The Melbourne Fashion Festival (MFF) – Australia’s largest consumer-focused fashion event – has unveiled its new naming rights partnership.
The not-for-profit organisation has confirmed that, effective from today, Virgin Australia is the new principal partner and naming rights partner of the annual festival.
Entering its 18th year in 2014, the new naming rights partnership signals the beginning of a new era for the festival. The move marks the start of a new naming convention – the ‘Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival’.
Event organisers said other changes to the festival going forward include a revised logo and “most importantly a long-term relationship that markets the event nationally and globally”.
“This includes the evolution of the festival’s retail tourism strategy and a ‘fly in and shop’ mechanic that will promote visitation to Victoria for one of the country’s most celebrated major events.”
However, despite the changes, organisers of MFF said the event will maintain its strong ties with the L’Oréal empire.
“In 2013 the festival experienced its most successful year to date attracting almost 380,000 attendees to 149 programmed events and achieved over $63.5 million dollars worth of audited media coverage, the highest result on record.
“Owing an enormous part of the Festival’s annual success to its naming rights partnership with L’Oréal Paris, the festival team, its dedicated board of directors and the festival’s key stakeholders are thrilled to announce that L’Oréal Paris is the exclusive beauty partner and a major partner of the festival. Most importantly one of the longest partnerships Australia has seen will continue into the future and positively evolve.”
MFF CEO Graeme Lewsey added that the festival is fortunate to also be able to continue its partnership with L’Oréal.
“What a remarkable day to be in a position to announce two strategic partnerships that launch an exciting new era for the festival and the future of the Australian fashion and retail industries. As we welcome Virgin Australia to the festival family I’m also thrilled to be able to continue our prosperous relationship with L’Oréal Paris," he said.
"We are truly honoured to be in this position, to learn from and work with two of the world’s most innovative and inspiring brands and tactically deliver genuine benefits to our creative industries, Australian designers, retailers and consumers alike.”
L’Oréal Australia managing director, Johan Berg echoed his comments and said L'Oreal is looking forward to its new association with the event.
“At L’Oréal Paris we have enjoyed a remarkable journey with the festival and are extremely proud to have been involved in the growth and ongoing success of this fantastic event. We have been an active partner of the festival since its inception and we remain extremely committed to the event and the Australian fashion industry, moving forward.
"We will continue to support the festival as the exclusive beauty partner and you can be assured our famous L’Oréal Paris Powder Room and always-popular L’Oréal Paris Beauty Workshops will be back in 2014. We look forward to working with the festival team, Virgin Australia and all the festival partners to celebrate Australia’s leading consumer fashion event next March. ”
MFF will once again take place in March, offering a curated program of runways, activations, workshops and business events running from March 17-23 2014.
These will also include the National Designer Award presented by Tiffany & Co, Red Carpet Runway, and the National Graduate Showcase (with a new presenting partner soon to be announced).
In addition, festival organisers have confirmed that an “extensive” Cultural Program will also run alongside other events. This will feature initiatives such as the Fashion Film Series, the Business Events Series, a brand new secondary school initiative and ‘Shop the Runway’ - enabling consumers to purchase looks direct from the runway.
Welcoming Virgin Australia to the MFF fold, Festival Chairman, Laura Anderson said the deal will take the festival to new heights.
“On behalf of the festival board, I’m thrilled to welcome Virgin Australia as the new naming rights partner of the festival. This strategic alignment will enable the evolution of festival on a global stage and showcase the vibrant destination of Melbourne. Importantly, I would like to acknowledge the tremendous support and commitment from our dear friends at L’Oréal Paris who we treasure and look forward to continuing to build the festival with them and our wonderful new friends at Virgin Australia.”
Virgin Australia chief commercial officer, Judith Crompton said the company is honoured to partner with the iconic event.
“We are delighted to partner with this iconic event, which shares our values of innovation, style and our commitment to fostering emerging and established local, Australian talent. As a full-service airline, we are uniquely placed to captivate new audiences in Australia and around the world, allowing us to further support tourism in Victoria and evolve the festival on the world stage," she said.
"We are working closely with the festival to come up with new and unique ways to promote the events across our channels both in the air and on the ground. We look forward to welcoming the attendees on board next year.”