MODUS INTENTIO GRAFICO PAOLA ANDREA ELLI Full Module Title: Fashion Marketing and Communication Class: Fashion&New Media Module Level: 5 Module code: MIED 507 Module Leader: Zakir Maqsood
INDEX EXECUTIVE SUMMARY | PAGE 5 INTRODUCTION | PAGE 6 THE BLOG | PAGE 7 mission audience benchmark what is it usp tone STRATEGY | PAGE 9 media IMPLEMENTATION sharing system posting system SUPPORTING SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS | PAGE 10 TIMELINE | PAGE 11 SEO INSIGHT & MARKET TRENDS ANALYTICS | PAFE 12 BIBLIOGRAPHY | PAGE 14 APPENDIX | PAGE 15
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This report provides an analysis of the strategy developed and used in order to create, manage ‘Modus Intentio Grafico’ http://modusintentiografico.tumblr.com/ blog and make it successful meaning that it reaches the aim explained in the following paragraph. All the content of this report and the affirmations are supported by the data obtained by the Google Analytic report which helped the management of the blog and its content, providing useful information to adjust the strategy in order to better. Reading this short report, it is relevant take into consideration that the development of a good blog is something that needs a lot of time and attention and even if I am personally satisfied by the goals achieved, such as a small group of followers and daily visitors, I am well aware that it needed more dedication and regularity, two characteristics that lack especially during exams period (May) or while I was not provided with a good internet connection (during two weekends) as it is possible to see from the Google Analytics results. In conclusion, I believe the main idea behind Modus Intentio Grafico has potential as showed by the increment of number of sessions and active but still some aspects have to be improved such as the bouncing rate and the number of repeated visitors.
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The blog is entitled ‘Modus Intentio Grafico’ which derives from Latin: Modus stands for “choice” or better, a series of rules which determine a set of aesthetic values for a certain period of time, in one word, fashion. Intentio literally means “the intellectual act of understanding an object and its purpose” which in my opinion is one of the best definition of design we can have. The word Grafico concerns with use of signs and graphic representations in order to communication.
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MISSION Modus Intentio Grafico aims to be a visual point of reference for the specific target. The blog aims to be the reference, inspiration and source of information (educational) for patterns, colours, shapes, the use of illustrations and graphics within fashion. Even if it is important for the blog to have a certain amount of traffic and generate followers, it is not the main aim. In fact, the principal goal is to raise interest in the viewers and foment peer to peer communication about the existence of the blog and the useful content it proposes. AUDIENCE Male and female from 20 to 35. They can be students from fashion and design schools such as Elisava and IED in Barcelona or young workers who have a job in the creative industry weather they are part of a design studio, early fashion journalist or beginner community manager for a new born brand. They are interested in modern art, cuttingedge visuals and pop culture meanwhile they are keen on investigate the roots of the current trends. Therefore, they are constantly looking for past references and connection between different subjects. For this reason, Modus Intentio Grafico if developed in the right way can achieve its aim and became a sort of visual archive where to look for graphic and fashion references. BENCHMARK In order to better develop the blog ‘Modus Intentio Grafico’ has been relevant the influences and examples gathered from other online platforms such as:
Itisarttime - https://www.instagram.com/itisartime/
An Instragram art page which shares interesting, eye-catching and usually cutting-edge artistic content with reference to the creator.
Zurdamagazine - https://www.instagram.com/zurdamagazine/
The Instagram account of the Barcelona based magazine is filled with references to pop art and modern culture which always are embedded.
Patternity
- https://patternity.org/ It is an online platform dedicated to allow users to undertake researches starting from a pattern such as polka dots or from colours, shapes and materials. It has been a really useful during the development of the blog itself and the creation of post.
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Therefore, Modus Intentio Grafico is a platform where to find source of references and visual content about the interconnections between graphic design and the world of fashion. The posts’ content is going to vary as much as possible in order not to be repetitive and boring but it is going to be based to the following guidelines: - pattern and colors trends - pattern and fabric inspirations from cultures - street style inspirations - magazine layouts – use of illustrations - illustrations and graphics within the fashion photography – layout and composition
U N I Q U E S E L L I N G P R O P O S I T I O N It is not possible affirm that Modus Intentio Grafico is a completely unique blog because I am aware of the presence of similar site from which I took inspiration to create the posts’ content as much as for implement my strategy. However, Modus Intentio Grafico is not an average fashion blog destined to a wide audience but it can be defined as a niche market blog in fact, it addresses a specific target and the content is peculiar as well.
T Visual Fashionable Eccentric
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TUMBLR
In order to developed the blog host, three key aspect have to be taken into consideration: 1. Time It means the amount of hours/day you have available to dedicate to your blog. Taking into consideration that starting a social media platform at the start requires at least 1 hour a day (Social, 2015) I believe it is relevant to mention that the time I could dedicate to the proper development of the blog was limited. Therefore, I decided to choose a media that perfectly supports my initial concept of Modus Intentio Grafico as visual archive and at the same time that is easier to manage because it is mobile friendly in fact, it allows post by mobile as well as by emails. 2. Resources Modus Intentio Grafico is found on visuals: images and GIF. I choose this kind of content because during two years of Fashion Marketing and Communication course at IED I frequented classes such as Fashion History, Visual Culture, Graphic Language, Sociology and Semiotics, Video Languages and Editorial Office which gives me the necessary skills and knowledge to handle visual combination and fashion references. As for the blog host, Tumblr is the best tool in supporting photos and video. In addition, it is the most goodlooking outcome because there is an incredible amount of gorgeous customizable layouts among which choose. 3. Audience Tumblr’s perception has not matured since its born so that it is still perceived as platform for young people and teenagers. Nevertheless, it is a platform used by people interested in self-expression and creativity as mentioned by (Smith, 2016). As well creative industry insiders use it to forecast trends due to the participation of young generations and the huge amount of innovative content.
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SHARING SYSTEM Three types of updates: photos, GIF, re-shares The staple update is represented by photos. More in details for photos mean a series of pictures from 3 to 5 in sequence or tiles collage (as possible to see in the appendix pictures) with a clear connection in terms of fashion content and graphics. After I re-blogged a GIF from another blog and the views and interaction increased (Google Analytics) I decided to take into consideration the use own created GIF as well as re-shared GIF and pictures. Therefore, my strategy change meaning that for each staple updates I publish a varying number of variety updates. For what concern the re-blogged content they feature Modus Intentio Grafico according to the likes and re-blog I receive. For example, if I receive a notification of a user that liked my update I look on its dashboard in order to find any interesting content I can publish by re-sharing it on mine. I apply the same process with likes and followers, if the users is linked to the topic I completely requite if not I limit myself to like or comment. POSTING STRATEGY At first, when starting the blog, my posting strategy was to upload content twice a day in the morning around 10am and in the afternoon around 18pm. Later on I noticed from Google Analytics Statistics that the posts uploaded in the morning almost did not receive feedbacks or any interaction. Therefore, I decided to limit the amount of post to 5 to 10 per week in order to not risk of annoying the audience and upload content from 7 to 10 accordingly not only to the higher success the posts have but also according to the researches undertaken by (Social, 2015).
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https://www.facebook.com/Modus-IntentioGrafico-1585603775064012/#_=_ It is the most used platform worldwide. Therefore, even if the blog won’t have a massive public in order to reach a certain amount of public it is essential be present on it. Facebook helps to spread the visibility of the blog and gain more followers through images and links and is also promote peer to peer communication and referral linking. Last, according to AdWeek (2016) 20,5% is the percentage of the users of Facebook in the age group of our target and it the highest amount compared to the total.
https://www.instagram.com/modusintentiografico/ It is the most used platform for visuals content, images and videos are predominant. In addition, several fashion insiders (bloggers, editors, creative directors, etc.), graphic designers and magazines dedicated to the combination of fashion with art and design, are present on it. Therefore, it is useful to get the attention of those people who does not use Tumblr but are engaged by Instagram. The idea behind it is to use black and white images to raise the curiosity in the viewer to look at the post on Tumblr in order to see the complete connection. In addition, our audience is present on Instagram with an amount of 19.6 million over 60.3 million (AdWeek, 2016).
https://it.pinterest.com/modusintentiogr/ The third supporting media has been hard to choose. I started trying Behance the platform provided by Adobe. But, creating it I realized it was a host dedicated to original content while my uploads were original combination of existing artistic works creating by someone else. Therefore, I decide to take into consideration Polyvore the website which allows to create moodboards and to share the creations. However, I was not totally satisfied by the results because my uploads not always were focused on traditional fashion items with which was possible create an outfitmoodboardas. Therefore, the last choice fell on Pinterest. I was already using it as personal user to look for content in order to update Modus Intentio Grafico. Following the suggestion of the teacher, I created a new account linking the Pinterest profile with the Tumblr blog. The process of research remained the same but if before I limited myself to saver the pictures, now I pin them in specific wall in the Pinterest profile I entitled Modus Intentio Grafico as the blog. Unluckily, the statistics of this supporting media are not working in Google Analytics therefore it is not possible to know their real impact. Nevertheless, taking into consideration the reaction I obtained pinning and liking other users’ content, I assume it brings quality viewers to the blog.
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At the start I was uploading the content on the supporting media, right after I upload the post on Modus Intentio Grafico. Once I accidentally forgot to upload the image on the Instagram account as well. Therefore, I posted it later on and it results to have more success respect the usual time. Consequently, I changed uploading the content on Instagram from 5 to 8pm. After that I decide to do some researches in order to discover which was the right and best time to upload content on each social and according to the result I adjusted the strategy. For what concern Facebook I update it daily from 1 to 4pm. As Pinterest is as well a research tool I use it mostly in the night looking for content to create the next day’s post therefore I mainly use it around 6 – 8pm. Unfortunately, the only analytics result Google provides are the one coming from Facebook. S
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In order to develop a good search engine optimization, I followed the strategy we learned from the class and from the results obtained by the Google Analytics which shows the organic search is the second acquisition channel. First of all, due to the reason I was not providing a 100% original content, I decide to include in the upload’s description an inbound links to the original creator’s website page, Instagram profile, etc. Then I always try to keep the description as simple and objective as possible in order to allows the spiders to easily crawling the content. The words are always link to the topic of the blog, for example: fashion, pattern, inspiration, etc. In addition to a simple description of what the content represents and its characteristic, I also involve hashtag such as #fashionart #graphicdesign #pattern #fabric #colours or using as hashtag the name of the fashion designer or graphic artist which works features in the upload. As well the content in the supporting platforms are provided with the same kind of descriptive caption, keywords and hashtag but in addition all the post contains the inbound links to the actual tublr’s update on Modusintentiografico. tumblr.com I
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While developing Modus Intentio Grafico I happen to discover certain trends within the market. First of all Tumblr is a platform where pictures and visuals are predominant. It based on the fact that nowadays people are getting lazier and lazier in terms of engaging with content and understand it therefore, the simpler it is the more effectively it is. According to Hexagon (2016) in fact, visuals requires 65% of our brain pathways and visions provides 85% of the info we take in about the world. These are the fact that supports the fact that photos shared across social platforms get +13% higher click thru performance on average, and also inspire more sharing (Hexagon, 2016). The usage of mobile as support devices is another big trend going on with Tumblr right now. The reason behind this tendency lays in the fact that Tumblr is a host which provide a great service also through mobile and portable devices which are the tools mostly used by the age group from 16 to 34. Researches shows that the 50% of the Millennials access Tumblr and others social platform mostly by mobiles. If we take into consideration other social platform for example Facebook, the big new trend is Virtual Reality which provides the users with real time video from all over the world. The engagement content of this new features is extremely powerful and even if it is mostly developed in the USA, Europe is starting to have a taste of this new feature and it is already a big and really appreciated innovation. It has the power to interconnect and globalize content but also relationship between users or between brands creating branded content and the audience.
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14 BIBLIOGRAPHY Pewinternet.org. (2016). [online] Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2015/08/2015-08-19_social-mediaupdate_05.png [Accessed 30 May 2016]. Hexagon, C. (2016).3 Ways Brands Can Uncover New Audience Insights in Tumblr Data | Crimson Hexagon. [online] Crimsonhexagon.com. Available at: http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/blog/platform/3-ways-brands-can-uncovernew-audience-insights-in-tumblr-data/ [Accessed 30 May 2016]. Social. (2015).How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy From Scratch. [online] Available at: https://blog. bufferapp.com/social-media-marketing-plan [Accessed 30 May 2016]. AdWeek. (2016).Infographic: Who’s Really Using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram in 2015. [online] Available at: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/new-social-stratosphere-who-using-facebooktwitter-pinterest-tumblr-and-instagram-2015-and-beyond-1622 [Accessed 30 May 2016]. Smith, C. (2016).Tumblr Offers Advertisers A Major Advantage: Young Users, Who Spend Tons Of Time On The Site. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/tumblr-and-social-mediademographics-2013-12 [Accessed 30 May 2016]. WGS, (2016).CES 2015 – Big Ideas. 1st ed. WGS, (2016).Virtual Reality – A New World of Opportunity for Marketers. 1st ed. WGSN, (2016).CES 2016 – Top Technology Trends. 1st ed.
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