A “buzz-building” campaign around the G-8 meeting helped a cluster of fashion designers break into the TIFF swag lounge

At first glance, the words “G8” and “handbags” don’t have any discernible association. But thanks to a creative social marketing campaign, the strange pairing generated big buzz for a Nova Scotia design collaboration.

A team at Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI) challenged themselves to capitalize on the 2010 G-8 meetings in Ontario. Their idea? Fashion collections inspired by the G-8 women, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, who consistently tops Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful women, and style icons Michelle Obama, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Samantha Cameron, and Laureen Harper.

“The campaign stemmed from an article in which [Canadian fashion journalist] Jeanne Beker quoted Laureen Harper as saying she’d do whatever she could to promote Canadian fashion,” says Mary-Eleanor Walker, NSBI’s communications officer. “So we started thinking about what we could do to promote Nova Scotia’s fashion industry.”

Walker and her colleagues, trade executive Kelly Carter and online marketing specialist Heather Hindle, teamed with the Craft Alliance and the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council to create a campaign at www.nsfashion.ca, which generated interest and boosted sales for the participating designers: twins Michelle Delisle and Monique Newcombe of Michique Handbags; glass artist Susan Hood of Glass Harp Gallery; accessory maven Lyndsay Hubley of LouLouBell; and jeweller Donna Hiebert. Each working in a unique medium, the designers jointly created nine collections inspired by the G-8 women, including a Michique handbag, LouLouBell case, Donna Hiebert Designs necklace, and Glass Harp earrings. 

At www.nsfashion.ca you’ll find the following text under the “Michelle” collection, which is dominated by a black-and-white handbag: “Michelle Obama is one of the most high profile and powerful women in the world. No matter the event she’s attending or speech to be delivered, she does it in her own confident and admired style.” The description under the “Carla” collection, which has the most “like” votes on the website, reads: “Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is chic, trendy, and not afraid of making a statement. Her high-profile lifestyle, rich in experience, art, and causes, has fashioned Carla to become one of the most followed and photographed first ladies of France.”

The objective was never to get the products into the hands of the G-8 women; as exciting as that would have been, the team felt it was too lofty a goal. Instead, their aim was to promote the designers and industry. Even before the website was launched, the team gave sneak previews to fashion bloggers—national ones such as 365 Fashion Rehab and such local favourites as Fashionable People, Questionable Things, which was recently selected by Canadian Living as one of Canada’s top lifestyle blogs, and Haute Halifax—in attempt to get the word out. 

The bloggers liked what they saw. Posted on 365 Fashion Rehab: “Naturally, we were curious to see the goods, excited to participate, and very honoured to have been asked to weigh in. Supporting local fashion and seeing our homeland on the style map couldn’t make us more proud!” 

“Blogs have such strong following,” says Walker, “and they tap into readers who wouldn’t otherwise find you.” There have been several thousand visits to www.nsfashion.ca, increased traffic to the designers’ websites along with increased sales (and for Michique Handbags, a new Vancouver distributor), plus much coverage in traditional regional, national and international media. 

In fact, the campaign caught the attention of Los Angeles-based entertainment strategist Dubois Pelin and Associates, which invited three of the designers to participate in a “gifting” lounge at the Toronto International Film Festival, where celebrities are given free goody bags. Those are impressive results for a total campaign cost of less than $2,000. It’s the kind of exposure that can’t be bought.