Abundant social media at NY Fashion Week made everyone an insider

It used to be that NY Fashion Week was for A-listers and industry elite. No more, according to Mashable, which posted about social media’s democratizing affect. For the past six days, from September 9 -16, anyone from anywhere on earth, was able to be a fashion insider via social networks that brought them up close and deep behind the scenes - all for free. 

Back in pre-web days the fashion public waited weeks or even months to see what editors decided to report from the runways. This year NY Fashion Week held nothing back, spewing news and stirring the publicity pot with the help of nimble bloggers, some with VVIP  access, whose simple point, shoot, edit and stream efficiency fed the frenzy. Some designers worked even faster by putting out their own runway photos and video in realtime. 

For me, most notable about NY Fashion Week was the abundant, innovative mix of digital/social media in use: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, mobile, crowdsourcing, live streaming, geo-social, and more. The deluge of content worked to bond fans with designers and with other fans, and surely all the buzz was a huge victory for the fashion business.  During the Great Depression people flocked to movie theaters for a dose of fantasy. For some Fashion Week is a sort of escapism designed to excite and inspire people to get out and shop.  

Publishing's Lucrative Future in Transmedia

Transmedia producer Simon Pulman wrote a compelling post on his Transmythology blog about publishing's need to become intellectual property distributors, promoters and curators. The eBook is just a first step into the vast and lucrative digital realm, and Pulman suggests that soon literary blockbusters may well be conceived from the ground up as transmedia productions. It's easy to imagine all types of material published in an array of offline/digital/social media that together create an extraordinarily rich reading experience.  Pulman adds that publishers accustomed to selling rights may soon retain IP control and exploit their ability to build and mine active fan communities, and drive revenue from for-pay companion content. Here is the link to Mr. Pulman’s insightful Transmythology  blog. 

Amex at the U.S. Open - Multimedia Brings Fans Inside the Story

Longtime U.S. Open sponsor American Express has launched NextContenders.com, a digital site that takes tennis fans behind-the-scenes and up close to four of the tournament's young, mediagenic players. The site’s multimedia – video, photo galleries, blog posts, tweets, Facebook, Twitter, etc. - adds a humanizing touch to this elite competition.  Amex's campaign, produced by Interpublic Group agency Momentum Worldwide and Publicis' Digitas, includes a mobile iPhone app plus live audio streaming for Amex cardholders.  The U.S. Open kicked off yesterday and runs through September 12.