David Jones Mixes Fashion With Music in a 100% Digital Push

Australian fashion retailer David Jones has partnered with former Silverchair front man Daniel Johns to target a Gen Y audience by releasing its latest catalog in a music video.

Australian fashion retailer David Jones has launched its spring summer 2015 catalogue in a digital music campaign to reposition the brand and reach a new demographic.

In the five minute clip, former Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns performs his new song, “We Are Golden,” as cameras triggered by the vocals and instruments shoot the models parading around him. Trending under the hashtag #ShotBySound, the clip has been released on YouTube as Johns’ official music video for the single, garnering 2.5 million engagements across social media channels since its release on Sunday, according to the retailer.

Daniel Johns is hoping to reach a young audience with the campaign, one that is always shopping, be it on mobile, desktop, or in-store.

“The aim of the campaign is to attract and engage shopping butterflies,” says Victoria Doidge, general manager marketing communications at David Jones. “These are people who are very fashion forward: they love Australian and international designer collections, they live in digital media, they are always on, they are always shopping, and they are always engaging with fashion content.”

The audience is not a new one for the brand, but Doidge says the execution in terms of targeting that audience, based on bought data and quantitative and qualitative research, is ‘new and fresh.’

“What’s new is that we understand our customers more now, and we know that they do want us to be edgier. They want us to reflect contemporary culture back at them,” she says.

An ownership change last year is also behind a renewed effort by David Jones to understand and engage with Gen X and Y consumers.

“They are trying to reposition the brand, and by using Johns’ music, the message credibility itself is being increased,” says Andrew Hughes, a marketing lecturer and MBA convenor for the Australian National University’s Research School of Management and College of Business & Economics.

“It is like sponsored content. David Jones made the content themselves, and they are doing it in such a way that doesn’t make it look like an ad. They are trying to make sure they slip past the defenses of the consumer and try to have them share that content and go viral, which is what all brands are looking at these days,” says Hughes.

Authenticity is a key element of social media, so partnerships like the David Jones and Daniel Johns collaboration will be a common trend for future content creation, he adds.

Johns is also likely to benefit from the collaboration as he re-engages with existing and new audiences.

“It really is a good way for him to cross-promote his own brand, his own music, to reach new markets, to really get that the sort of exposure he couldn’t by himself,” says Hughes.

In a new move for the retailer, no paid traditional television or radio advertising has been used to promote the campaign; however a second phase will be launched in a few weeks time, including a ‘magalogue’, outdoor advertising and a publicity event.

The video has been developed in partnership with WhybinTBWA Sydney, MAUD, Universal Music Australia, Will O’Rourke, M.A.P. and The Glue Society.

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