SM marketing merger creates new way to market to consumers

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Feb 2, 2016

Top fashion social media marketing companies Augure and Fashion GPS have announced they will join forces to become Launchmetrics in 2016 and create new science for online brand marketing.

NY-based Fashion GPS is used by 90% of the designers showing at NY Fashion Week to help round out the brand experience related to the new season’s line and to help facilitate Fashion Week events. Augure is a Paris-based fashion focused social media marketing company that works with established brands like LVMH and L’Oreal to bring customized influencer marketing software to the brand experience.

“Consumer sentiment changes quickly and product lifecycles are becoming increasingly shorter, with social media credited to sway consumers. It is now critical for brands to stay ahead of trends, quickly bring product to market, create exposure with the right timing and be able to measure how it impacts their business. Our new mission is to streamline these launches for brands, in the Fashion industry and beyond” explains Eddie Mullon, former CEO of Fashion GPS and newly appointed President of Launchmetrics.

The merger signifies the next steps in how brands will connect with their consumers. It is no longer enough to just follow influencers. Now, with Launchmetrics, brands will be able to glean data and statistics from their consumers while also delivering their brand messaging.

Michael Jais, former CEO of Augure and newly appointed CEO of the combined entity, states: “Simply listening to consumer discussions is not enough today, brands need to understand who is leading this conversation and bringing consumers to action. By creating a strong proximity with their community and activating the right influencers before, during and after launch, brands have a fantastic opportunity to limit the risk of failure and truly impact their bottom line. With the correct data, creating momentum in product launch becomes an exact science.”

Some examples of this exact science include expanding the community of consumers by finding new influencers through search engine criteria, activating those new influencers through new product sampling and positioning around a launch, creating virtual showrooms, and enhancing event experiences through digital and mobile platforms.

Launchmetrics will draw on the existing partnerships from the prior entities that already had almost 75% market penetration among luxury and fashion brands. It will continue partnerships with the CFDA and British Fashion Council, and will be headquartered in NY with global offices in in London, Paris, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Madrid, and Girona (Spain) with plans to expand to Italy later this year, and to go deeper into Asia in 2017.