European Fashion Media

Self Service magazine, Paris, S 2009

The primary fashion medium during the past century was not radio, television or film but the magazine. The fashion magazine began with sketches of the French court which were reproduced in books. Later in the 1800’s catalogs and magazines began to appear in both the United States and France. While both Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue came first, France’s short live Gazette du Bon Ton (1912-1925) was world renowned. It was 100 francs a year by subscription. It had exclusive illustrations and aimed to establish fashion as an art alongside painting, sculpture, and drawing. Now fashion magazines are deceasing in number while internet and new media are ganing influence.

Chanel Designer Karl Lagerfeld on Twitter, 150,000 followers

Angela McRobbie is author of "Fashion as Culture Industry." She focuses on the UK and their government support of fashion. She describes the climate for UK fashion in the 1990's. The 1997 election of Tony Blair brought a “young country” vibe and “Hollywoodization” of the British culture industry. The British fashion scene focuses on street wise Alexander McQueen, star child Stella McCartney, and punk Vivienne Westwood, who has been influential since the 80's. The author is questioning government money put into culture and regeneration. The aim is to improve values and create better citizens, to support small views instead of mass market and stimulate the economy. School trained fashion design is supported in the UK, especially with Central Saint Martins encouraging the discourse.

Alexander McQueen from left F 2007 McQ campaign using May '68 photos and right F 2006 collection

Stella McCartney emphasizes green design supported through her ad campaign F 2009

Vivienne Westwood first got attention for her destroy t-shirt, right her campaign by photographer Juergen Teller

McRobbie argues for support of indie designers and treating designers like artists with indivdual grants and government support. Flamboyant English trained John Galliano designs for himself and Dior. The fashion designer is a creative director who manages brand communication, packaging and marketing media.

John Galliano left for Dior and right for his own label S 2006

McRobbie questions the integrity of the fashion press as soft fluff news: “Socializing with the top designers as part of a whole glamorous and international fashion circuit, gratefully receiving all sorts of fashion freebies, and fearful for being left out in the cold for filing a poor review, fashion journalists rarely step out of line.”

The world’s most famous and respected fashion journalist is based in Paris. Suzy Menkes was English educated and has been with the International Herald Tribune since 1988. In that time she has written over 1.7 million words in the paper. She has received the Order of the British Empire and the French Legion of Honor.

Founded in France in 1997, Fashion TV is the only 24/7 international TV network exclusively dedicated to fashion, beauty, glamour and style and has become one of the most widely-distributed television shows in the world: 31 satellite and 2,000 cable systems, with a total of 500 million households in 193 countries across the five continents. The channel is owned byMichel Adam Lisowksi aka “Michel Adams,” and emphasizes music, yachts and models with annual fashion cruises. Adams was arrested in 2005 for assault on models.

Michel Adams

European Music Media

Eurovision is one of the longest running television shows in the world and the most popular music television show. It was planned after World War II and began in 1956 to encourage harmony between European countries but it based on competition. Each country goes through a national competition for an original song by national performers. The national winners then compete in several rounds. The audience during the final contest is 600 million.

See the history of Eurovision logos here.

Eurovision is followed as closely as a the World Cup. The chart below for Eurovision 2009 shows how the countries have voted, Norway earning votes from every country.

In his chapter "More Music Television Channels," Papathanassopoulos explains the dominant influence of MTV on the European music television market.

MTV launched in the United States on August 1, 1981 with “Video Killed the Radio Star." MTV was a corporate product created by Warner Cable. Using video clips and video jockey hosts it was a low cost channel benefitting from content rights and distribution gains paid by record companies. The company used two historic marketing campaigns. They interrupted each hour showing an astronaut planting the MTV logo on the moon announcing music news. They also invited top musicians to convince viewers to add the channel to more cable networks, shouting "I want my MTV." Read more about early MTV US.

By 1985, the record industry passed its peak and Viacom bought MTV with an intention to go global. They launched in Europe on August 1, 1987 with Dire Straights, “Money for Nothing/I Want My MTV.” The only prime competitor was Viva in Germany which was bought by MTV in 2004. MTVE works regionally Central, North etc, with multi-language VJs and commercials. The European Music Awards, EMA, brings all nations together but consistently awards US performers.

In a different look at European music media, Josephine Bosma studied the techno subculture in "12" as Medium." The article observes the connection between the introduction of the 12" single record and the DJ and club culture that emerged at the same time. Focusing on Germany, Bosma describes the techno subculture in the words of Dick Hebdige, “hiding in the light.” Techno was obvious to the world but somewhat missunderstood. Techno was an outsider youth genre that depended on the 12" which was loved by DJs as they could easily play one song and move to the next.

The best selling, most re-mixed 12" ever is New Order's Blue Monday. The song was originally released in 1983 but it was the re-lease in 1988, on 12" re-mastered by Quincy Jones, that then took the song to #3 in British charts and incited DJ's around the world.

Like sports, music has also combined with marketing and tourism. Music festivals generate considerable tourism. Founded in 1967, the Montreux Jazz Festival is the most important music event in Switzerland and one of the most respected in the world. Since the 1970's, the even has expanded to include other music guests such as Led Zepplin, Prince and many others.

Started in 1994, Sónar is an annual music festival each June in Barcelona. The festival is dedicated to "Advanced Music and Multimedia Art."

Also important are Europe's radio channels

France's Radio Nova, UK's Virgin Ragio, EU's Radio Free Europe and France Culture

Tourism Media

You know you have arrived when Hemingway has already been there there. Hemingway chronicled the European experience in his novels and seems to have visited every hidden treasure of the old world. Travel writing used to be an essential media for informing the masses. In 2009, agencies like The European Travel Commission advance regional travel media and supervise national tourism media.

Hemingway on the Italian island of Torcello near Venice

The European Travel Commission's motto

In Rudiger Theilmann's "Brand Europe: Moves Towards Pan-European Identity," the author is specifically talking about “place branding." The main difference between product branding and place branding is the product branding markets while place branding tries to reach wide, general audiences in a less targeted way. Most tourism ads address a general audience because essentially anyone can travel and the quality is determined by particular hotels which are individually marketed and advertised. The author also explains that flags have become equivalent to logos. Switzerland uses the branding guide below, suggesting that the Swiss flag be used as part of company logos, as well suggesting integrating Swiss values into businesses.

Gstaad, Switzerland is an older tourist destination that thrives today. It has hosted skiiers and boarding schools since the late 1800's.

Biarritz is another example of an older tourist destination that has been attracting visitors for centuries. In the 1960's it was featured in the American magazine Surfer which transformed the city into a global destination.

John Severson's 1965 cover of Surfer brought French surfing to the world

Both the World Cup and the Olympics function as tourism strategies. Both events involve “place branding” that require the cities to shape up and offer a “well educated workforce,” “good language skills” and “dynamic population” as well as safe infrastructure.

Read the World Cup 2010 Press Release:

For one month the nation will be on show. And for South Africa it will be the greatest show on Earth and the Games of our lives: the 2010 Fifa World Cup. For one solid month from the middle of June until the middle of July in 2010 South Africa will open its arms, doors, communications networks and broadcast cables to over 20,000 members of the international and national media community who will capture an estimated over 200 viewing hours of 64 matches across 32 teams. In total over 300 broadcasters will send out a continuous month of live television coverage which will bring South Africa into the homes of a cumulative viewing audience of over 40 Billion people, internationally and nationally. 40 billion people watching the 2010 Fifa World Cup live as it occurs in South Africa. No rewinds, no edits, no second chances. And that is not to mention the on-line viewership and surrounding blog activity.The story of the 2010 Fifa WORLD CUP In South Africa is a story of promise, potential, possibility and rich purpose. 2010 is our opportunity to create the longest running, farthest reaching, most impactful and most exciting Tourism advertisement for our nation ever. Through advertising and through media. Our destination’s strength, competitiveness and Brand depend on it.

The initial media releases of global events are prospective drawings, maps and charts of dream projects that start to build public interest.

Mobile Media coverage:
The Beijing Olympics had unprecedented internet media coverage and this included significant coverage for mobile internet devices. Big media organisations such as NBC, and the BBC provided live 24/7 mobile web, mobile alerts and mobile video coverage. In August the MDA saw a 500,000 increase in the number of mobile internet users during the two weeks of the Beijing games.By 2012, tariff changes and device functionality will ensure Mobile Internet and streaming media will be being used on a regular basis by upward of 40 million Brits. This new wave of mobile consumers will put more emphasis on the need to produce innovative mobile content, from a medal watch for Team GB to action replays of the best action etc.All of this means that the wireless operators must ensure that their capacity planning factors in the anticipated popularity of the Olympics. The wireless provisioning, in and around the stadiums, will need to encompass GSM based bearers as well as WiFi, WiMax and Bluetooth which can all be used to distribute local event-based content and information.

“Brand entertainment” also happened with the film Borat which put unknown Kazakhstan on the map. The Eurasian country is the 9th largest in the world.

Wally Olins and his company Saffron have addressed the aspect of branding countries.

Most Eastern European countries are trying to align with Central European values through slogans.

Hungary, “The essence of Europe”

Czech Republic, “In the Heart of Europe”

Poland, “The heart of Europe”
Lithuania, “Center of Europe”

Solvenia, “The green piece of Europe”

European Sports Media

“Sports absolutely overpowers film and everything else in the entertainment genre,” Rupert Murdoch.

Since the 20th century arrival of television, sports have become a media event giving viewers at home the visual experience of the stadium or better. Sports have also been combined with advertising and sponsorship to build the industry. Global sports events like the World Cup combine sports with tourism.

According to Papathanassopoulos, “Television has replaced ticket sales as the prime source of finance for professional sport.” Eurosport dominates the transnational market by giving coverage in 12 languages. The UK is largest by audience in the European market with Sky News leading. Scandinavia has had the weakest market.

Sports are the strongest force in pay/on demand tv. The dominance of PPV caused the EU to get involved in 1997. They established “directives” to guarantee all citizens to access “great common experiences.” However the countries created different laws with Demark creating more accessiblilty.PPV pricing is determined by cost of the actual tickets. PPV offers replays and different angels you cannot get at the real game. Some teams are forming alliances with networks. Websites are increasing in relevance, 1 billion hits on the World Cup website.

Jean Baudrillard, The Racing Driver and His Double, Screened Out, 2002

Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) originally studied German then Sociology, eventually teaching at Paris IX Dauphine. He is best known for attacking the “technological event.” He proposed the simulacra, essentially the media representation of the real. His constant random referencing without footnotes is considered postmodern. Some people criticize him as an aggressor rather than academic: Baudrillard's hyperprose demands only that you grunt wide-eyed or bewildered assent.

Formula 1

Began in 1950

Racing at high speeds, up to 360 km/h (220 mph)

Called “the world’s most expensive sport” with the most sponsored drivers

Formula 1 is a massive television event, with a global audience of 600 million people per season

Includes a circuit of 17 separate Euro-Asian races with the Monaco Grand Prix being the most prestigious from 1929

FIA characterized the Monaco Grand Prix as contributing "an exceptional location of glamour and prestige" to motor sport. It is also unique because it uses the actual streets of Monte Carlo.

Baudrillard's article describes technology & man, the alliance of the two reconciled by speed. The third player is the sponsors, mainly the car companies Ferrari, Renault, Brawn, Maclaren and Porsche. BMW has only been on the scene since 2000 which was a strategic effort.

Baudrillard described Formula 1 as

Part of an era of performance

An excessive expenditure, a spectacular sacrifice

Efforts of thousands culminate in a single dazzling moment

Where is the pleasure of driving? At 180 mph there is calm

The driver is the operator of crowd passions

“The impact of Formula One lies then in the exceptional and mythic character of the event of the race and the figure of the driver…it is not clear why speed would be both severely limited and morally condemned in the public domain and celebrated in Formula One…a fundamental illusion for all, and one that justifies all the excesses” p. 169

“If Formula 1 is a spectacle, a collective passionate (though perfectly artificial) event, embracing the multiple screens of technological research, the living prosthesis of the driver, and the television screens into which the viewers project themselves, then it certainly has a very fine future….Such a concentration of technology, money, ambition, prestige is a monster (as is the world of haute couture…as far removed from real clothing as Formula 1 from road traffic.)” p. 170

The fascination with speed is not limited to Formula 1. The Isle of Man is a notable UK motorbike race and Le Tour de France is another global sports media event the emphasizes speed.