After so many podcasts created for the past few years, the voice trend continues to grow to become the latest famous social media app: Clubhouse. Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk… Many celebrities/CEOs have joined this curious new voice-only sharing environment. A big publicity stunt or the beginning of a new channel for the influential marketing strategies of fashion and luxury brands?
All you need to know about Clubhouse
Clubhouse is a social media platform created by Rohan Seth in San Francisco. The beta version of the application has been available since March 2020 (on iOS) and you can join it only by invitation. Under its VIP club look, the application has 2 million active users per week and now intends to open up to more users in the next months.
Clubhouse home page
Limited but central features of the social media Clubhouse
Once you have received your invitation by SMS, you can enter your personal interests and follow associated profiles. Then, join clubs and enter rooms for topics you’re interested in. Creating clubs (groups) is not allowed for the moment because there are too many requests but you can create your own room with moderators and speakers you want to invite. In a nutshell, Clubhouse can be compared to a participatory radio programme: you just have to raise your hand to go “on stage” and open your mic to exchange with the other speakers.
Clubhouse’s club and scheduled rooms
To tell you more about this buzzy new social app, we tested it! In just a few days, we were able to participate in rooms on completely different subjects: from influence marketing to conscious eating to well-being at work. All topics are pushed by entrepreneurs, citizens but also by start-ups or brands such as Feed.co or Mercy Handy. You can also chat with CEOs, artists or content creators from all industries within the rooms they host or participate in. Clubhouse is also an opportunity to react to the actuality like “LVMH to wind down Rihanna’s clothing brand Fenty”, a room where we were able to exchange with PR and marketers from different countries (UK, US, FR) in the fashion industry.
Why is Clubhouse a social network to watch for fashion and luxury brands?
The last few days show an impressive increase in the number of users. While the application was rather used by Americans, the languages of the rooms are diversifying (FR, IT, …) and influencers are emerging on trendy subjects. Although the application is only in beta testing, it seems to redefine the rules of the game and offer a new playing field for brands to highlight their CSR commitments, employer branding and creativity. A very innovative way of inserting corporate values into “everyday” conversations on social media. In a society where consumers are looking for super-transparency, Clubhouse is taking it to the next level because brands can reply to people’s questions in real time.
As COVID-19 is redefining our social interactions and the way to communicate with clients since almost one year, Clubhouse could be a new way to organise webinars, workshops and brand digital round tables. Some have already fully understood the possibilities of the platform and record the conversations in the rooms they host (provided the speakers give their consent and “REC” mentioned in the title of the room) to create podcasts! It remains to be seen how you will be able to evaluate your return on investment since for the moment, the application does not offer KPI’s after a room has been held. On the other hand, you can follow in real time how many people participate in the room as spectators and as speakers.
When all the other social media are saturated and perfectly mastered by many fashion and luxury brands, it seems that Clubhouse offers the opportunity to reinvent the fashion & luxury world of tomorrow with the participation of consumers, experts and brands. Maybe it’s time to give it a try?
