The boom in NFT and meta-universe concepts is not only stimulating product innovation for fashion brands, but also bringing new ideas for breaking new ideas for entrepreneurship to the fashion PR industry that serves this industry.
Just this month, an innovative digital platform called Frntal went live. According to the official, the purpose of this platform is to provide more advanced and cost-effective solutions for the PR work of emerging fashion brands.
Frntal website
Frntal was created on two basis of reality. First of all, like other sectors of the fashion industry, the impact of the new crown epidemic has also exposed the problem of traditional fashion public relations methods - the transmission path of brand information is inseparable from the key link of public relations companies, in order to make their information can reach the media and influencers, celebrities, brands have always needed to pay expensive service fees to public relations companies. In an era of abundant liquidity, or for mature big brands, this is not a heavy burden, but independent designers and start-up brands with limited funds often invest a lot of money in this link. Secondly, the use of NFT technology and the concept of playing the meta-universe and the Web3 concept is becoming a hot topic in the fashion industry, when fashion brands are preparing for the "transition to the virtual world" and preempting the position of fashion pry in this direction in advance, it is also closely following the trend of Party A to lay out the future.
NFT fashion on display at Crypto Fashion Weeks in January 2021
According to Frtnal's official spokesperson, the basic model of this platform is to build an information exchange platform based on blockchain and NFT technology, where brands can upload all the information they want to publish to the "digital newsroom" for journalists, commentators, stylists, and even consumers from all over the world to freely access. "This platform will eliminate middlemen and give users immediate and direct access to all the brand information they need." The creative team believes that this will inevitably lead to a significant increase in the brand's media exposure, which in turn will help them reach buyers and consumers around the world. ”
Frtnal's focus is on emerging brands in the fashion industry. "We want to provide services that allow emerging designers' businesses to move forward on their affordable terms, rather than having to go through large and unnecessary PR and sales activities like agencies and showrooms." Young, aspiring designers have been faced with huge hurdles, forced to devote significant resources to gaining exposure, attending prestigious events and trade shows in order to position themselves in the market. In contrast, Frtnal is definitely a low-investment, high-return sales and PR channel. ”
So here's the problem. The PR industry has never been just about the technology of information transmission, but about the art of communication.
In the audience of fashion brand information, even in the decentralized digital age, there are communicators subdivided into media, opinion leaders, celebrities, and influencers, and there are also VIC, KOC and ordinary consumers in the consumer group. Different identities and functions determine that they need different communication strategies, rhythms and methods, and many times, the information of fashion brands also needs to be further interpreted by professional communication personnel to make targeted content adjustments.
The basic work content of a junior fashion public relations practitioner, in addition to sending communication materials to different types of communicators, is more important to convey additional information that cannot be fully presented by standard materials through peer-to-peer interpersonal communication, and even help brands establish cultural identity and emotional connections with information recipients.
What's more, brands that have a history of many years still need to communicate with communicators in a targeted manner, tell brand ideas and stories, and hope to go to the global market, if only mechanically share information, how can people really understand and establish a comprehensive three-dimensional understanding? The more emerging brands are, the more they need the help of professional fashion prists and teams in multiple dimensions such as cultural background, consumer market, and media strategy allocation, in order to meet the source and do more with less.
This is why even if a brand has an internal PR department, it still needs the assistance of a professional PR firm, and it is not a problem that can be properly solved by establishing a digital newsroom that can freely upload and download materials.
Perhaps also aware of the problems of model innovation in the "Digital Newsroom", Frntal also plans to launch a trading platform that will allow its target users to sell physical and digital goods directly to consumers. The foundation of this platform is the integration of blockchain technology and NFT sales.
All of Frntal's current listings
"NFTs are the starting point for a whole new fashion experience that people can have. It is a new canvas for storytelling, cultural creation and consumer experience. A company spokesperson added. Our NFT marketplace not only becomes a tool for selling and buying virtual garments, but also a platform for providing valuable data about clothing, designs, and trends by virtualizing each garment and enabling users to experience digital fashion items. If consumers only need to make an engaging Instagram post and don't have to buy a new physical outfit, NFTs can sell, transfer, or simply provide a try-on photo or video. ”
On the one hand, they will track changes in merchandise ownership and offer royalties to brands every time their products are resold in a second-hand space, taking the resale market to the next level. The merchandise it sells is not only virtual clothing, but also fashion show videos and backstage images.
In Frntal's view, sales data from NFT products will be an effective tool for fashion professionals to predict trends, thereby improving physical and digital design. However, in shopping malls, the sales of physical goods have always achieved this function, and NFT products focus on the attributes of the younger generation of consumer groups, which determines that the role feedback effect it can play can only be effective on specific goods.
Frntal's ambitions also include it also includes "a custom NFT project for fashion publishing," which they believe can help modernize the publishing industry by creating new reader engagement tools or digital magazines.
So far, Frntal's official website has opened the "buy goods" and "buy NFT" two major functions, the product category also includes men's wear, women's wear, bags, shoes, accessories, jewelry and watches and beauty categories, but also highlighted several emerging brands. But all of the above links are still dead links of "click to jump back to the home page".
It is true that in the contemporary era of "no innovation and no entrepreneurship", the hot trend of taking a sense of the future is the most convenient hitchhiking for entrepreneurial projects. However, whether it is product innovation or model innovation, the ultimate factor in whether it can grow and develop lies in discovering and solving the real and unmet needs. The cool mantle of NFT technology can certainly attract attention for a while, but technology can't solve all the problems associated with people. How Frntal's future development is worth paying attention to, but it is still too early to expect too much. WWD
Written by Ma Xiao Thorn
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