By Retail Insider
Briefs Editor and West Coast correspondent for Retail-Insider, Helen Siwak, recently launched a boutique marketing concept to address the unique needs of Vancouver’s luxury lifestyle brands. EcoLuxLuv Communications caters to the plethora of luxury brands which call Vancouver home and to reach those who are considering the west coast in the future.
EcoLuxLuv Commications evolved from the freelance bespoke services that Siwak has been providing— both in front of and behind the scenes— for many of Vancouver brands in the luxury sector that specialize in real estate, designer and bespoke fashion, furniture and home décor, jewelry, transportation, and travel.
Unique to EcoLuxLuv Comms is a curated digital luxury magazine entitled FOLIO.YVR that is marketed as a ‘sponsored supplement’ to the company’s marketing services. Due to this transparency, both the brands and readers are fully aware of the connection of the content back to the brand and the publisher. By utilizing a storytelling format, FOLIO.YVR conveys the brand’s message more effectively than by a traditional single image advertisement in a print publication which has limited sharing appeal.
Siwak says, “As a freelancer with an extensive background in content creation for luxury brands, I was constantly asked to source media coverage of the brand’s products/services, to provide permanency to the narrative that is lost on the immediacy of social media.”
Garnering media placement is difficult in Vancouver due to the limited amount of suitable publications, publishing schedules, and access and content restrictions that are native to the print magazine industry. Last year, to satisfy her clients need for non-advertisement based exposure that was easy to share and promote, Siwak created a luxury lifestyle blog at EcoLuxLuv.com, where boutique launches, VIP parties, and new collection/products announcements were shared.
“Luxury brands have a niche audience of consumers that do not devour social media at the same rate as the average consumer, and therefore the customer approach must be different. Luxury brands desire long-term visual solutions to effectively convey the brand story, to share their history, introduce new products, but in a modern way. FOLIO.YVR allows us to deliver the print look and feel with the ease of digital.”
The development of FOLIO.YVR is a natural progression which allows Siwak to move away from a blog format to a hybrid magazine that marries the best of print and digital. FOLIO.YVR is eco-friendly, lush and luxurious looking, flips and reads like a print magazine on issuu.com, and with digital advantages such as the ability to embed hyperlinks, add click-thru social media icons, website redirection, and e-commerce shopping links. Also, the digital platform creates the ability in the reader to share worldwide instantly content they themselves enjoy, as opposed to print magazines which must be physically packaged and mailed to readers.
Brands who work with FOLIO.YVR will receive a powerful monthly marketing tool that can be shared on social media, added to their website, embedded into client communications, incorporated into monthly marketing emailing, and more, the list is endless.
With a goal of all content to be sponsored by Issue #3 May 2019, Siwak believes that FOLIO.YVR will thrive due to the flexible format of the publication and the lack of constraints present with the current luxury magazine format of having content dictated by advertisers and their budgets. Also, without prime pages reserved for advertisements, the graphic design is creative and integrates artwork, photography, and luxury lifestyle elements into the lay-out, which results in a positive experience for the reader and a visually appealing sales vehicle for brands.
FOLIO.YVR Luxury Lifestyle Magazine Issue 1 is available at no cost on issuu.com and contains the launch of Maison Birks’ Patek Philippe and Graff Diamonds boutique, the soft launch of Armani/Casa in The Armoury District, Moritz Grossman scouting vendors in YVR, Vancouver fashion icon RozeMerie Cuevas and her Chinese retail empire, luxury travel, culinary, and the Thierry Mugler: Couturissime exhibition in Montreal.
For more information on EcoLuxLuv Communications and FOLIO.YVR digital magazine, contact helen@ecoluxluv.com or by filling in the contact form here.
