Fashion Quarterly has released a new campaign through FCB raising the profile of its recently launched site FQ.co.nz for which seven of New Zealand’s top designers stylistically came together under one roof to promote.
The designers posed in a retro Remuera mansion to artfully to push the online offering. This follows a recent announcement that Bauer would be investing $1.2 million in a marketing campaign to announce the launch of its new digital properties, following its decision to join the IAB.
Featured in the campaign, shot by Meek Ramon Zuiderwyk from Match is: Dame Trelise Cooper (Trelise Cooper), Denise L’Estrange Corbet MNZM and Benny Castles (WORLD), Georgia Alice Currie (Georgia Alice), Steve Dunstan (Huffer), Liz Findlay (Zambesi) and Helen Cherry (Helen Cherry).
Fashion Quarterly editor Sally-Ann Mullin and the FQ team worked with FCB New Zealand to execute the creative concept: “Fashion has a new home”, according to a release.
“When we thought about Fashion Quarterly – and now FQ.co.nz – being the home of New Zealand fashion, we imagined what that house would look like, who would live there, and what they’d do if they were to cohabit,” Mullin says. “We were thrilled when such an iconic group, including stalwarts of the industry as well as a talented new generation, came together with the FQ team to embrace the concept and celebrate our new digital fashion destination.”
“We loved getting involved with FQ to launch their online offering. FCB’s creative team (Leisa Wall and Peter Vegas) came up with this visually arresting idea of all the designers living together, which everyone loved,” FCB executive creative director Regan Grafton says says. “The only question was would the designers agree to it? Thankfully, after some gentle persuading by Sally-Ann, they did.”
Bauer head of digital Michael Fuyala said last month the $1.2 million investment is in addition to the ongoing editorial, marketing and social funding support Bauer already gives to the titles that fall under its umbrella.
The campaign launched this week and will be rolled out across print, digital and outdoor with display and video being distributed through social media, email and influential collaborators within the fashion industry, the release says, and the site is already tracking ahead of expectation with more than 77,000 visits in the seven weeks since going live.
Along with fashion and beauty news, the site includes wellbeing, travel and home. “Extensive research conducted by Bauer Media prior to launch indicated these areas are a growing interest amongst FQ’s target demographic. Already, the ‘life’ channel, which houses these categories is reflecting this and receives similar levels of traffic as the popular Fashion channel,” the release says.
Mullin says the creative process was a blast. “The day of the shoot was so much fun and everyone was such a good sport. It was great tos ee the commitment from all of these entertaining characters who really got behind our idea of fashionable flatmates and gave it their own unique spin,” she says. “The enthusiasm for the campaign and our new venture FQ.co.nz has blown us away and really shines through in the final product.”
Fashion Quarterly recently appointed Kelly McAuliffe to join its team in the role of digital editor for the site.
On the print side, Fashion Quarterly continues to have a high readership, with the latest results from Nielsen showing that the publication still attracted 196,000 readers on average. However, this number had slipped from the readership of 228,000 recorded for the same time a year earlier. This slide is also reflected in the publication’s circulation figures, which dropped from 21,200 for the period ended 31 December 2013 to 19,100 a year later.
