Topshop is taking shopping to a new level by a collaboration with Facebook: The customers are going to be able to customize the show of Topshop Unique by viewing the items in different colours while the models walk down the runway. They can choose the clothes directly from the catwalk and will receive them months before they will be in the stores. They can also directly purchase the music and the beauty products that are used for the show. The shopped items will arrive within 48 hours, including styling advice of Topshop’s instore beauty bars.

Users can capture and share live photos of the look “Shoot The Show” within Social Media channels, without having to interrupt the video of the show.

They can give a review of the actual show in 140 letters (Twitter size); the best written piece will win the user a ticket for the show the year after.

This is really a perfect round-up of Social Media channels – I am pretty sure the customers will use it – and guarantee Topshop a wider visibility and a more detailed brand image throughout their target group. They will also be able to collect a lot of useful insights about customers desires: if a great percentage of people changes e.g. the colour of a certain clothing piece, the brand has a much stronger insight into what the target group really wants. The company can personalize their customers view on their site: if it appears, that the customer likes a black coat of the Topshop Unique brand, it would make sense to show him another black coat of the current collection on the site. Also many customers put clothes in their shopping bag but don’t buy them in the end: also in this way valuable insight can be collected.

Social Entertainment and binding of the customer to the brand are the important things here. With this integrated method of Social Media the company makes itself more reachable, giving the ultimate shopping experience which was – until some years – only reserved to VIPs: to buy the clothes directly from the runway.

They allow an emotional experience. Nowadays it is not enough to just sell a product. A 360° experience is the key to brand building, a key to keeping clients. The idea came from Cooke, who recently left Burberry, where he was vice president of Public Relations and Events.  He says he doesn’t get his ideas from other fashion brands, but from brands that understand their customer and understand how to get him involved in the brand -which gains more and more importance, because everybody wants to be individual and desires to feel that they can shape the world around them.

For Topshop this new way of communication is amazing – if they can reach, lets say 1 Mio. people directly with Facebook, there is the possibility to reach all their friends, like a snowball system.