Newsstands, kiosks and pop-ups. What do they have in common? They are means of marketing strategies used by luxury fashion houses to go viral during certain ‘buzzing’ times of the year, such as fashion weeks, Valentine’s Day or the Salone del Mobile.
In these colourful locations dotting the neighbourhoods, brands usually do not sell their products, but a free gift to go viral. And it works. Last September, Prada opened a flower stall for two days on the streets of Milan, and not only – also flying to London, New York and as far as Tokyo -, giving away limited edition packages containing marigold, daisy and sunflower seeds, on the occasion of the presentation of its autumn/winter 2023 campaign. The queue of people waiting to get this gift was kilometres long, counting hundreds and hundreds of passers-by, as were the hundreds of reposts on social media.
The brand The Attico chose Valentine’s Day to ‘brand’ a kiosk in Via Giardini, Milan, giving away a special package: a post, an apple and a chocolate bar. It went viral all over social media.
A few weeks ago, Loro Piana also adopted the same strategy, on the occasion of the 2024/2025 collection and its 100th anniversary. The Italian fashion house transformed a kiosk into an oasis of thistle flowers, the symbol of the fashion house, giving passers-by their bouquet of flowers.
Louis Vuitton thought of this long before, on the occasion of men’s fashion week in January 2023, bringing a set of Yayoi Kusama-inspired installations to Milan, including a flower stand brushed with polka dots. And not only that. The luxury brand opened a pop-up newsstand that not only sold newspapers and periodicals, but also housed the complete collection of the French fashion house’s renowned Travel Book, Fashion Eye and City Guide.
Jil Sander,last September, it flew to London, to Selfridges Duke Street, – and to Japan, to Kyoto – with the unprecedented ‘kiosk bar’ concept, where passers-by for four weeks could drink a coffee and at the same time buy a series of magazines curated by the luxury brand, such as A magazine Curated by Lucie and Luke Meier, related to architecture, design or culture.
If we talk about ‘virality’, we cannot but mention Jacquemus. The French brand, directed and created by Simon Porte, has always amazed the public over the years with multiple temporary pop-ups opened in different cities around the world, also playing with artificial intelligence. In 2022 it was the turn of Milan, where it brought an automated convenience store open 24 hours a day for two days – in this case selling its products – giving the customer a new and unprecedented experience.
In short, newsstands and flower stalls are thus transformed into real destinations of attraction for consumers, falling into the marketing ‘trap’ created by the fashion houses, and quite happy to do so. We’ll just have to see you at the next pop-up!
by Giorgia Dallasio
12 March 2024
