Wemanage Journal: dataFORMAT_06 — Technology & Innovation

Here we are at the sixth episode of our column on the latest marketing and research trends relating to the development of the fashion and luxury market, created in collaboration with the Fashion in Process Research Lab (FiP) of Politecnico di Milano, which provides us with data and the analysis on the news of the sector.

This month we are continuing a path that we have undertaken for some months now: the integration of news related to the way in which technology and the digital world are able to offer attractive opportunities for the fashion industry, also offering possible solutions to problems that for some time now they have been economically damaging many brands.

Let’s start from this last point of view: in 2017 alone, luxury brands lost $ 98 billion in sales to counterfeits. This is a massive and widespread issue for high-end companies, affecting profits and reputation. In response to this challenge, luxury brands are looking at blockchain technologies to increase trust, security, transparency, and data traceability. Subverting competition in favor of a common good, luxury conglomerates LVMH, Prada Group, and Richemont founded in April 2021 Aura Blockchain Consortium, a non-profit organization investing and developing applications of blockchain technology for the luxury market.

The implementation of artificial intelligence technologies and tools also offer very interesting growth opportunities: according to a research by McKinsey & BoF, carried out this year, companies implementing AI-driven initiatives between now and 2030 could generate a 13% increase in cash flow , and tech-savvy fashion industry players already counting on the benefits of such integrations could expect a 118% cumulative increase in cash flow by 2030. Other indicators also suggest such as the ability to move ahead of trends that are already on the horizon is an inclination destined to perform very well: last year, in fact, the value of the top 50 investments in fashion-tech projects grew by 66% compared to 2019.

Keeping in constant monitoring the technological innovations for the sectors that affect people’s lifestyle has now become an entrepreneurial obligation, because the acceleration of the mechanisms that can upset the industry is sudden and often unexpected. Just think of the continuous news of new discoveries and technical advances that affect our lives: only recently some Japanese researchers set the new data transmission speed record of 1.02 Petabits per second over 51.7 km, 100,000 times faster than the fastest home connection speed; while in March 2022, the American Biotech company 3DBio Therapeutics and Dr. Arturo Bonilla achieved amazing success in the regenerative medicine sector. Successfully transplanting a 3-D printed ear, grown with a patient’s cells.

An incredibly stable and inflexible trend for years, however, is that linked to the power of influencer marketing: a sector whose results can now be carefully monitored. Thanks to the Media Impact Value (MIV®), Launchmetric’s proprietary Machine Learning algorithm, it is now possible to measure the value of every social media, press, and online post. The algorithm analyzes quantitative and qualitative data about placements, interactions, and mentions of a brand’s content across different communication channels, providing Fashion, Luxury, and Beauty industry players a unique monetary value to rate and compare marketing strategies’ performances.