Transmedia: Cultural Intelligence Analysis

and Retail Activations for Aritzia’s sub-brand, Wilfred

Aritzia

Aritzia is a Canadian apparel brand that offers everyday luxury items through its boutique and e-commerce channels. With its vertically integrated strategy, Aritzia creates design-forward pieces with quality materials and craftsmanship.

Task

Present a campaign and additional activations to promote the launch of Wilfred Fall 2023 collection in the United States. The activation was presented to Lisa Gehring, strategy and operations manager at Aritzia as our final project for Luxury Marketing class taught in NYU Stern School of Business.

Wilfred

is a sub-brand under Aritzia that focuses on feminine silhouettes and effortless appeals.

Solutions

  • Transmedia framework to understand Wilfred in our culture

  • Retail and partnership activation following the transmedia framework

  • Media activation that speaks to brand identity

My Process

Research & Brand Analysis

Positioning: All Aritzia brands are connected by offering everyday luxury — elevated apparel integrated into premium lifestyle for any and all occasion.

Target Audience: Women of age range from 15 to 45, in a bustling metropolis. These women are not fashion-forward, but trend and comfort driven. Expressing elevated lifestyle through apparel is important.

Brand Architecture: Different from Aritzia’s other sub-brands Babaton, Sunday Best, and TNA, Wilfred uniquely targets women who are into mature, feminine and effortless styles. Wilfred apparel is meant to be worn off-duty in lounging space such as cafes, galleries, and other weekend functions.

Transmedia Framework - Cultural Intelligence Analysis

Invented by Dr. Thomai Serdari, luxury brand strategist and researcher, the transmedia framework assesses how an entity (brands in our case) maintains a culturally relevant discourse with their audience. The various nodes attached to the brand (ideology, purpose, etc.) are not a criteria. Instead, they are aspects that brands may lend to further their cultural identity and how they resonate with their audience. These nodes could also intertwine in their activations.

There must be a level of cross-contextualization historically, politically, and culturally in order to effectively communicate with their audience. In an ideal world, the brand could use this model to close the gap between brand identity and brand perception.

Wilfred activates many of the transmedia nodes to communicate with their target audience. However, here are two activations that are well developed in their campaigns:

Space: Lounging is the best word to describe the setting that Wilfred models are placed in. The campaigns are staged in garden, , studio, ranch; An “elsewhere,” where Aritzia women could escape and find peace.

Time: Wilfred campaigns often use warm, blurry, and grainy filters to provide a sense of nostalgia and romance. The campaign brings the girls to a tranquil memory where they could metaphorically travel to.

Aritzia as a whole often activate time and culture aspect of the transmedia framework. The company uses celebrities like Pamela Anderson, Irina Shayk, and Emma Chamberlain, who best represent our current pop culture.

Aritzia + Wilfred — Transmedia Framework:

Solution:

The new activation is inspired by ballet core, which was popularized by designers like Sandy Liang and Simone Rocha. Seeing that this trend is a contemporary commentary on girlhood and fragility, it was relevant to connect Wilfred’s romantic and nostalgic image.

Retail activations are also apparel/accessory industry trend that we’re seeing. Gentle Monster’s large-scale art installations and Marc Jacob Heaven’s curated storefront are examples of retail strategy which are successful and thoughtfully integrated into their respective brand identity.

Tapping into the transmedia framework, the new retail strategy will drill into space and time with the aforementioned trends.

Retail and Partnership Activation - Comfort of Memory

The retail activation involves a partnership with female artists who explore ideas of what it means to be a woman. I especially thought of large-scale artists whose works could engulf (or replicate the feeling of engulfment) the shoppers. Making the shoppers feel minuscule, the exhibition retail is supposed to replicate the confusion and existential feeling of traveling in one’s memory. Use of flowers and other romantic symbolisms are also encouraged. These symbols are all tapping into the cultural discourse that we’re having about girlhood, as well as the time and space aspect that Wilfred is known for.

I’ve chosen the artists Tiffanie Turner and Angela Glajcar who have oeuvre of remarkable large-scale art. Their deeply feminine philosophy also inspire the campaign. We will also ask the artists to utilize the famous Aritzia materials like the buttery vegan leather and crepe fabric for the construction of the work. The retail space will act as a quiet sanctuary that prioritize viewership rather than commerce.