Fashion brands and billboards

Its a full onslaught of the different clothing brands on EDSA as you pass through the omnibus area of guadalupe bridge. F&H here, Bench there, Bayo here, Kashieca there, Penshoppe here, and way over at the end near 'm roxas... there's Crissa haha, no that's not part of the post well not part of the complaint actually. They are all starting to look the same, luxe this, mr. designer that, but everything seems to be simply clothes on a celebrity posing, that's it. It would be nice to see those things in fashion magazines in a photo set with different backdrops and styling but for a billboard it just all seems too familiar and boring. Anne Curtis' partyphile board is a bit on top of the clutter simply because she's not looking into the camera and there is some emotion in the composition of the photo. but for adult fashion brand, the problem persists that they seem to forget what their brand is about, or in any case there wasn't any core values to start with for their brand, merely bringing new designs to the market. All these guys want to evoke cool, power, beauty and glamor but only a few achieve this, more so distinction and character. Take for example well composed shots from Lacoste, the feeling is almost calibrated. The look is clean and fresh, even for their winter and autumn collections. Payless also evokes a strong look and feel to it's billboards, with a sexy and confident woman taking a long stride through the material. Premium brand Louis Vuitton, goes a step further by placing the subjects in a exotic locale with their luggage, creating a sense of adventure and an avenue for emotion, more than making sure Bono looks good in his duds.

Needless to say, Philippine Fashion billboards still have a long way to go, but before tinkering with the elements of the ad they should really first take a look into who their brand is. Most of them simply place model after model and forget to communicate their core character. That's the reason why they all seem to look like the same ad material but with different people wearing different clothes.

I think only Bench has succeded with creating a distinct look and feel for their every brand. Kamiseta has a weathered and laid back look to their ads which show good sense of who their brand is, but I still can figure why it was shifted from the Cojuanco sisters, Alica Silverstone, to Natalie Portman to Kate Hudson then to Petra Nemcova and Natalia Vodianova. Odd shift from Hollywood to the Runwaywood. I know endorsers are effective in the PH market, but strangely, knowing your brand seems to be out of fashion.