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IT’S
ALL ABOUT THE FASHION
Spring campaign reinforces Yorkdale’s position as one of Canada’s flagship
centers
Yorkdale Shopping Centre is giving its customers a 360˚ view
of the world of fashion and the tour begins with its latest spring
advertising campaign. Titled “Fashion comes first,” it uses a mixture of
bold imagery and tongue-in-cheek copy to show consumers how the mall has
secured its position as one of Canada’s must-see shopping centers for those
who engage in a constant pursuit of style.
“Most of the big fashion retailers consider their Yorkdale store to be their
Canadian flagship. As such, we had a great product to work with,” explains
Renata Kieran, director of operations for the Toronto-based ZiG advertising
firm.
Under Andy Macaulay’s watchful creative eye, ZiG set out to accomplish two
tasks: To update the center’s imagery to reflect its most current
fashionable retail mix, and at the same time, to focus the lion’s share of
the advertising push on Yorkdale as a whole, in order to better get the
attention of the 25 million consumers who visit the property each year. The
creative team believed that a good place to start was to use Yorkdale itself
as its first image-branding medium.
True to its “Ideas in their most powerful form” motto, ZiG produced a series
of brightly colored, fashion-forward shots to use as indoor posters. Each of
the advertisements acts as a page out of a fashion magazine photo shoot and
features a model—be it a woman or a man—in a daring get-up that’s sure to
attract plenty of envious looks. The poses are dynamic, as if to show that
in their minds the models are daring shoppers to follow their lead and wear
some of the outfits that shoppers may think usually belong on runways and
not in their everyday lives. The witty taglines that accompany each
photograph only help to drive the point home.
One advertisement shows a man sporting an almost psychedelic silky white,
yellow and black shirt, paired with casual black slacks held up by a yellow
belt. The tagline reads, “Hey. It works for Peacocks.” Another ad shows a
young woman, all dressed in pink, who seems rather pleased to be able to
wear an above-the-knee dress and very high, ankle strapped sandals. That
tagline reads, “Shoes buckle at the ankle. Men, at the knees.”
If you’re mentally howling right about now, then ZiG has done its job.
On the one hand, the firm was hellbent on making the campaign look like a
Harper’s Bazaar so that shoppers who visited Yorkdale would automatically
associate its style language with that of any fashion magazine, not to
mention equate its retail mix to the merchandise rosters found in their
favorite titles. On the other hand, the firm didn’t want to pretend that
fashion was all that serious an endeavor and did its best to make sure that
shoppers who saw the ads would smile and not panic because their wardrobes
weren’t perfectly stocked.
That humor is most evident in the campaign’s television commercials, which
gave the indoor ads’ cheekiness a little more edge.
One of the ads offers a moment of fashion reality TV and focuses our
attention on an attractive couple “getting it on.” They’re in the heat of
the moment and just when the man is about to attempt to take his lover’s
sleeveless top off, she puts the brakes on. You see, she’d rather do it
herself because she really cherishes that garment and doesn’t want him to
ruin it in his amorous haste. The message there is clear: The fashion
offering that consumers can enjoy at Yorkdale is so perfect that it can make
them forget themselves at any time and in the most bizarre of moments. And
the beat goes on—to the shopping center’s store directory, direct-mail
pieces, merchant newsletter and to its website too, where the advertising
campaign is carried over under the “Where to Find What to Wear” tagline.
As with the other media vehicles, Yorkdale.com is all about fashion—from the
choice of images to the site’s layout to its actual content.
For starters, the website opens with the same image as one of the mall’s
indoor posters. Then, once you begin to peruse the site’s various sections,
you quickly realize that the topic of fashion permeates every page.
Yorkdale.com features a Fashion Trends section where fashion director Robin
Keeler shares her insight on what’s popular this spring in terms of color
selection (incidentally, pastel pinks and shades inspired by nature, such as
earth tones and metallics, are in). She also tells shoppers how and when to
wear these colors so that they always look their best, instead of appearing
like they’re trying too hard to be fashionable, regardless of whether the
look of the moment suits them or not.
The trend section also lists the top 10 fashion items for men and women and
offers complete details on the items, their fabric, color and price, as well
as where to find them in the mall. From Banana Republic’s $200 short jacket
to Nine West’s $125 sandals to the men’s linen pants that Harry Rosen sells
for $198, there’s something for everyone and every occasion. To complement
that list, shoppers are also able to view Yorkdale’s advertisements online,
with the added bonus of getting each featured outfit’s vital stats right on
the site.
Besides style ideas and lots of eye candy, the website also disseminates
information on some of the mall’s fashion-related customer services,
including the Fashion Fix wardrobe planning program. Beginning June 11 and
continuing on every second Wednesday of each month, shoppers may pair up
with a fashion consultant for free and sessions include discussions about
fashion needs and budgeting. The center’s professional fashion shoppers will
even pre-select outfits for customers and guide them through the selection
of stores that best fit their style. Customers just register for the Fashion
Fix online or by phone before an expert calls them to begin a style
consultation.
Yorkdale promotes this particular service with the same kind of humor that
it uses in its other forms of advertising. One postcard it sent out to
prospective customers this spring features a man looking very sharp in a
brand new suit and brightly dotted tie. The tagline on that piece reads,
”Only a woman can make you look this good.”
Just like the advertisements, collateral and website, Yorkdale’s promotions
are very fashion-focused. Until May 31, for example, a lucky shopper who
provides contact information online can win a one of ten $50 gift
certificates from Town Shoes.
The only area in which Yorkdale breaks its fashion act to focus on more
down-to-earth considerations is in its community events, many of which are
developed from the mall’s ongoing relationships with non-profit
organizations, such as Toronto’s world-renowned Hospital for Sick Kids, the
YWCA, the Canadian Scholarship Trust Plan and Multiple Sclerosis of Canada.
Most likely, though, any charity-related event will be an affair worth
pulling out a swanky outfit. After all, this is Yorkdale and whatever its
shoppers are looking at, be it in-store, online or in the mail, it’s sure to
have something to do with fashion—first and foremost.
Media
Mix
Yorkdale used these media vehicles to reach its
fashion-conscious clientele:
• In-mall posters and banners
• Yorkdale.com website
• Television
• Direct mail
• Business cards (for media relations)
The
Dream Team
Here are the members of Yorkdale’s fashion consulting team:
• Robin Keeler, the center’s fashion director
• Donna DeMarco, a model and former fashion boutique operator
• Lesley Sharpe, an expert in promotional event planning and retail
management
• Sook Jeon, a model and graduate of the International Fashion Institute in
Seoul, Korea
• Jean Fleming, a modeling industry veteran
• Mina Natale, who brings 10 years of retail experience and worked two years
in the mall’s marketing department
For information on
ZiG, log on to www.zig.com or contact Andy Macaulay at 416-598-4944.
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