Published
Sep 16, 2020
Reading time
4 minutes
Download
Download the article
Print
Text size

Farfetch unveils major global campaign as its gets new look

Published
Sep 16, 2020

Luxury e-tailer Farfetch has unveiled a new global marketing drive alongside a new brand identity. The company has launched its Open Doors to a World of Fashion campaign that “celebrates the global community, and the power of discovery”.


Farfetch



The campaign promotes the Farfetch concept and comes as it reveals its new monogram (called The Farfetch Fuse). It puts the business’s unique boutique proposition front and centre, highlighting how customers can shop from "the world's best boutiques as well as brands”.

The company worked with British photographer and artist Harley Weir, Chinese photographer Leslie Zhang, Russian stylist Lotta Volkova and French filmmaker Simon Cahn on the campaign -- a diverse talent pool underlining its global focus.

The fruits of their labour will be seen in out of home, print, social, online and, for the first time for Farfetch, addressable TV.

It’s a major development for the company and an understandable approach to take given the changed consumer mindsets it’s dealing with and how online retail has taken on a new relevance for many people. It comes after the long period of global lockdowns and other restrictions, during which time online operations were a vital channel through which physical shops could continue to run their businesses. And Farfetch is, of course, all about that link between physical boutique businesses and the world of online retail.

COMING TOGETHER

The company said that the campaign brings its unique business model to life with “open-mindedness and optimism the driving forces. The joy of togetherness after a period of separation and of being a proudly individual member of a global community”.

Chief brand officer Holli Rogers highlighted that we live in a world “where perhaps we can’t physically be together right now, where we can’t travel to our favourite boutiques or shopping destinations [so] we wanted to express how we can bring the world of fashion to people everywhere now and in the future.” 

As mentioned, the campaign was put together by a diverse team behind the scenes, while the cast in front of the camera also emphasises the e-tailer’s broad-ranging view. It includes Broadway playwright and actor Jeremy O Harris, fashion muse Veronika Kunz, world music artist Kindness, London poet Sonny Hall, Chinese actress Angelababy, environmentalist Wilson Oryema, Vogue cover girl Kesewa Aboah, and new faces to watch from China, Nigeria and India.

The campaign launches in New York, Shanghai and London and will include “a multi-layered international content journey for customers across the Farfetch ecosystem and community”.

Social media is a huge part of it and takes in “an innovative Snapchat Portal Lens, where people can ‘visit’ iconic boutiques around the world from wherever they are, a TikTok challenge, timely and intimate conversations with inspiring fashion voices across Instagram and a new YouTube channel”. More traditional media is also included though and there are “unique content partnerships” with Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Highsnobiety, More Or Less and the newly relaunched AnOther Magazine. 

BRAND IDENTITY

So what about that new monogram and wider changes to the look and feel of the platform? The company said it now has a “streamlined and modern brand identity” taking a “unique approach that put[s] form and functionality on equal footing”.

Its brand team worked with Munich-based design studio Bureau Borsche to “generate an entirely new cohesive visual system that would build on Farfetch’s global reputation and resonate with its growing audience”.

Holli Rogers said the company wanted to “introduce a forward-looking vision for the brand while honouring the Farfetch identity as a single and singular destination, powered by innovative technology, through which to access the greatest designers, fashion curators and most discerning boutique owners across the globe”.


Farfetch


Highlighting how the business is now in its “second chapter’ she added that “we need an identity that…marks a new era of expression, ambition and evolution.” 

The new brand identity features “a more curated approach”, introducing more white space along with a new typographic palette that includes a bespoke typeface called Farfetch Basis, alongside the more graphic font family Nimbus and the bespoke Fuse monogram.

The double-F Fuse monogram that can be seen on the icon for its app reflects the view that “when things are fused, they join together physically or chemically to become one”. In this case, it’s a fusion between a capital ‘F’ and lower case ‘f’ and “represents the inherent duality of the brand – it’s a platform where there is a continuous dichotomy between the classic and the modern, the established and the experimental, the romantic and the revolutionary”.

The company also said the monogram works well for small-size context such as the app icon: “Immediacy is expected in digital mediums and this flexibility in our brand toolkit allows us to communicate our brand in all mediums from giant billboards to mobile home screens across the globe.”

Copyright © 2024 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.