Images magazine Digital Edition April 2018

www.images-magazine.com 42 images APRIL 2018 YR Store – TimWilliams Tim, CEO of customisation partner YR Store, delivered a presentation on his company and the evolution of using digital printing technology in a pop-up store environment. Five years ago, using equipment bought on eBay, his company created a pop-up store using a touchscreen interface to digitally print all-over designs. These were sublimated on white tees. What drove the loyalty for his customers was the experience and fun. From there YR Store refined its presentation and techniques and learned from its mistakes. The bigger connection was made when it brought this pop-up store user experience to brands such as Ralph Lauren and Coca- Cola. It now has offices in London, New York and Tokyo, and also prints on- demand from a truck for events. The takeaway: While they use standard digital printing equipment like the Brother GTX DTG printer, the beauty of their experience comes from using a gamification engine on the software that they created. Blue Ion – Chris Simpson and Robert Prioleau Chris and Robert of digital marketing agency Blue Ion started their presentation with a few examples of how cause marketing works. As an example, they reviewed both Patagonia’s and Tito’s Vodka, and how these brands stand for non-traditional political viewpoints. In the second half of their presentation they shifted gears and took a deep dive into Google, explaining how research backed by Google Analytics, Google Trends, Google Shopping Insight Tool and the Google Keyword Tool can give your business an in-depth understanding of your marketplace. The pair finished their talk with an overview of new trends for Facebook, including Facebook Collection, a new ad format that lets advertisers place an image or video above four product images in the Facebook newsfeed to help drive discovery, and Facebook Marshall Atkinson is a leading production and efficiency expert for the decorated apparel industry, and the owner of Atkinson Consulting, LLC. Marshall focuses on operational efficiency, continuous improvement and workflow strategy, business planning, employee motivation, management and sustainability. He is a frequent trade show speaker, article and blog author, and is the host of InkSoft’s The Big Idea podcast. atkinsontshirt.com Carousel, where multiple images and videos are combined in one ad unit. The takeaway: Cause marketing creates alignment with the customer experience and drives more loyalty when it is authentic. Fed by Threads – Skya Nelson Fed by Threads, of which Skya is creative director, has designed and sold over $100 million worth of apparel, but at the root of the company’s operation is a bigger picture message. Not only is it an eco-friendly company that adheres to a strict sustainable business model, but the entire operation is built on feeding people. Their sales to date have fed over 10 million people over the last ten years. Eco-authenticity and the social enterprise of the company is what drives more sales and growth. Each new customer becomes a brand ambassador for Fed by Threads. The takeaway: Skya challenged the audience to add one product line for kids that uses an eco-friendly model. By becoming an early adopter in this movement, the industry can grow and help with the environmental concerns that are becoming overwhelming. Sandilake Apparel – Mel Lay Mel Lay started printing shirts in her garage in 2014 and selling her line of apparel on her Etsy store. She wasn’t happy with the choices available for her children, and decided to create her own simple and modern clothing brand. Her presentation involved not only walking the audience through the legal challenges she faced when Target was spotted selling a copy of one of her designs, but also her experience of appearing on a hit US TV show. She stressed that her success was due to her authenticity and creating a brand that she wanted to buy from. Her message was to ‘sell to yourself’ with your ideas. Mel also is a huge believer in the power of social media and including your audience in the journey. As examples of this, she showed Instagram posts of the day she started her line, with the equipment being delivered. The takeaway: What resonates with her customers is her authentic viewpoint that she constantly expresses. Th13teen – riCardo Crespo riCardo, chief creative officer at Th13teen, conducted two sessions: firstly, an in-depth discussion on branding, then a workshop where the audience was treated to his actual sales progression on pitch for a new apparel line for tennis star Venus Williams. He also shared concepts from projects he worked on with Nike and Mattel. His focus was on showing that compelling brand design is a strategic disruption of expectations, and not an accommodation of them. This is achieved by not talking about the usual mundane things about a product, but by demonstrating its awesomeness through stories that communicate with the visual and iconic language of the market. The takeaway: At the core of his presentation was the need to boil down your company’s DNA to what makes you different. Don’t list benefits, tells stories that connect with the audience. The founding users of Allmade Apparel, a new sustainable blank garments company that helps orphaned children in Haiti , as used by Sandilake