Tag: Magazine marketing

Flair: Fashiontag

Flair: Fashiontag

Women are always looking for inspiration for their wardrobe and most of the time they find this inspiration by looking at other women.

This inspired agency Duval Guillaume to create a Flair Fashiontag Facebook app for Belgian women’s magazine Flair. In the app, instead of tagging people, you can tag people’s clothes or accessories and ask them where they got them.

All fashiontags are displayed in a Facebook gallery, and the best are published in the weekly edition of Flair. This way there is constant interaction between the Facebook application and the magazine itself.

Turning social curiosity into a repeatable format

The mechanism is a simple swap. Replace social tagging of people with social tagging of products. A photo becomes a shoppable question. The owner of the outfit becomes the source. The magazine becomes the curator that elevates the best finds from feed to print.

In fashion and lifestyle publishing, converting casual “where did you get that” moments into a structured loop is a practical way to keep community activity and editorial output feeding each other.

The smart move here is to treat wardrobe curiosity as a content engine, not as a side effect of social chatter. The real question is how to turn that curiosity into a repeatable loop that helps readers in the moment and gives the magazine something worth curating.

Why it lands

This works because it formalizes a behavior that already exists. People already look at outfits, notice details, and ask friends for sources. Fashiontag simply gives that behavior a native interface and a public gallery, then adds a prestige layer by featuring the best tags in the weekly magazine.

Extractable takeaway: If your audience already asks each other for product sources, build a lightweight format that captures those questions in the moment and rewards the best contributions with visible amplification.

What to steal from Fashiontag

  • Swap the object of attention: tag the item, not the person, when product discovery is the real intent.
  • Close the loop with curation: a gallery is useful. Editorial selection makes it aspirational.
  • Make participation low-friction: one tag, one question, one shareable output.
  • Bridge channels on purpose: use print, site, and social as a single system, not separate campaigns.
  • Protect the social contract: ensure the person in the photo is comfortable with tagging and featuring, especially when content moves into a magazine.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Flair Fashiontag?

It is a Facebook app for Flair magazine that lets users tag clothes or accessories in photos and ask where those items were purchased.

What makes it different from normal photo tagging?

Normal tagging identifies people. Fashiontag identifies items. It turns fashion curiosity into a structured question-and-answer interaction.

How does the magazine benefit from the Facebook app?

The app creates a steady flow of wardrobe inspiration and real questions from readers. The magazine then curates and publishes the best tags, which reinforces participation.

Why is this a strong community mechanic?

Because it rewards helpfulness. People contribute sources and recommendations, and the gallery plus print selection turns that help into recognition.

What is the biggest risk in this format?

Consent and comfort. Tagging items in someone’s photo can feel intrusive if the person did not opt in, especially if content can be featured publicly in print.

Golf Digest: Desert Disruption

Golf Digest: Desert Disruption

Golf Digest wanted to remind golf enthusiasts that they can improve their game with the magazine. Rather than saying it in a predictable headline, Memac Ogilvy Dubai chose a faster route to attention. A prank designed to disrupt the region’s biggest golf event and get people to pick up the magazine.

The point is not to out-shout the tournament. It’s to create a moment of interruption that only resolves when you engage with the brand asset sitting right there in your hands.

Disruption as distribution

A prank at a live event works when it forces a choice. Ignore it and stay confused. Or reach for the one object that explains what’s happening. In this case, the magazine becomes the “decoder”, meaning the one object that explains what’s happening, which makes pickup feel like participation, not like being sold to.

In sports event marketing, a well-timed interruption can convert spectators into participants, as long as the payoff is immediate and easy to understand.

Why this lands

This works because it ties the brand benefit to a behaviour you can measure. Magazine in hand. Pages opened. Content consumed. The prank is not the product. It is the trigger that makes people re-experience Golf Digest as a practical tool for better play, instead of as background media. The real question is whether the interruption makes the magazine feel more useful, not merely more visible.

Extractable takeaway: If you need to revive a “useful” product people have stopped actively choosing, design an event moment where the product is the simplest way to regain control and understand what’s going on.

What to steal from event disruption

  • Make the brand the resolution. The disruption should only make sense once someone engages with your asset.
  • Use the right arena. Do it where your core audience is already emotionally invested.
  • Keep the explanation short. If the prank needs a long briefing, the moment dies.
  • Turn interest into a physical action. Pickup, flip, keep. Behaviour beats impressions.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Golf Digest’s “Desert Disruption” idea?

It’s a prank-based event activation designed to interrupt attention at a major golf event and prompt spectators to pick up the magazine as the way to understand the moment.

Why use a prank to sell a magazine?

A prank creates immediate curiosity. If the magazine is positioned as the fastest explanation or payoff, pickup becomes a natural reaction.

What does this communicate about Golf Digest?

That it is not only entertainment. It is positioned as a practical resource for improving your game.

What is the key success condition for this pattern?

The disruption must be legible quickly, and the magazine must clearly resolve the confusion with an instant payoff.

What can go wrong with event disruption?

If it feels unsafe, disrespectful to the sport, or unclear, it can trigger annoyance instead of curiosity. The tone and timing matter as much as the idea.