Samsoe & Samsoe Instagram reinstated after unplanned shutdown by Meta

By

Erin Floyd

Published
Feb 24, 2022

Danish label Samsoe & Samsoe has had its Instagram account reinstated after a forced shutdown by the Meta-owned platform during Copenhagen Fashion Week, which brought the label's Autumn/ Winter 2022 launch on the social channel to an unexpected halt.

The channel was shut down on February 3, one day after the digital collection launch during the fashion week in the Danish capital. The outage immediately put the brakes on the social engagement that the label had hoped to muster with the campaign during a critical period for marketing and future sales of the autumn collection. The label's latest Instagram posts for the launch, from February 3, show some of the lowest engagement rates for its content on the channel.
 
"The account is now finally live again after three weeks. However, the momentum experienced during Copenhagen Fashion has past (sic), and it's very difficult to get the same momentum back," the brand said in a release.

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Sofie Niebuhr, head of PR & marketing, added: "The result of the account shutdown meant tremendous loss of reach during one of most re-shared and loved presentations for Samsoe & Samsoe."

"Some of the traffic was detected and classified by Meta and Instagram as spam, ultimately creating a temporary blocking of the profile," the brand claimed, although it admitted that it was not certain of the reason for the deactivation and had been unable to confirm this with the platform. It said it suspects "a blocking and/or cyber attack."
 
The outage is a reminder of the challenge faced by fashion labels dependent on large third-party-owned audiences such as social media for their online visibility. Many have retained a digital hybrid approach for collection launches since the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic as restrictions are lifted unevenly across the world and major fashion capitals.

Fashion Network approached Meta for comment, but the company did not respond at the time of writing.