Fashion Retailer ABOUT YOU: Brand Message is Communicated Digitally in 360 Degrees

“Marketing in times of digital upheaval” is the motto of the 7th Göttingen Marketing Day on November 8th, to which the PFH Private University of Göttingen invites. In the focus of our interview series with the participating speakers, which Professor Dr. Hans-Christian Riekhof has conducted in advance, today is a large fashion company. In the conversation, Julian Jansen, Director Content at ABOUT YOU, reveals, among other things, how the former Otto start-up implements a 360-degree orientation with platform-specific social media content.

Prof. Dr. Hans-Christian Riekhof: Where do you see the biggest difference for ABOUT YOU in connection with the digitization of marketing compared to your main competitors?

Julian Jansen: There are three differences: As our DNA already says “It’s About You”, we start from the person, not primarily from a brand. Thus, we have the perfect fit in social media marketing. Everything we tell here is real and is communicated through people: Friend Influencer and Family Influencer. Friends are the influencers with whom we strongly scale performance hauls, family influencers are the influencers with whom we can identify 100%. They are played and told 360 degrees on all our channels including onsite.

We tell platform-specific 360-degree content. That means we produce corresponding social content for social channels, corresponding onsite stories for onsite, corresponding performance stories for performance and corresponding editorial content for TV etc., all of which differ in visual language, storytelling and activation.

Everyone is rushing to digitization. We see this as a duty and expand our offline touchpoints to our community and form a platform-crossing digital exploitation around it, such as ABOUT YOU Fashion Week (AYFW), ABOUT YOU Awards (AYA) and ABOUT YOU Pangea Festival (AYPF).

We work extremely data-driven in the influencer area

Riekhof: ABOUT YOU relies heavily on strategies of influencer marketing – how do you differentiate yourself from your main competitors here?

Jansen: Especially in the Influ Performance area (Hauls) we work extremely data-driven and probably have the most valuable active influ database tool, in which influs are permanently evaluated and scouted. In addition, we recognized the right cooperation with influs very early in the market. We integrate them into our content processes, we build mutual commitment, they become part of our AY family and are not just message multipliers.

Riekhof: How does digitization change the opportunities for ABOUT YOU to gain insights about your customers? With which digital tools do you “observe” the customer in his wishes, in his behavior, in his networks, in his online search behavior, in his communication behavior?

Jansen: AY is a digital platform, so “changes” quite little. Like most digital companies, we have monitoring and analysis tools for the customer journey on our site (Google Analytics etc.). In addition, we work with corresponding MaFos, which we set up. Social Media/Customer Support are always channels in which you scan and get to know your community.

On YouTube we are building a storytelling channel for the younger generation

Riekhof: Which social media platforms are most important for ABOUT YOU and why? Will there be shifts here in the coming years?

Jansen: You can’t really say which platform is most important. Each platform has different levels of importance for different KPIs. IG is therefore not a performance channel, works with its shoppable posts of course very hard on it, but that will take some time, as the attention of the “customer” on IG is still relatively low regarding shopping. The customer wants to be “still” primarily inspired here. Thus, IG is probably the most important account on the social level to trigger a buzz. YT and FB are stronger in advertising. But especially on YT we are also working on building a storytelling channel to bind the younger YT generation to us.

Riekhof: How do you use the digital channels to do trend research – especially in the fashion sector an extremely important topic?

Jansen: The basis is certainly a trend-hungry, creative team that is always on the lookout for hypes. Of course, you often look at the USA, as well as hyped personalities, brands, events etc.

Riekhof: Do strategies of location-based marketing, which address the customer specifically where he is currently located, play a role for ABOUT YOU today and in the future in the digital customer dialogue?

Jansen: You obviously get a higher attention when you address the customer locally. If I’m in Hamburg right now and the weather is bad, I want the first thing in my app to show me raincoats suitable for the weather. We are already working with these data sets.

Tip:

If you want to experience Julian Jansen and the other speakers in person, feel free to register with the online form for the 7th Göttingen Marketing Day.

Prof. Dr. Hans-Christian Riekhof and the PFH team look forward to your visit.