Discover the most recent and relevant industry news and insights for fashion professionals working in marketing, to help you excel in your job interviews, promotion conversations or simply to perform better in the workplace by increasing your market awareness and emulating market leaders.
BoF Careers distils business intelligence from across the breadth of our content — editorial briefings, newsletters, case studies, podcasts and events, as well as the exclusive interviews and conversations we have with experts and market leaders every day — to deliver key takeaways and learnings in your job function.
Key articles and need-to-know insights for marketing professionals today:
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1. How to Make Shoppable TV Work
Last year, Peacock gave viewers of the Bravo reality show “Below Deck” a reason to pay attention when the commercials came on-screen. For the first time, the streaming service launched an in-show shopping feature, where, during the ad breaks, a QR code would appear on-screen, taking those who scanned it to a page on Walmart.com featuring a curated assortment of products inspired by the outfits on-screen. It was a hit, with 379 percent higher engagement than regular ads, according to NBCU Global CMO Josh Feldman. Peacock has since rolled it out to six shows, including “Southern Charm” and “Summer House.”
Product placement in TV and film has long been an effective tactic for getting more eyes on fashion and beauty brands, but actually getting consumers to buy the items they see on-screen has historically been trickier. Nowadays, though, there are more ways to buy the clothes you see on TV. Streamers like Peacock, Prime Video, Hulu and Netflix are using retail media providers such as Shopsense AI and Kerv, which powers Peacock’s “shop the look” feature, that use AI to make videos shoppable by surfacing items worn on-screen (or similar products), whether it’s by QR code, image-scanning technology or just a product widget that pops up when the screen is paused.
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2. How to Choose a PR Agency
With so many ways for brands to gain publicity, the expectation of PR partners’ expertise across a variety of fields has gotten broader. When hiring a new PR agency, whether it’s for the first time or seeking out a different approach, brands should consider how the firm will fit into their brand’s ecosystem, as well as its past successes in key areas they need support in.
“The name publicist might become obsolete someday, because that’s not what we’re doing anymore,” Savannah Engel, founder of PR agency Savi, which works with clients including PatBo and Ciao Lucia. “It’s not just communications. It’s presentation, it’s preservation, it’s creativity. There’s so much more involved now building these brands.”
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3. With ‘Wicked,’ Fashion Tests the Limits of the ‘Barbie’ Model
“Wicked” is proving popular for fashion. Fashion and beauty brands including Gap, Rebecca Minkoff, Roots, Ulta Beauty, R.e.m. Beauty, Crocs and H&M have all rolled out “Wicked”-themed collections or collaborations. They’re tapping the film’s starpower: Designer Naeem Khan presented a “Wicked”-inspired runway for Spring/Summer 2025, a look from which “Wicked” actor Cynthia Erivo later wore to the Academy Museum Gala in 2024, while Gap and Zac Posen brought the star, clad in a hooded gown, as a guest to the CFDA awards.
Call it the “Barbie” effect. Last year, parent company Mattel inked a huge number of fashion collaborations in anticipation of the film’s release. “Barbie was a shocker for all of us. It was so much bigger than what we could have anticipated,” said Amanda Amar, vice president of global brand strategy of accessories maker Aldo, which put out a line of “Wicked”-inspired jewelled heels and purses after its hit Barbie collaboration last year. “That helped us understand the phenomenon of pop culture moments and the press, excitement and conversation they stimulate.”
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4. How Marathons Became Fashion Shows
For brands, marathons offer the perfect chance to market special-edition gear to product-crazy members of the running community, while getting their clothing and footwear in front of others who may not have come across them yet. […] Bandit, a New York-based fashion-forward running label, released a 17-piece collection of running gear and sneakers in collaboration with Asics and will host activations like cheer zones and a pre-race warm-up run from a SoHo pop-up; New Balance is sponsoring a team of high-profile personalities for the race in partnership with rapper Action Bronson to promote the release of their FuelCell Rebel v4 and M10 Minimus sneakers.
The swarm of brand activity from product collaborations to pop-ups to sponsored fitness events in the lead-up to the New York City Marathon has resembled that of a fashion week rather than preparation for the 26.2-mile slog through the city’s five boroughs. “These events are full of people and influencers wearing all the expensive, exclusive gear, many of whom have no intention of running the race at all but are drawn in by the product,” said Tayler Willson, a writer and brand consultant who has run eight marathons since 2020. “The race is now almost the least important part.”
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5. How the Rest of America Fell in Love With Californian Style
A wave of Golden State brands are selling Americans on an updated version of California style that’s both low-lift and luxurious, simple but still detail-oriented. Each of these brands offers their own unique take on the look: Jenni Kayne is known for its relaxed sweaters and trousers and Doên for its floral, lacy pieces in wearable silhouettes, while there’s also the worn-in t-shirts from Buck Mason, The Great’s printed fleeces and vintage-inspired sweats or even Alo Yoga’s west coast take on athleisure.
What they have in common is a sense of effortlessness. “When you see somebody in a true California look, it feels very easy,” said Sara Walker, a Los Angeles-based content creator. “They’re comfortable and happy running around town.” Those in the business of selling it to the masses believe there’s endless potential. All have opened stores outside their home state: Jenni Kayne crossed $100 million in annual sales in 2021; Doên estimates it will do the same next year. Doên’s collaboration with Gap this summer was an instant hit, with multiple products selling out in just a few hours.
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6. Every Fashion Label Wants a Beauty Brand. Is There Room for All of Them?
This year has seen luxury fashion labels enter beauty in rapid succession. Balmain dropped a new fragrance collection in August and has makeup on the way, while Celine launched its Celine Beauté makeup in October and Prada Beauty’s just over one-year-old makeup and skincare line made its US debut in January. The pipeline for 2025 is even more packed, with Miu Miu’s coming makeup debut, the comeback of Marc Jacobs Beauty, and Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen’s return to fine fragrance.
Now, as the luxury fashion sector faces a spending slowdown, beauty is providing a bright spot for growth even as other categories decline. While Kering’s luxury brands saw a 27 percent decline in wholesale sales in the third quarter of 2024, beauty, eyewear and royalties grew. LVMH also reported that beauty and selective retailing, which includes Sephora, were the only categories that did not decline that quarter. More than that, it’s a chance to win over entry-level customers who have been turned off by price increases.
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7. Amazon Questioned by Congress Over Growing TikTok Relationship
Representatives from Amazon were called to Capitol Hill for a closed-door meeting with a key House committee earlier this fall to answer questions about the retail giant’s deepening relationship with the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok. The Committee, which seeks to address perceived threats posed by China’s government, was concerned that a leading American company central to the economy had partnered with a Chinese-owned company on the verge of being banned over national security concerns.
Amazon had long been one of TikTok’s top advertisers in the US, but some industry insiders saw the recent partnership as a calculated move to make it harder for the US to ban TikTok. Amazon has similar deals with other social media companies, including Meta Platforms Inc. and Pinterest Inc. At the same time, another arm of its business — Amazon Web Services — has contracts with the Department of Defense, National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency.
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8. Inside the Search for the Next Cerave
As Cerave has showed, a no-frills and accessible image can be a foundation for virality. In recent years, the L’Oréal-owned skincare brand has gone from an unexciting line distributed mainly in dermatologist’s offices to a billion-dollar brand, thanks to a combination of smart branding and tapping into the burgeoning popularity of professionally recommended skincare — plus a handful of viral stunts. Cerave was able to leverage the endorsements of its pre-existing dermatologist network and establish the brand’s scientific credibility while mobilising a growing cohort of “medfluencer” creators.
This playbook is easily replicable for other mass brands, who have the opportunity to bask in Cerave’s “halo effect” — but execution is key. […] The sweet spot for mass brands wanting to go the way of Cerave is to appeal widely and authoritatively. But this requires a careful calibration of marketing, product development and pricing strategies — as well as timing — to ensure they hit the right note.
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