Trends: Fashion captivated by Ghosting
Trends: fashion captivated by Ghosting.
Is it better to run after the surfer by bombarding him with content, as many big fashion brands continue to do on what has become the official social headquarters – that is,Instagram – or is it better to be sought after? If fashion in Italy is the leader of Made in Italy, we cannot ignore the new trend that is inspiring thesocial strategy of some greats, from Prada through to Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta, who are testing a new formula: ghosting.
From the English word “ghost”, the phenomenon originates from the desks of creatives and alludes to that hateful way of disappearing from virtual connections (whatsapp is a witness), used to download a partner in a relationship that is no longer welcome.
Tricolour fashion has chosen to give a new meaning to the term. In fact, it consists in reducing messages related to the brands and linking them instead primarily to Stories (online for just a short time) and to a few exclusive posts when the consumer looks for brands after seeing an item of clothing in store. The aim of the strategy is to induce the consumer to seek them out, reserving the user the pleasure of becoming the protagonist of the brand and talking about it.
Moreover, the increase in the number of short uses is evident in communication, from videos to stories, with light content that disappears after a short while. And this not only on Instagram but on all the main social platforms. Stories lend themselves particularly well to recounting everyday life and the behind the scenes of large companies, as happens in fashion shows.
Ghosting is conceived by the big communication of these brands as a way to intrigue, involve and let its admirers talk about the brand. New trends are taking hold: from the vertical use of videos and TVs replaced by smartphones, to the explosion of video calls during the pandemic. New trends in which ghosting can be applied, understood as, for example, the classic case of listening to a lesson while one is busy doing something else.
The phenomenon most negatively linked to these trends is hyper connection, which has fueled an addiction to social media. Yet addiction can also be generated by absence and here ghosting can become manipulative. This is certainly not the case with the big fashion houses, considering the lightness of the content, the spaces dedicated to fashion shows that are by definition ethereal and ever-changing and the nature of the products.
