I rarely expect sportswear brands to use the same marketing tools as fashion luxury brands, but in this case, I really don’t see why the hell not.

For now, luxury brands like Chanel and Christian Dior may be using digital media in terms of pictures/videos of beautiful people doing beautiful things but they may want to wise up sooner than later.

Nike sets a shift in pace by incorporating digital and service platforms in their digital marketing. In other words, they make tech-y stuff that is both cool and (shocking) useful!  For example, customers who purchase Nike’s Total90 Laser boot can actually get  access to Nike Football+, a digital coaching program where famous soccer players teach their “signature moves.”

Players can get these via web, mobile internet or even iPhone application to help improve their skills. Or, in my case, watch hot soccer players play Mr.Teacher in another language (um…yes, please).

Personally, I would love for fashion brands to incorporate more digital media like Nike has done. It’s just smart!  Partly because people love free shit, but especially if the application is as pragmatic and relevant as Nike’s is.

Fashion brands may feel a bit jaded/overwhelmed by the exponential momentum of technology but digital media is another way for brands to make their target market feel, well, more targeted–and anything that can make consumers feel linked by a common experience is something all businesses should aspire towards.

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I’ve recently just sat down to watch Ron Galella‘s documentary, Smash His Camera.   It’s interesting to see the evolution of paparazzi today and how a much has changed in terms of technology.  But, how little has changed in the interaction with celebrity and the man behind the camera.

Today’s celebrity now has a platform to promote themselves and control their own image through social media as where others still remain to be as private as possible.

The documentary ended with Ron Galella saying, “My picture taking is finished, there’s no need for me to shoot today, there’s very little to be shot.  The iconic stars are gone.”

Do you think the “iconic stars” are gone today because as a society we became more interested in the voyeuristic part of their every day lives, leaving no mystery  to who they are…

Tweet us your thoughts @StarworksGroup

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Swiss watch company Tissot has created a genius marketing plan, one that allows potential customers to try on their watches without leaving the comfort of their home! Even enjoying this augmented reality is a very easy process. It’s as simple as printing, cutting, and then wrapping the paper watch around your favored wrist. The computer and your webcam recognize the cutout and right before you will appear a live video stream of you and your designer clock. Browse through all the styles and functions and allow them to instantly appear on your wrist. The 3-D model provides a 360-degree view of the watch, complete with a glare off the glass face, down to adjusting the tightness on your wrist. This sure brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘online shopping’.

Fire up your webcam and try on some watches yourself at

http://www.tissot.ch/reality/#

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The first blow to be taken in public, in the current war between
Apple and Adobe was landed by Apple last month when they introduced
new rules for developers creating apps for iPhone and iPad which
prevent developers from creating apps with the new version of Flash.

Flash CS5 was two weeks away from launch, and the ability to create
iPhone apps was a headline feature, but the new rules meant that the
only apps on the store to built with Flash are the one hundred or so
apps created by Adobe’s beta testers. Some of these are fabulous and
well worth the money, especially It’s a Clock – see www.itsaclock.flamjam.com
for more details.

Then last week Steve Jobs published an open letter attacking Adobe,
a letter that is still promoted heavily on the home page of www.apple.com
. The full letter is available at www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Everyone was shocked at such a public attack, and Adobe CEO Shantanu
Narayen even did video interview with Alan Murray on the WSJ blog,
available here – www.tinyurl.com/flashceointerview

So what’s all this about? It basically comes down to two companies
with very different agendas.

Apple, as a forward thinking technology company has striven compel
users of their products to upgrade frequently. For example, 3 years
ago they changed the type of processor in their computers so that
today many new software products, including Flash CS5, fail to work
on a Mac that’s more than 3 years old.

By comparison, Windows software tends to be able to run on computers
that are ten years old. But this backwards compatibility comes at a
price. Whereas new Mac software can take advantage of all users
having modern hardware, Windows software generally aims at a lower
common denominator.

Apple want developers to take advantage of their hardware’s newer
features, but when building software that runs on both Mac and
Windows this would mean considerable extra work making two different
versions.

Adobe’s mission is to allow their customers to author content once
and deliver across platforms. Flash is a great example of this.
Despite its numerous flaws, Flash, more than any other web
technology, allows us to design and build one site and deploy it
across platforms and browsers. Even simple HTML websites need extra
code to make them look consistent between browsers and platforms.

The problem with this approach, from Apple’s perspective, is that it
restricts digital content and applications to a feature set common
to all platforms. This means the lack of technical ability of an
ageing Windows computer limits what people can create for Apple
computers.

And this is why Apple banned Flash (and a bunch of other software
products) from creating apps for their mobile devices. If you’re
creating for Apple hardware, Apple want you to use technology that
makes it hard to deploy to other hardware, so that you really focus
on them, and don’t let any other manufacturer’s hardware limit your
feature set.

Although this seems like a big battle to us, as most of us use Apple
hardware daily, the reality is Apple users are a minority. The iPad
is big news, but after discussing these issues with Adobe last week,
they have revealed that their relationships with hardware
manufacturers has allowed them to discover a glut of multi-touch
tablets that are cheaper and more feature rich.

As a side note, Adobe will be providing Starworks with access to
both unreleased software and hardware to give us a head start that
we can pass on to our clients as a tangible competitive advantage.

Regarding the iPhone, there are sixty new Google Android phones
coming out in the second half of this year, something we’d be
foolish to ignore. The user experience on their flagship phone, the
Nexus One (www.google.com/phone) is not even close to that of the
iPhone. It’s comparable to using Windows vs OS X. It is very capable
but sometimes things go wrong when installing apps, and it just
isn’t as intuitive as the iPhone.

But if they can sort the user experience out and make it easier to
get music onto your phone, the better battery life, signal
reception, and open app store may tempt people away from the iPhone.

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It seems society’s obsession with social media and instant gratification has finally leaked it’s way into fashion. West Coast-based interactive designer, Jennifer Darmour has created a jacket called “Ping” that actually allows you to update your status without grinding down your thumbs. You won’t be able to tell your social network about your new promotion or that you spent the day shopping, instead it gives your friends updates based on your gestures and movements (for example- Bent down, zipped up your jacket, buttoned some buttons). The jacket is laced with flexible sensors that are wirelessly linked to Facebook. The prototype also notifies you when a friend responds or leaves a comment, by tapping you on the shoulder. Total invasion of privacy or perfect for the person on the go?

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