Bigger. Bolder.
Bread & Butter.

The Festival of Style and Culture:
Bread & Butter’s celebration of fashion,
music and food in September 2017.

They say fortune favors the bold, and so too does fashion freshness – as more than 30,000 visitors to Bread & Butter by Zalando (B&&B) from September 1–3, 2017, at Arena Berlin learned last fall. With its “BOLD” concept, the event showcased more than 40 international brands, nine fashion shows, as well as DJs, live acts, parties, exquisite street food and panels. Fashion-forward guests were also privy to more than 450 exclusive-to-Zalando products, comfortably securing B&&B’s place as one of Europe’s most exciting fashion events that is open for everyone. Making a bold statement at B&&B were Dutch fashion artists Viktor & Rolf, who called the event an opportunity “to present our haute couture in a democratic manner to a much broader audience than usual.”

The three-day Festival of Style and Culture on the first weekend of September offered a platform for brands to interact with their customers and ignite relationships with them. With fashion and lifestyle personalities like Dame Vivienne Westwood and an exhibition of her work, Model of the Year award winner Adwoa Aboah, music artists like M.I.A., FKA twigs, Bilderbuch, Wyclef Jean, the Bold Ball – a Voguing session presented by Come Extra Fly – as well as world-class eats from the likes of Michelin-starred chef Chan Hon Meng, Bread & Butter celebrated all things “BOLD.” The theme “BOLD” perfectly embodies the B&&B attitude: new ideas, fearless opinions and daring looks that stand out from the crowd.

B&&B functioned as a holistic marketing campaign – with great payoffs. The approach resulted in 1.45bn media impressions across Europe (150% more than in 2016), including 1.1bn socialmedia, press and influencer impressions with 60% global reach and 35m live-stream impressions. The earned advertising equivalent adds up to EUR 17.7m (93% more than in 2016 due to cross-functional integration). More than 200 international influencers attended and were integrated in content creation, event coverage, DJ sessions, and street style photography.

78% of the brands participating in the partner survey said they see B&&B as the right platform for launching new products. Fashion shows by brands such as Topshop, Hugo, Viktor&Rolf and Zalando utilized the most state-of-the-art technological setup in Europe: an interactive catwalk adapted to the steps and movements of the models.

B&&B: Wherever You Are

Front-row seats at fashion shows, sports sessions in the Active Arena, beauty treatments or fascinating talks – visitors had much to choose from in order to experience the latest in fashion, music, and food. As Alpha Industries said of B&&B, “Well organized, invited the perfect crowd, superb acts, stunning brands.”

Those who couldn’t make it to Berlin didn’t have to miss out. Bread & Butter again blurred the boundaries between the offline and online brand experience, allowing attendees and online viewers to follow proceedings via 120 live streams and engage with content across all digital channels. Nike praised customer involvement, saying, “The campaign was reflected well on Zalando channels – the digital Bread & Butter experience was great, even for consumers who didn’t attend the physical event.”

See Now. Buy Now.

Following the “See now. Buy now.” principle, Zalando launched two digital features aimed at improving the shopability of Bread & Butter products: RFID and shoppable videos. We used pioneering RFID wristband technology that combines branded content with user interactivity to create a smooth and immediate retail experience.

Radio Frequency IDentification allows for instant shopping with smart wristbands.

Working with Intellitix, one of the world’s leading providers of RFID technology, we developed a concept that allowed guests to track items, share them with friends, and make online purchases while attending the event. Visible RFID sensors were placed next to every product or collection. By tapping these sensors with their festival wristbands, guests “collected” products in their personalized digital feed, or “my&&” on breadandbutter.com. Every transaction was then routed through the Zalando Fashion Store, making use of our significant operations.

Our streetstyle photographers captured images of the outfits worn by festival attendees. Thanks to RFID technology, visitors were able to share their photos with the digital world in real time on their social media accounts.

With the newly introduced shoppable videos on Zalando anyone could be part of the B&&B. The recordings of the live fashion shows contain clickable tags that lead directly to the item in the Fashion Store. This is yet another example of how we are leveraging content from physical events like B&&B to create an inspiring digital shopping experience.

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