Melbourne Spring Fashion Festival

When I think of a fashion event, a loud alarm goes off in my head. It’s the kind you hear on a TV show where the spy breaks into a secret facility and “they” know he’s there. A bright flashing light comes to life, guards are dispatched. Only, on the TV show in my head, the guards quickly catch me, handcuff me to a clothing mannequin’s leg and then laugh at me while they point out that my belt doesn’t match my socks, pants, tie… or whatever it’s supposed to match.

The Event team for the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW) understands people like me. And, even with my fashion flaws, they’d still welcome me to the ranks. Why? Because they’re using analytics-driven marketing to target fashionistas… and also the likes of me.

Since 1994, the Events team for the city of Melbourne, Australia has held MSFW—an event intended to boost the city’s position as the fashion capital of Australia. But the name may be misleading to many, as it’s an event designed to appeal to a broad audience through a variety of events—live music, parties, film screenings, pop-up stores. And this is where social media and analytics-driven marketing collide.

With that aim of broadening its lure in sight, this year, the event planners targeted prospects outside of its core audience, to move beyond just the fashion runways to other retail events. They used an analytics-driven marketing solution based on IBM® Marketing Cloud, enabling targeted Facebook ads—extending the reach of its prospects from hundreds to thousands of people.

The results? They’ll knock your trendy socks off!

MSFW: