Rose Goes
The current media landscape is engaging consumers in profound ways that conventional advertising could never have achieved, and the central agent of change is the undeniable power put in the hands of the consumer.
Consumers are now able to curate the types of recommendations they are privy to on a daily basis, or even feeling at the moment. Just in my own personal influencer arsenal I follow a diverse swath of storytellers who school me on eating healthier, working out smarter, or even pushing my fashion sensibility to new realms.
By following “influencers,” consumers can be assured that the content is relevant to their lives and not an inconvenience, like advertising has largely been in the past. It’s a shift from a one-way conversation to a two-way conversation. Personally, some of my favorite influencers include Lee from America, a Los Angeles recipe developer and holistic lifestyle connoisseur, as well as Shea Marie, aka “Peace Love Shea,” whose platforms are proof of the colossal impact that influencers can have. Her site and social media pages garner over 8 million impressions daily. When I am in need of some self amelioration, I tend to frequent Roger Frampton’s pages, a Movement Coach and creator of the Frampton Method which places emphasis on conscious movement. He and I have even had a brief back and forth when he was curious what favorite blogs his users frequented.
To put the power of these changes into perspective, four out of every five web visits to Nordstrom.com came from referral traffic driven by an influencer, according to Women’s Wear Daily. While many are familiar with the innovation that this industry is driving, when scrolling through one’s feed for the latest trends, it is too easy to overlook the women behind the brands. This disregard is exactly what the Lunada Bay Corporation wanted to avoid when collaborating with PB&J to create a new swimwear brand coined Isabella Rose.
Being a social media influencer is not all sunshine and roses, although they can certainly make it appear that way. There is a substantial amount of calculation that goes into enhancing engagement, and posts or tweets with hashtags receive 21% more of this engagement. Aware of these ample opportunities, PB&J coined the hashtag #RoseGoes, and guided Rose along her linear journey as a beautiful but intriguing woman who was adventurous, loved travel, and still kept her priorities straight. For these shoots, Kamilla Alnes was photographed by Richard Hume as Isabella Rose in tropical destinations with weather that elicited thoughts of planning dream vacations, all while wearing beautiful and eye-catching swimsuits. Her spirit was fully divulged and captured, even in the simplest moments such as readying herself in the hotel and choosing an ideal surfboard. For some women, the swimsuits that were showcased could also double as their next cocktail outfit, so Fallon Thatcher made sure that they were flattering, versatile, and would keep heads turning.
The Lunada Bay Corporation is best known for producing swimsuits for Victoria’s Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio, owning “Rebecca” swimsuits, and serving retail brands like Everything But Water, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdales to name a few. This time around, they wanted to make a name for themselves among the millennial women who have been rapidly changing the tides of retail. While these individuals might have seemed out of reach, they were actually right under their noses; they were the women behind the screens. Through this pursuit, PB&J was able to acquire some press from the highly esteemed publication Women’s Wear Daily, which featured an Isabella Rose suit in an August 2016 edition.
It is a known epidemic that young social media consumers spend inordinate amounts of time scrolling. Time is a valuable thing, and Fallon Thatcher harnessed that time in order to introduce the women behind the screens to the woman behind the brand: Isabella Rose.
While the photos that we coordinated were certainly aesthetically pleasing and perhaps even picturesque, they were not perfect. In fact, they were carefully crafted to capitalize on the beauty in imperfections. Every object that surrounded Isabella was placed strategically and aimed to tell her story. Wearing a swimsuit is a vulnerable undertaking. Isabella Rose showed apprehensive onlookers that while all eyes may be on them, that should be an advantage, and piquing curiosity is more rewarding than blending in will ever be. With swimsuits sold in Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, Von Maur, Boston Proper, Everything But Water, and Jerrie Shop, it was finally time for the women behind the screens and the woman behind the brand to collide.
Isabella Rose just landed in The Maldives in an unexpected but tasteful one-piece – so where will you go?
