Marie Claire partners with Safilo to fill out consumers’ eyewear wardrobes

Marie Claire #GetFramed promotional image

Women’s magazine Marie Claire is changing the conversation around sunglasses through a partnership with eyewear manufacturer Safilo.

#GetFramed puts a spotlight on the accessory category poised for growth, communicating the idea that consumers should have frames to complement each type of outfit and that sunglasses should be bought with each new season along with other wardrobe updates. Creating a link between content and commerce, the program includes mobile integration, where consumers can virtually try on and purchase eyewear from Safilo licensed brands including Dior, Givenchy and Jimmy Choo.

“Sun eyewear is an accessory that is definitely acquiring a broader appeal and role among consumers, across the world: it’s becoming a style statement and a fashion accessory, desirable and attractive to enable individual self expression,” said Luisa Delgado, CEO at Safilo. “The perfect pair of glasses can convey instant glamour and create a whole new persona.

“What we loved with Marie Claire was the idea to make sunglasses the focal point of any wardrobe decision and a transformative fashion statement,” she said. “Safilo’s portfolio include fashion brands from atelier to mass cool, touching the luxury and contemporary categories. These are all a perfect fit for the Marie Claire reader and offer avery broad spectrum of styles to work with, confidently and playfully.

“We love the true passion and enthusiasm of Marie Claire’s editors for a meaningful 360-degree approach, true to Marie Claire’s authenticity and independence that we admire in Marie Claire. This partnership enables us to reinforce our corporate mission in an equally authentic way, as industry leaders of eyewear design and craftsmanship. We are all very excited by this project and we trust that the readers and consumers will be too.”

Lens for every look
The concept behind #GetFramed evolved from the success of another wardrobing initiative from Marie Claire. #ShoesFirst looks to get consumers to think about their outfits and closets from the floor up.

Shoes are big business for designer brands, and they are a prime driver of foot traffic to retailers. They are also conducive to a social shopping experience, partly because the dressing room is taken out of the equation.

Looking for a similar category to shake up, which had both the potential for growth and women’s interest, Marie Claire decided on eyewear, since it had a lot of the same benefits. Eyewear tends to be a category where women seek out a second opinion, the price points are similar to designer shoes and they are big business for labels.

Fendi Eyeshine campaign image

“We’re all about the details,” said Nancy Berger-Cardone, publisher of Marie Claire. “We’re a fashion brand that really thinks about women’s confidence and achieving their own personal style versus dictating to women what they should dress like.

“And that inspiration is so much about the accessories as much as the outfit, and so this was a real opportunity to really focus on an accessory that is an important accessory, it’s sitting on your face, it’s the first thing that somebody notices, but also this is an investment category.”

While often considered an entry-level item, Ms. Berger-Cardone said that the designer sunglass customer is more similar to the apparel customer than some may think. This effort therefore brings fashion customers in-store to add to their collection of a particular label.

Just as with other fashion accessories, glasses make a statement about the wearer’s personal style and personality, whether she chooses to wear cat-eye frames or aviators on a particular day.

Marie Claire approached Safilo about its plans to spotlight the eyewear category. With the company on board, the magazine decided to create another level of engagement around their sunglasses, partnering with Perfect Corp.’s YouCam Makeup for a virtual try on experience.

YouCam Makeup, launched in Thailand, has just recently entered the U.S. market. This project marks the first time that its webcam-connected app has partnered with a U.S. brand on an accessory experience.

#GetFramed premiered in the May issue of Marie Claire, which arrived on newsstands April 19. The black-and-white editorial opens with instructions to download the app. Consumers can scan a QR code to add YouCam Makeup to their device, allowing them to interact with select styles featured in the spread.

Marie Claire editorial featuring Safilo

Once the app is downloaded, the user can snap a selfie or upload an image previously taken on their device to start their virtual try-on experience. Consumers can pick from 40 different SKUs from 10 Safilo brands, including Fendi, Marc Jacobs and Max Mara.

Consumers can share an image of them wearing sets of frames to their social network to get a second opinion, recreating the social shopping experience in digital. If a consumer finds a frame she loves, she can then click on a basket to navigate to Safilo’s retail Solstice Sunglasses to make a purchase.

Safilo experience on YouCam Makeup app

Sunglasses and eyewear are difficult accessories for consumers to buy online, since it is hard to tell what a particular frame will look like once on. This enables consumers to feel more confident in making an ecommerce purchase.

As of press time, the campaign had gathered 8.5 million impressions and 200,000 uniques.

In addition to the app experience and editorial, Marie Claire is hosting a sweepstakes for a chance at a $1,000 gift card to Solstice Sunglasses.

The magazine brand is also hosting events at Solstice Sunglasses stores in New York. On May 17, the magazine’s accessories director Kyle Anderson will be at the 500 Fifth Ave. location, and June 2 will see an event at the store at 168 Fifth Ave.

“It gives the immediate opportunity for the reader to connect with our brand, to engage with the product more deeply and authentically, and enjoy the experience,” Ms. Delgado said. “This will lead to a better experience of actually buying our sunglasses.

“It is important to understand that buying eyewear, sunglasses and perhaps even more optical glasses, is very unique,” she said. “Finding the best shape, color, weight, is very personal. Trying on the glasses, seeing others wear them, projecting oneself to one or the other image, are all exciting moments.

“Merging on-paper magazine reading, online virtual try one, and in-store feel and touch experiences through are new experiences that we want to experiment with and share with consumers. We do like the fact that we  can offer instant gratification for readers to be able to buy sunglasses right off the editorial pages of the magazine.”

See now, buy now
Virtual try-on experiences allow categories that are tougher sells to an ecommerce audience drive online business.

LVMH-owned Sephora is bringing live 3D facial recognition to the existing Virtual Artist feature on its application and Web site, a move expected to boost conversion rates through more accurate facial tracking and rendering.

The augmented reality feature currently allows users to upload a still selfie to virtually try on various products that can be purchased from Sephora, but the new update will allow users to view themselves moving in real time with the digital makeup, with more effective technology. The update comes from the developer ModiFace after a survey of non-Modiface and non-Sephora apps showed that a 22 percent drop in conversion rates occurred when the virtual products did not line up or appear correctly on the user’s face (see story).

Closing the boundaries between print and digital, mobile extensions of magazines are becoming more common. Magazines are also looking for ways to close the loop between product placement and purchase, in service of their advertisers.

For instance, Porter’s print magazine has an accompanying app that recognizes the images in the magazine, allowing consumers to shop directly from the magazine without having to go through the steps of identifying the product, doing a search and locating the product page.

In one year, over 90,000 products were scanned, likely translating to millions of dollars in revenue and proving the business model a viable source of revenue. After scanning the product, Net-A-Porter asks consumers to “be inspired” by a selection of coordinating products, a smart way to keep consumers shopping for products beyond those advertised directly in a way that feels natural and helpful rather than pushy and intrusive (see story).

“I don’t really think of us as a print magazine,” Ms. Berger-Cardone said. “Our print component of our distribution channel is very important to us, but every single point of contact that a woman has with Marie Claire, we want to keep her in the Marie Claire ecosystem. So my magazine comes out once a month, but I’m still engaging with her all the time on my digital site or through social and mobile, because she comes to digital and social mostly through mobile.

“We’re always looking at ways to make each of those platforms a high-engagement high-touch for everything,” she said. “And also we know who she is, we know the kind of life she lives, we know she’s very busy, we know she loves her wardrobe, she loves her personal style and she invests in that. So anything that we can do to make that an experience or make that easy for her, we’re always looking into that.

“Part of what has been our success is that we bring first-to-market ideas in a big way to the advertising community. So because we have that reputation, a company like Safilo knows that we are very driven to this. So if we have a company that we really believe in and we want to work with, they have a trust that this is going to work.”

from Apparel and accessories – Luxury Daily https://www.luxurydaily.com/marie-claire-partners-with-safilo-to-fill-out-consumers-eyewear-wardrobes/
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