara Chung, provided Nintendo with clothes for the SS20 and Pre-Fall 20/21 collection for

The Sims 4

the Animal Crossing game. Players now can dress their avatars with the clothing of the Italian genius. Similarly, the users of The Sims 4, can fill the wardrobe of their characters with clothes from Moschino capsule collections.

THE FASHION TO SEE WITH THE TV SERIES

Until a few years ago television series were shared primarily on just a few channels at fixed times, but with the birth of platforms such as Netflix and Prime TV,

both the number of titles and the means of consumption have also changed. And fashion storytelling goes very well with television series. An example of this success is Overture of Something That Never Ended, a sevenparts web docu-drama that follows the everyday life of Silvia Calderoni, with occasional celebrity cameo appearances. The web series streamed from 17 to 22 November 2020 on online festivals, as well as other video platforms including YouTube, Weibo and Instagram TV. The risk taken to create the web-series has been rewarded with the response of the directorGus VanSant, who generated more than 384 thousand views on YouTube, 235 thousand on InstagramTV and thousands of comments and reactions on Twitter. Among other fashion brands, Motivi also launched an online TV series entitled Motivi Lo(ve) ft, for which it has hired actresses and models. Consisting of four episodes, the show follows the lives of four friends who share a loft, all with different personalities and stories: Giulia, the enterprising, creative and reliable radio host, and narrator of the series; Bea, a super fashionista store manager, determined and at times cynical; Ilaria, a chef with a dreamy and shy soul but professionally made with her restaurant in the city; Laura, the sportswoman of the group, a personal trainer with a positive, pragmatic and reassuring dynamic. In each episode, the inseparable friends tell a special story with an open ending that will invite participation and direct interaction of viewers at home. Viewer involvement is further encouraged by various fashion influencers who in each episode invite followers to comment on the show, share their comments and try to guess the ending. Lo(ve) also includes off-screen gaming initiatives, user-generated content, and fashion shoots in which the characters reveal the mysterious ending of each episode. The fashion marketing revolution has just begun.