Fashion brand Ted Baker makes a bold attempt to develop the marketing potential of Clubhouse

According to foreign media reports, British luxury clothing retailer Ted Baker has become the first fashion brand to "take the lead" on the audio social platform Clubhouse, that is, the first brand to try to promote itself by holding a series of fashion discussion events.

Clubhouse fashion clubs are emerging in an endless stream, and related brands are eager to try

Specifically, every Wednesday night at 19:30, London-based Ted Baker will hold a one-hour discussion on British culture and fashion topics in a voice chat room on Clubhouse with Abraxas Higgins, a former Wall Street executive and founder of London 9AM, so far this chat event has been held six times. Abraxas Higgins is an active user of Clubhouse and has 370,000 followers on the social platform.

Since its launch in March last year , Clubhouse has been downloaded more than 10 million times and is rapidly becoming a discussion center for streetwear and fashion-related topics. And according to Clubhouse data, in terms of average listening time, 20% of Clubhouse users spend more than two hours on the app every day.

There are endless fashion "Clubs" on Clubhouse, and the number of members is also increasing, such as Fashion Talks (17,000 followers), Fashion Talk 101 (34,000 followers) and Fashion Creatives Linkup (64,000 followers).

But it’s only now that Clubhouse is officially allowing brands to join the platform. “Clubs” are groups that users can follow on the platform, and Ted Baker’s “profile” on the platform also uses the “Club” format.

In addition to Ted Baker's "Sustainability Club" , in order to promote their brands, some fashion and beauty brands are looking for the next batch of talents who will become Clubhouse celebrities to obtain the early development dividends of the Clubhouse platform; in addition, there are also many brand founders or executives themselves who have also conducted "one-off" discussion activities on Clubhouse , such as Nike and New Balance, to establish the executives' own personal image and provide indirect marketing for the brand.

How to conduct successful brand marketing on Clubhouse

Syama Meagher, founder of retail consulting firm Scaling Retail, believes that anyone, not just industry insiders, can access executives of some brands or companies in a casual environment , which is a major advantage of Clubhouse .

However, brands are advised not to copy marketing campaigns that work on other platforms, and there are no advertising tools on the Clubhouse platform like those found on TikTok or Instagram.

Instead, brands should involve managers in any discussion that interests them, without having to strictly control the brand image at all times or making the brand the sole focus, thereby conveying the brand message "silently" in an atmosphere without advertising .

The Forbes website also lists four guidelines for Clubhouse’s branding:

1. Keep up with the latest trends and integrate into the culture.

Brands can develop brand marketing campaigns in conjunction with current hot festivals or topics. For example, during Black History Month, French cognac brand Martell collaborated with social media and digital media marketing strategist Karen Civil to conduct a discussion on the topic of black female entrepreneurs, combining it with important cultural moments at the time.

Brands should also select the right influencers and executives to participate in the chat room discussion based on the topic of the chat room to create a fun and professional atmosphere for the chat room.

2. Brainstorm and unleash creativity

Brands need to brainstorm to come up with creative marketing campaigns, and these creative ideas don’t necessarily need to be product-based or consumer-targeted. For example, Burger King’s parent company RBI created an open forum space for its executives to conduct its post-earnings conference calls, successfully narrowing the distance between users and the brand.

Brands should also consider how to interact with users. For users, talking to executives or influential people can bring huge added value, and it can also provide brands with a channel for two-way communication with customers. Brands can set up question-and-answer sessions or open up more opportunities for free discussion to increase the audience's participation.

3. Be respectful of public spaces. Clubhouse is also a form of media.

Although Clunhouse prohibits users from recording conversations without the consent of all involved spokespersons, this does not prevent users from recording and sharing chats on the app, as was recently the case with Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, whose audio was uploaded to YouTube by other users . Therefore, brand spokespersons should not make any statements on Clunhouse that they do not want to become public knowledge.

4. Prepare early and seize opportunities

If a brand had established a partnership with a heavyweight influencer on TikTok before the platform became popular, what would it look like now?

Similarly, Clubhouse is currently in its initial development stage, especially since there are not many brand marketing activities on the platform at present. If Clubhouse opens its API interface in the future and introduces the function of linking with related articles, for example, articles about exercise can be linked to instant audio conversations on the topic, then Clubhouse's brand marketing methods and promotion efficiency will be greatly enhanced.

Therefore, sellers can prepare early and seize the opportunity!

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