Blogged & Bound

Challenge

As a salon brand with a rich fashion heritage, Toni & Guy enables consumers to create hairstyles that compliment their fashion sensibilities, called 'Hair Meet Wardrobe'. To assert Toni & Guy's fashion credentials, the agency needed a strategy that reflected the changing behaviours and attitudes of today's consumer who was shifting from magazines to online to find inspiration and stay abreast of fashion trends.

Insight

With this shift came the rise of the fashion blogger. Fashion bloggers have amassed a dedicated following, a discerning audience that values authenticity while seeking style inspiration. With their reach now on par with traditional media, the influence of these bloggers was undeniable. The credibility lay within these influencers who also offered a targeted media platform in their own right to a highly engaged following.

Solution

Blogged & Bound is a content platform designed to engage with fashion bloggers through a bespoke publication and internet film series. Twenty influential Australian bloggers were profiled in a 100-page spreads book and photographed by a renowned Australian fashion photographer. Online, a series of 20 films explore each bloggers' rituals and takes the viewer on a journey through their fashion inspiration. Bloggers offer their perspective on fashion while describing the role their hair plays in achieving an overall 'look'.

To ensure the success of Blogged and Bound, the brand created content that was of value to the blogger as well as their audience. The key was to allow them to have enough creative control to create their own interpretation that best reflected their style that they would then want to spread to their own audiences.

With a network of 20 bloggers, each with their own individual audience, blogs were a significant distribution channel for drawing an audience. This activity was supported by a YouTube brand channel with associated pre-roll advertising as well as media partner, TheVine.com.au, which used a combination of video pre-roll advertising alongside online display media.

QR Codes were also employed to deliver film content beyond the pages of the Blogged & Bound book, which was distributed through cafes, salons and fashion boutiques.

Results

In the first six weeks of launch, the brand had secured 1.8% share of the haircare category and exceeded sales forecasts by 35.8%. The YouTube channel has been viewed more than 350,000 times since launch, continuing to grow at an average rate of 11,000 views per week. Additional streaming through video platforms beyond YouTube achieved 1,844,695 video views.

Blogged & Bound also earned 608,300 impressions across additional blogs and other content sharing platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. In two instances, 'Blogged & Bound' photos of two bloggers - Gary Pepper & Sabo Skirt - received 7085 & 7926 'likes' on Instagram. The campaign generated a combined PR (digital and offline) value of A$1,578,506 to date. Visits to the website and blog in the first 6 weeks exceeded 100,000 unique visitors with the time spent on site averaging 03:36 (mm:ss).