Brands clamber onto catwalk
The fashion industry has been elevated to cult status thanks to the unrivalled amount of media attention it attracts.
Every time the seasons change, there are endless catwalk shows across the country giving eager punters a few clues about what they should be wearing this season. And the ever-vigilant media is always out in force at such events to seemingly educate the masses about what hot right now.
This media attention gives the fashion industry an enviable platform that many designers are using to leverage strong partnerships with other brands also hoping to languish in the spotlight for a while.
Brand ambassadors working to sell everything from alcohol, cars, mobile phones and make-up are sideling up to the big names in fashion and asking for a partnership so they too can get on the catwalk and in front of the media.
Health and beauty giant L'Oreal Paris has enjoyed a partnership with Melbourne Fashion Festival since the festival's inception a decade ago.
L'Oreal marketing manager James Rickards says fashion week is the main thrust of the brand's marketing activity.
"The benefits of being involved in this event are huge," Rickards says.
"We see a really good brand fit between L'Oreal Paris and a lot of the fashion-forward brands that come along and look at the latest fashion and trends. We have a very luxurious brand and we want to get it out in front of a wider audience."
And while Rickards was coy when asked what he spends on the association, he admits the partnership represents a "significant investment".
L'Oreal also spends big marketing bucks on accompanying advertising, with television commercials including footage of catwalk events aired during fashion week, along with magazine and internet advertising campaigns. The brand also puts together the hair and makeup for each of the shows at the runway events and also offers product sampling to delegates.
"We get offers to form partnerships with other fashion festivals, but this one in Melbourne has really broad appeal and works best for us," Rickards says.
Motorola is another brand that sees value in forming partnerships with the fashion industry. The mobile phone brand joined forces with the City of Melbourne's Melbourne Spring Fashion Week event in 2005 for two years, granting it naming rights.
Motorola says it had been looking for a fashion event to sponsor for some time, but wanted to make sure it found one that fitted well with the brand.
But one of the most successful fashion and brand partnerships in recent times has undoubtedly been the one between Australian Fashion Week and Mercedes-Benz.
The luxury car manufacturer was naming rights sponsor of Australian Fashion Week for 11 years, and was one of the few events Mercedes sponsors.
The partnership elevated the luxury brand into the hearts and minds of the cool crowd at fashion circles unlike any television commercial could ever achieve.
The corporate relationship is part of a worldwide fascination that Mercedes-Benz has with the fashion industry - the brand has spawned similar fashion partnerships in Germany and the US, among other countries.
Mercedes says fashion was a perfect fit for the car maker, adding that the partnership worked so well because the two industries face similar challenges when it comes to achieving cutting-edge design.
There's no doubt these partnerships offer brands incredible value for their marketing dollar.
A media monitoring service valued Fashion Week as being in the top five media events in Australia, with more than $20 million worth of editorial coverage secured each year.
So it was no surprise that other brands ambassadors were waiting anxiously for Mercedes-Benz and Fashion Week to end their partnership so they too could get a slice of the action.
Then finally last year, Fosters-owned wine brand Rosemount signed a five-year deal with Australian Fashion Week (AFW) in a deal believed to be worth around $2 million.
AFW parent IMG Fashion Asia Pacific managing director Simon Lock told the media at the time that the deal would give Rosemount naming rights over the event. It would also enable Foster's French champagne brand Lanson and Yellowglen sparkling wine to gain some traction at industry events.
"It wasn't good enough for someone just to come along with a large cheque book, we wanted a partner who was going to provide other benefits to the Australian fashion industry," Lock told the Sydney Morning Herald after news of the partnership was made public.
However the newspaper article also quoted a somewhat shocked publicist, who said the alignment with Rosemount was a "big fall" from Mercedes, proving that the fashion world has to be careful about its corporate alignments.
Unsurprisingly a spruiker from top-end champagne Moet also had a dig in the article.
"It's a very strange alignment, especially when you think of the previous alcohol sponsors like Moet, Finlandia, Perrier Jouet," Mark Patrick told the paper.
"To suddenly go to a mass market still and sparking wine company seems a very odd mix. If I was the marketing director of one of the prestige fashion houses, I would not align myself with a mass market brand," Patrick stated at the time.
But these comments have done nothing to deter Fosters Australia from the fashion world - the company also supports 10 of Australia's best known fashion designers (Lisa Gorman, designer of fashion label Gorman, says the alignment with the Foster's vodka brand proved mutually beneficial.
She says Foster's Australia supplies the vodka, mixers and bar staff for each event to ensure she has a cool drink to serve the guests.
"The advantage of our alignment with Skyy is primarily the supply of a customised Gorman Skyy vodka cocktail at all Gorman events.
"It's appealing because we are being provided with professionals to take care of the drinks, Gorman is being promoted (via advertising), and it is also beneficial financially because I give my time and my brand in lieu of vodka... it works both ways..."
Gorman says further partnerships could be on the cards - if the right brand comes along.
"I would consider forming a similar relationship with another brand or product if I thought it was a good association and had benefits to both parties, and most importantly did not misrepresent or damage Gorman or our position in the marketplace as a leading Australian designer brand," she says.
Fellow Australian designer Arabella Ramsay, who is also a part of the Skyy fashion merge, began her partnership with Skyy a few years ago when the brand first began collaborating with fashion designers.
"At the time they chose three designers to work with, and I suppose the Arabella Ramsay brand is young, fresh, exclusive and suited for the individual, so this overall concept seemed to work well with Skyy vodka," Ramsay says.
However, she warns that fashion labels - particularly when starting out and therefore might be uncomfortably close to the poverty line - need to be careful about who they align themselves with.
"I am in the process of aligning myself with a corporate brand at the moment and am having considerable thoughts about whether to go ahead as I feel that the two brands don't seem to fit overly well.
"However, there is so much that can be (achieved) by aligning with other companies, and this can gain huge awareness in the media and in the public," Ramsay says.