London Fashion Week kicks off on Friday (19th February) and as well as the traditional fashion press and the front row celebrities, fashion bloggers will be among the influencers taking their seats at the top catwalk shows. But while agencies, marketing managers and PRs are climbing over each other to get a piece of the new IT girls, has anyone stopped to ask what fashion bloggers want from brands? Laetitia Wajnapel of top fashion blog MademoiselleRobot.com explains how she sees it working.
I created MademoiselleRobot.com in November 2007 as a personal endeavour. Having worked as a journalist/editor for many years before relocating from Paris to London, I needed an outlet for my writing, and what started off as a hobby has since become my job.
I currently get an average of 150,000 page views a month and in the past two years have been both a witness and a protagonist in the rise of online fashion.
Why should brands reach out to bloggers?
The rise of online fashion means that bloggers are now firmly on people’s radars. User recommendations and reviews are the flavour of the moment. Bloggers can be seen as ‘super reviewers’ – they are everyday people talking to an engaged audience.
Blog readers are more likely to go and buy something they have seen on their favourite blog than in a magazine for example. Very often, people will buy something online straight away after seeing it on a blog, because bloggers are trusted by their readers most of the time.
If brands want to boost their online sales, I believe the best way of doing so is through an efficient blogger outreach campaign.
Bloggers vs. Journalists
A blogger is by definition anyone online with an opinion and a journalist is someone who has received formal training in order to either formulate an opinion or deliver information.
There are different types of bloggers, and this is the main point agencies and brands have yet to understand. It is primordial to differentiate professional bloggers – who influence other bloggers and benefit from a large following – from ‘leisure bloggers’ – who influence a small to medium community.
What it comes down to is that bloggers and journalists should be treated in the same basic way: with simplicity and respect. A lot of the time, elaborate marketing ploys don’t get the attention of influential bloggers as they just don’t have time to ‘play’, much like journalists.
However, in some instances, bloggers shouldn’t have the same access as journalists. I think Tavi is very talented and has a unique take on fashion, but I don’t think bloggers should be covering Haute Couture shows. This is something for the traditional fashion press. Really this has nothing to do with Tavi.
The importance of an editorial line
Especially post-‘Tavi-Gate’, bloggers have to make sure they keep their integrity and make sure they don’t fall prey to similar PR strategies.
I can’t stress enough how important it is for bloggers to be aware that they can be used by brands. They absolutely must have a strict editorial line and ethics.
The editorial line I set myself on MademoiselleRobot.com is very simple: if I like a product and would happily go and buy it myself, I will write about it. If I think it is not quite right, I will politely decline.
How to reach out to bloggers
Partnerships seem to be one of the ways brands have found to reach bloggers. Personally, I disapprove of such practice as the basis of the collaboration is very one-sided: the blogger receives products to review every so often and in exchange places the company logo permanently on their blog.
To me, a badge on a blog = display advertising, which comes with a price tag. Also, reviewing products = giving coverage to the company. What’s in it for the blogger? Clothes? Not every blogger wants to work for freebies, and would prefer to get paid.
The correct way to approach bloggers is very simple: read their blog, email them with targeted products, meet them, take time to explain what your brand does, if necessary loan or gift a product to be shown on the blog. Simple and efficient, non?
A few blogger outreach tips for brands
• Don’t judge the quality of a blog by the access the blogger appears to have. Since brands don’t yet know who to reach out to, a lot of blogs of varying quality have access to the same events and information.
• Read blogs and subscribe to a handful of them via RSS. Get someone on your team to spend an hour every morning reading through them. That should be enough for you to assess who to get in touch with.
• Find the most influential bloggers and reach out to them, then wait for the ripple effect. Make the bloggers you reach out to feel special, not one of many.
• Stop thinking that all bloggers are friends. Most of us don’t even know each other.
Matt on 
February 18th, 2010 at 11:15 am
It’s great to get all this from the horses mouth! It’s often hard trying to explain to a brand why Bloggers aren’t going to be swept off their feet by the promise of something free or a “partnership.” In future I’ll just point them to this blog post!
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Hi Laetitia
Great post… very interesting reading. Talking about badges. I was thinking that for some bloggers having a ‘Featured on XXX’ badge would be something they’d quite like as it would add an extra layer of credibility. Clearly it would depend on how high profile their blog was already I guess…
Jeremy
February 24th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Fascinating read . . . Like you say, I think many agencies forget that the people writing blogs are: a) not idiots b) trying to make a living. Personally, I don’t think anyone should go near social media marketing unless they are doing the whole social thing themselves . . .
February 26th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Jeremy – I think the credibility given by those badges is an illusion. To other bloggers, these badges look bad, and to consumers, they make the blogger look biased. I think if a company wants a blogger to review their products, they should simply send or loan said products to the blogger and wait for a review. Placing a badge and trying to “own” a blogger is just a bit wrong.
Another point you are making about the profile of blogs: I would assume brands would generally prefer to work with high profile blogs and then consider smaller ones, but it would seem a lot of brands prefer using smaller blogs as they can “manipulate” them.
There is a LOT to do to change all that!
Tamsin – I agree with you totally. Of course as with everything there will be a few idiots in the lot, but most bloggers are not idiots indeed and can see when brands are using them. Now it is also a matter of blogger building their confidence and learn that saying “no” to a brand is not a crime!
March 4th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Eloquently wriitten L, you pointed out some very good points. Could nolt have been put better.
I think honesty and integrity really matters. One would not extoll the virtues of something one didnt believe in to a personal friend, so I think that is how I see it. If I am not crazy about it and wouldnt recommend it to a girlfriend,I would not suggest it on my blog.
Also I agree that with Couture shows, it should be primarily covered by journalists.
Your blogger outreach tipe were spot on.
Thank you for sharing this.
Love,
Marian xx
March 4th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
p.s I forgot to say…
that when someone gives something they dont like or do not believe in, it really comes across. Natural passion or excitement about a product cannot be faked.
big kiss xxx