Digital Phenomena

“Keep calm and Carry on” is one of the latest phenomena in digital marketing. 

The poster was created in 1939, during World War I, to display the message in case Nazi Germany invaded Great Britain, but it was never distributed.

The message was very simple. In case of invasion keep calm and carry on your regular lives not to suffer retaliation.

The poster was rediscovered in 2000 in a secondhand bookstore in North East England and since the copyrights expired after 50 years, it is now of public domain.

The shop owners reproduced the poster and later it inspired a range of clothing, mugs, doormats, baby clothes and other merchandise from various vendors, and even a book of inspirational quotes.

The digital environment of social media was quick to distribute the image and create versions for daily problems and ideas. It is a digital phenomenon. Everyone has heard about it, seen it or got tired of receiving hundreds of these images in e-mails and their Facebook Walls.

 It is the companies’ job to find a way to ride the wave and attach their brands to the success.

The Chive, an entertainment website, capitalized on the trend and now sells t-shirts, posters and baby gear with the modified poster featuring their name.

The Chive is selling merchandise with parodies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_calm_and_carry_on

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/18/keep-calm-carry-on-poster

http://www.thechivery.com/

WikiFashion

WikiFashion (http://wikifashion.com/wiki/Main_Page) is a brand extension of the famous Wikipedia, the digital encyclopedia, and a great tool of digital marketing.

The website is a gem for fashionistas hoping to understand more about the industry. There is information divided by topic that can take an endless time to browse.

WikiFashion categories

One very interesting part is the collections’ picture gallery of the major designers since 2008 divided by Fall, Spring and Couture.

Chanel Fall Couture 2011 collection from WikiFashion

This is a great channel for the luxury industry to have another medium of marketing their brands since the Internet is a powerful way to communicate and Wiki offers the opportunity for the brands to be collaborators and post their own information. 

Even the models, photographers and fashion bloggers have space to add their profiles and articles.