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Abzal Issa Bekov AW16 Whatsapp campaign photographed by Timothy Schaumburg, UK
Abzal Issa Bekov AW16 Whatsapp campaign photographed by Timothy Schaumburg, UK
Abzal Issa Bekov AW16 Whatsapp campaign photographed by Timothy Schaumburg, UK
Msg 4 gr8 fashion
London – Fashion graduate Abzal Issa Bekov is generating a sense of intrigue with his opt-in advertising campaign.
- Bekov explores the phenomenon of sexting by encouraging people to text a WhatsApp number in exchange for collection photos
- Messages will be replied to sporadically in person rather than using AI technology
A number encouraging users to ‘WhatsApp Me!’ and a figure shrouded in shadow are the only visual stimuli on Abzal Issa Bekov’s website.
As the campaign’s creative director Philipp Humm explained to LS:N Global, the decision to showcase the Central Saint Martins graduate’s collection entirely on WhatsApp was a way of parodying the anonymity and ambiguity that are so integral to many of our online exchanges.
As the website is manned sporadically, users must wait until Bekov comes back online to receive a unique combination of two images from the campaign, mimicking the intermittent nature of real-life WhatsApp exchanges.
‘People are employing new filters that block out everything they don’t want to see. That’s technological filters as well as cognitive ones,’ says Humm. ‘One way to get through to them is to make them curious.’
The Big Picture
Brands are foregoing the mass marketing approach and instead turning to opt-in advertising to nurture a sense of secrecy and exclusivity. See the Opt-In Culture section in our Backlash Brands macrotrend for more.
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