Fashion Week may have been the inspo for your designs and outfits, but did you know it’s also a masterclass in bold and creative marketing? Because remember, designer houses have to actually sell clothes, not just show them off. Yes, the entire event is a marketing stunt.

So, with Fashion Week taking center stage this September, what marketing lessons can we learn from the event? Today, we’re analyzing successful Fashion Week marketing examples and drawing lessons from them that any brand can use, in any industry. We’ll also look at some useful resources you can use to create runway-worthy marketing campaigns in less time.

Designers compete for attention during Fashion Week, so they need to drum up interest in their shows in the lead-up to Fashion Week. This is where a teaser campaign comes in. 

In this post, Chanel drops tidbits on its 2024 show, as well as telling people when the general public can watch the show’s recording.

As the name says, a “teaser campaign” teases like clickbait. It lures your audience to your main event. In email marketing, this strategy is known as a “shot across the bow,” a naval term that means a warning shot to get another ship’s attention. In other words, it lets your audience know something big is coming. It builds buzz and anticipation so that your audience is fired up to see the main event when you finally reveal it.

How do you create anticipation? You can drop hints, give sneak peeks, or display a countdown timer on your website. When creating teasers, focus on keeping things clean and simple. Use fragments or closeups to show a few details of your new release, while keeping other details hidden. Keep the text limited to a quick teaser phrase about something exciting coming soon. Try these templates and more from Envato to help you build the suspense.

For example, here’s how Envato dropped a teaser for its rebrand last year. Notice how the post hints at a few key elements of the new branding, while keeping most of the details hidden.

And here’s the full announcement that appeared a few days later. This video was much longer, revealing all the details of the new brand. The teaser post created anticipation, boosting the impact of the launch itself.

As you can see from these examples, videos are extra effective for teaser campaigns. No video crew? No problem — check out Envato VideoGen to create a teaser video.

Fashion Week shows are limited; they’re by invitation only. And who gets invites? Industry professionals, celebrities, buyers, the press, and influencers. Of course, each designer’s most important clients also get invites. This leaves the rest of us hungry for the “crumbs” we can get through press reports, blogs, and the houses’ own coverage of their shows. The lesson: Make your marketing more desirable by making it less attainable.

Notice the small audience at this Louis Vuitton fashion show at the 2024 Paris Fashion Week:

Thankfully, some designers livestream their Fashion Week shows. These draw millions of views.

We know, this sounds counterintuitive. When marketing, the more people you reach, the better, right? So why should you make your marketing exclusive to a limited number of people? Exclusivity creates FOMO (the fear of missing out). Nobody wants to miss out, so the harder it is to get something, the more people want it. It’s just human nature. FOMO is so powerful that “scarcity” is one of the tools of persuasion, according to Robert Cialdini in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

How do you make something scarce? Of course, you can physically limit the number of products you produce. With services, the most common form of manufactured scarcity is the limited-time offer. But you can get more creative than that. For example, you can create a new kind of service — a more expensive one — limited to a select few. You can make a live event and limit access only to your superfans.

What visual effects work for this marketing technique? You can send special invites with a dash of red-carpet flair. In your marketing creative, focus on triggering FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) by amping up the exclusive vibe. Your visuals could include things like velvet ropes, password prompts, invitation envelopes, or a red carpet. Use elegant typography, with simple messaging saying things like “By invitation only” or “Opens soon. For those who know.”

What’s a marketing campaign without an element of influencer engagement? Even the most famous designers know this. They work with celebrities and influencers of all audience sizes in different aspects of their marketing. The most common way they engage influencers is by turning them into runway models.

But they go beyond that, too. For its teaser campaign, fashion brand Jacquemus tied up with @dancingsecurityguard to reach his 4.2 million followers.

And even micro-influencers are getting seats to Fashion Week so they can provide coverage to their audiences:

Influencers can do more for your brand than expand your reach. They also bring more credibility and engagement. That’s because influencers tend to have engaged followers. They feel a strong personal connection with the influencers they follow. Working with influencers can also be less expensive than traditional advertising. 

If you’re just starting with influencer marketing, work with micro- and nano-influencers. Since they have smaller audiences than mega influencers, they will work with you for less. They’re still small enough to interact with their audiences personally. And they can be easier to work with. 

The first step is to find influencers already in front of the audience you want to reach. Explore their content to ensure their tone, personality, and style align with your brand. Then, reach out and begin a conversation about a collaboration.

In this case, authenticity is key, so it’s best not to specify your own branding and visuals. Give clear guidelines on what you’re looking for, but let the influencer create content that feels native to the platform and true to the influencer’s usual style. You want it to blend in seamlessly, not stand out as a corporate sponsorship. Learn more in our guide to influencer marketing.

Designers like Stella McCartney are making sustainability part of their brand story. Stella uses and promotes sustainable, cruelty-free materials in her fashion. 

But beyond that, Stella uses almost every piece of content to educate the public about environmental issues. Here are just a couple of examples:

The bottom line: Consumers care about the planet. And they don’t mind paying extra for environment-friendly choices. A global survey by PwC found that:

And younger shoppers are particularly picky. According to “The State of Consumer Spending,” Gen Z and Millennials are the ones who are most likely to make purchase decisions based on their values. As much as 62% of Gen Z shoppers prefer to buy from sustainable brands.

First off, sustainability has to be part of your brand. The planet demands it, and consumers demand it. To engage in sustainability storytelling, you must genuinely be a sustainable brand — people are quick to spot greenwashing these days. So audit your current environment and social impact, including your carbon footprint. And then figure out how you can reduce that impact.

When sustainability has become part of your brand’s DNA, then you can engage in sustainability storytelling. Make behind-the-scenes videos of your sustainable practices. Like Stella, use your platforms to educate your audiences on sustainability. Or how about sharing your brand’s own journey to become more sustainable?

What visual styles that work well for this kind of marketing? Of course, natural settings are a must, with plenty of greenery and a sense of connection with the natural world. But also work on showing the connection between nature and product — perhaps try footage of reusable totes at a farmers market, for example. Use tactile closeups to showcase the simple beauty of plant-based fabrics, recycled packaging, etc. And tell a story of how your brand is sustainable, with a simple voiceover or perhaps handwritten overlays.

Designer shows are the epitome of polished. Every stitch, every step, every sway of the hip has been planned and practiced. But at the same time, Fashion Week also welcomes the unpolished, in-the-moment content from the fashion community.

This user-generated content (UGC), for example, is just one of many that makes Schiaparelli one of the most talked-about brands during Fashion Week:

Employee influencers make great content, too:

And of course, happy customers make some of the best content:

Unpolished, real-time content is authentic, credible, and sparks conversation. Everyday people are the most relatable because, well, they’re just like me and you. They’re not doing it for fame or fortune, so they tend to be more believable. Plus, UGC is practically free marketing. What’s not to love?

Explore how you can engage your community and create real-time content around it. For example, you can host live videos to reveal a new product, show behind-the-scenes footage of your brand, or answer questions on the spot.

Make it easy for your community to create UGC. Follow up with customers to prompt them to share how they use or style the product they bought from you. Create a hashtag they can use. Provide props, backgrounds, and other creative elements they can use on their content.

Need help creating those creative assets? Check out Envato design templates so you don’t start from scratch. Give incentives like discount codes. Respond to UGC with positive comments. And always, always amplify people’s posts by sharing and giving them shout-outs.

We hope you’re loving these Fashion Week ideas for marketing. And remember, you don’t have to be in the fashion industry to apply them. Channel your inner designer and see if you can launch a teaser campaign, create limited-access experiences, engage influencers, weave sustainability into your storytelling, and light up your community.

These ideas will help you appear bolder in your market and stand out from your competitors. And to make sure your marketing turns heads, explore the thousands of design assets, templates, and AI tools at Envato. With every type of asset for any type of project, plus a full stack of AI tools, you have everything you need to put these marketing lessons into practice.