Last May, we were honoured to work with Sydney based slow fashion-house madre natura on their debut at Australian Fashion Week.
This was a monumental moment for the brand, who wanted to double down on their sustainability mission through an unconventional approach to Fashion Week. In a move that defied the relentless churn of the fashion cycle, madre natura debuted the ‘Last Season Collection’ seeing them position their previous collection as this season's must haves. They vowed to not launch the new season until every piece from the previous collection was sold.
[Australians throw 500 million kgs of clothing into landfill every year. As an ethical fashion label with a focus on making garments that do less harm to the planet, madre natura refused to add to this problem]
The show highlighted not only madre natura’s dedication to circular fashion, but sparked an industry wide conversation about over-consumption, waste and what the future really looks like for sustainable fashion.
Teaming up with TikTok Australia, madre natura live streamed the show on TikTok Live as part of their TikTok For Good initiative which generated huge impact across social and online, as well as Greener, Australia’s #1 clean-tech startup.
The Challenge
Australian Fashion Week is a notoriously noisy time, making it challenging for emerging brands to cut through. Standing out amongst some of the more established brands can be increasingly difficult, especially if you can’t compete with the same budgets that they may have.
The Strategy
A robust and dynamic media strategy that focused on securing feature-led pieces to position madre natura as an industry leader in sustainability. Our strategy was to focus on securing feature-led stories as opposed to event-driven coverage and product placement. We wanted to create an industry-wide conversation.
Pre-event exclusive - we secured a first-run exclusive and set up shot with madre natura founder and hero talent Unice Wani in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Pre-event targeted industry pitching - we developed a compelling media narrative that focused around waste in the industry, producing tailored and bespoke angles for each media outlet to secure coverage in the lead up to the show and directly after the show resulting in pieces in Broadsheet, Fashion Journal, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue to name a few.
Post-event media outreach - immediately after the show, distributing a press release and assets to fashion, lifestyle and consumer media
The Results
45 pieces of coverage including Vogue Australia, Harper’s Bazaar, Refinery29, Sydney Morning Herald and Popsugar.
73.5 million+ media reach
5 million + social media impressions from 101 social posts
122 VIP guests and industry leaders in attendance
733% increase in brand mentions compared to the previous period
Key Takeaways
The power of a good story - We love a good story here. Having a bold and disruptive message associated with the debut provided a compelling hook for media which resulted in feature-led coverage.
The power of a spokesperson - Jackie and her genuine knowledge and passion for sustainability allowed for further storytelling and amplified the coverage
Strategic partnerships - the alignment with TikTok Australia and Greener added credibility and reach to the campaign.
Authenticity - Developing a guest list is not just a tick-box, particularly when it comes to sustainability. Carefully curating a list of media, KOLs and industry leaders that had a true passion for the mission meant that we built a community that has continued to live on beyond the AFW moment.
Show credits:
Brand: madre natura
Concept: Orphan
Communications: Gum Agency
Broadcast Partner: TikTok
Runway sponsor: Greener
Show Partner: CAK STUDIO
Runway Production: The Event Group
Production Partner: Tribal Apes
Music: Rumble
Photography: Louis&Co
Special thanks to partners & sponsors: Redken, Bresic Whitney, Chadwick Models
Signals: #Authenticity #ReputationCapital #Storytelling
