When it was time for H&M to announce it’s autumn-winter assortment final August, the quick style retailer signified a clear begin by deleting its whole Instagram feed. What got here subsequent was a partnership with Charli XCX that prolonged the pop star’s culture-shaking “brat summer season” into fall and helped the model seize the zeitgeist for months.
On the similar time, H&M was enterprise a digital relaunch, a behind-the-scenes transfer that, whereas much less attention-grabbing than social media makeovers and out of doors concert events, would permit the model to totally capitalize on its newfound cultural consideration.
“Digital is at all times going to be a conversion-driving channel for us, little question about that,” mentioned Jenn Volk, head of digital for H&M. “However what we actually needed to lean into was how can we use the digital channel to encourage our clients to model story inform as a lot as doable, and convey the enjoyable that we really feel on the model to life within the digital expertise.”
Volk has been at H&M for 4 years and oversees H&M’s digital enterprise within the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador. She is accountable for the general revenue and loss in addition to the digital journey from when a buyer lands on the positioning by means of the post-purchase expertise, collaborating carefully with each advertising and merchandising groups. The digital relaunch included a revamp not simply round its web site and product-detail pages, but in addition a rethinking of how H&M turns IRL moments into URL ones.
“It’s the small particulars, whether or not it’s the appear and feel, the font, the imagery,” Volk mentioned. “We’ve invested a ton in making certain that our styling and our imagery actually conjures up the shopper, exhibits them who we’re, exhibits them our style perspective after which additionally encourages them to buy extra.”
It’s Charli, child
H&M’s work with Charli XCX was well-timed, pairing the model with a previously underground pop star in the meanwhile of her mainstream ascent. The collaboration didn’t finish with the curation of a set and a few pictures.
“Regardless of the place we have been interacting along with her, we have been bringing that to life on social and on digital at the very same time so we might actually be sure that constant, seamless, 360 [degree] expertise,” Volk mentioned.
Together with a London efficiency across the autumn-winter assortment launch, Charli XCX additionally carried out at a November live performance in Occasions Sq. to advertise H&M’s vacation assortment, with music and style followers solely given half-hour discover earlier than the out of doors present on the TSX Stage at 1568 Broadway. To spice up engagement with customers past these attending the stay occasions, H&M turned to The Studio, its fashion-forward, editorially minded on-line vacation spot for younger customers that appears to construct out marketing campaign pages into greater than locations to purchase merchandise.
H&M loaded images from the stay occasions that includes Charli XCX and others onto its website and tagged the entire merchandise that influencers have been carrying to create shoppable content material. Equally, round a SoHo block celebration hosted by Amelia Grey, the model constructed out a marketing campaign web page that featured shoppable images of the mannequin and actuality TV persona.
“We’re making an attempt to make the most of the positioning on this distinctive technique to make clients who can solely work together with us on website get that really feel of an incredible H&M occasion, after which additionally drive that conversion general as nicely,” Volk mentioned.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha
Together with the stay occasions and commerce-enabled marketing campaign pages on The Studio, H&M is broadening its efforts on social channels to have interaction Gen Z and Gen Alpha customers. The corporate has invested time and assets into influencer advertising to spice up its social technique.
“Influencer advertising has flipped the advertising funnel on its facet, and we see that as such an incredible alternative,” Volk mentioned. “Influencer advertising can tackle every problem within the funnel, whether or not it’s consciousness or conversion.”
For main activations, H&M brings collectively a number of advertising components to create customers experiences the place every channel is targeted on what it does greatest: on-site content material is shoppable and product-focused, social content material highlights influencer identification and the H&M model, and so forth.
“We’re cognizant of the truth that the content material itself needs to be actually genuine to the platform the place the shopper is definitely experiencing it,” Volk mentioned.
H&M can be investing closely in an omnichannel buyer expertise that extends past digital channels, an acknowledgment that younger cohorts worth in-person experiences. In-person occasions will not be simply measured by attendance, but in addition by the visitors they drive to close by shops and the halo results they create by way of on-line purchasing.
“It will probably’t simply be digital that leans into this younger buyer and supplies this superb expertise like The Studio,” Volk defined. “It’s actually this expectation of having the ability to work together with the model throughout so many various platforms that we have reacted to and seen and seen the receipt on as nicely.”
