Stylist Live: brands, meet your target consumer
Claire Burrows, creator and founder of Air & Grace, couldn’t believe her luck as she watched attendees stream into Stylist Live. This was her audience – the women she created her products around – and they were all in one place with prosecco in hand.
Air & Grace shoes are the perfect union of ‘chic’ and ‘Sunday-morning-slipper-comfy’ – and I can say that because my feet actually cried a little when I took them off. But the notoriously tricky bit for companies like Air & Grace is reaching their target consumer – professional, on-trend, tech-savvy, urbanite women who barely have time for dinner, let alone browsing new shoe brands.
When Gorkana held a briefing with Emma Crisp, the Editorial Director for Stylist Live, a few months ago, we talked about Stylist’s plans for a vibrant and varied selection of stores, all speaking directly to the Stylist audience.
The result, as indicated by several vendors I spoke to, was a captive audience of attendees that are otherwise quite hard to reach. And with a plethora of design, cosmetics (odourless nail polish!), clothing, and deliciousness (matcha-filled Portuguese egg tarts!), that audience is likely to stick around for a good few hours.
In my opinion, Stylist hit the nail on the head, both in appealing to its target audience and in delivering that audience to exciting and innovative brands.
Futhermore, the event’s uniqueness makes an interesting point – as advertising sees increasing success with things like behavioural ad targeting, event planning could apply some of the same principles: get to know that target consumer really well and craft an event around his or her personality.
If and when you’re successful, you’ll end up with a sea of guests wandering around wondering how you managed to create something seemingly just for them.
In summary – if you’re in PR for fashion/food/publishing/beauty/tech/etc, get in line for a booth at next year’s event. Or, if you’re like me and up for a day of browsing, inspirational talks and even a catwalk – get over to Stylist Live this weekend (and please don’t miss the matcha tart).
