Leading financial investment company, Sanlam had been a sponsor of South African Fashion Week for 3 years, and was interested in taking their sponsorship engagement to the next level. Sanlam called in Dion Chang – who has a long standing consulting relationship Sanlam – and his team from Flux Trends, to help implement an unusual, but strategic activation at SA Fashion Week.
Flux Creative developed the concept of the Sanlam Fashion Stock Exchange, which seamlessly linked the world of fashion to the world of finance. Set out as a game at the SAFW Spring/Summer 2009 Exhibition, the Sanlam FSE enabled participants to vote for their favourite designer outfits, displayed on plasma screens in the SAFW exhibition area, as well as online. The more votes a designer received, the more their market share grew on the Sanlam FSE. Every day, one lucky participant received a Sanlam Liquid debit card to the value of R2000.
The experiential element of the voting was done through a hand held device between shows at the Sanlam FSE exhibition stand, while participants from around the country voted online. The whole activation was supported by a social media campaign, which involved videos on YouTube, an interactive Facebook page a constantly updated Twitter feed to keep participants, and designers, up to speed on the designer’s latest market share status. Flux also took Sanlam financial content and structured it as “recessionista tips”, which were tweeted to encourage the fashion crowd to be smart about saving and investing their money.
As an incentive to participate, an overall prizewinner was awarded a diamond to the value of R40 000 – sponsored by Art Ash Diamonds – at the close of the fashion week.
To finally cement the link between finance and fashion, Flux produced a “last quarter financial report” that documented the activation, but more importantly provided the participating designers with invaluable feedback on which of their garments received the most votes; often in total contrast to their own predictions.
The Sanlam FSE proved not only to be fun to engage with, but provided a vital link to understanding the motivation behind Sanlam’s sponsorship of South African fashion.