Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

Pivoting to a digital-first proposition, Re:Style 2020 focussed on galvanising the online communities surrounding our designers, Selfridges, the British Fashion Council and key sustainably focussed fashion personalities to inspire a fresh global conversation around the possibilities of waste. At Selfridges London, in-store pop-up space invited consumers to see the collection in-person and learn about the program, fuelling content creation from local influencers out to a worldwide audience. Online at Selfridges.com, a home page takeover and content embedded into the dedicated pages, with bespoke interviews from each brand, guided consumers through the creative process as they shopped for their exclusive pieces.

Background

The fashion and automotive industries are unlikely allies but share a common concern; waste. Whilst 90% of materials from Hyundai's scrapping process is now upcycled or recycled, 10% still end up in landfill and fashion ranks only second to the oil industry in the list of global polluters. With sustainability no longer a nice to have but a core expectation for our target, urban millennial consumer, Hyundai needed to find new long-term ways to both demonstrate our commitment to building a more sustainable manufacturing process and fuel new solutions to help achieve our ambitious goals on a faster timeline than ever. The opportunity for a new take on cross-industry collaboration was clear. Following a successful brand-run pilot via a presentation event with New York’s Zero+Maria Cornejo in 2019, Hyundai Re:Style was elevated and expanded on a global scale for 2020.

Describe the creative idea

For 2020, Hyundai collaborated with a diverse group of six conscious fashion designers from across the globe - Richard Quinn, Public School, Rosie Assoulin, Alighieri Jewellery, pushBUTTON and E.L.V. DENIM - to recreate their signature pieces by upcycling, reworking and reinventing discarded car materials that would otherwise end up in landfill, creating a ‘new’ piece indistinguishable from their already celebrated work. Available for sale online at Selfridges, and in-store pop-up, via a world-first retail partnership, the limited-edition collection not only highlighted the creative possibilities that come from rethinking our existing processes but proved the commercial viability of re-examining how we make the products we love. With all proceeds going to the British Fashion Council’s Institute of Positive Fashion, the proceeds benefitted those advocating for and delivering wider change in the industry for the benefit of us all.

Describe the strategy

1. Younger consumers want to buy based on shared values and actions - when it comes to making sustainable choices, younger consumers buy into brands whose ethos is tangible, and reflects their own. 2. The more we know about being green, the less we believe – as more and more brands and consumers are talking about the need for responsible actions, it’s becoming less easy to decipher what, if anything, will deliver lasting impact. 3. There is no one size fits all model – there is no one brand defining how to be sustainable, and solutions are born through equally championing everyone taking action. Re:Style 2020 needed to be a tangible program that our audience could adopt as their own, presenting upcycled fashion from unlikely raw materials as not just an conceptual experiment, but a commercially viable endeavour with the more diverse and varied the participants the better.

Describe the execution

From October 8th, a global coordinated launch announcement connected 6 designers, 2 partners, and over 20 diverse influencers from Seoul, London, New York and other capital cities in between, taking viewers behind the scenes of the creative process, and the transformation of discarded car materials to viable collections through films, interviews, images, sketches and live styling shoots unveiling the pieces for the first time. IGTV Live interviews between designers and sustainably-minded personalities, such as Lauren Singer of Trash Is For Tossers and Public School, invited audiences to speak to the designers directly on launch day, increasing reach into micro-communities already exploring new solutions in sustainability. Entirely made via upcycling, the in-store pop-up at Selfridges detailed the innovative manufacturing processes and provided a space for the consumer to learn about the program, fuelling content creation from local influencers out to a worldwide audience.

List the results

Hyundai Re:Style was a great success, with a 250M global reach and a level of engagement of 31.8M on social media. This resulted in positive key messaging penetration across campaign coverage and conversation with an urban, millennial audience. “Hyundai Motor is solidifying its position as a world-leading sustainable lifestyle brand” Elle.com (10.95M reach) “I love seeing brands find creative ways to make fashion more sustainable and unique” influencer @jimchapman - Instagram 1.9M followers    “This project shows when brand ambitions align, industries can collaborate to reimagine waste” Anna Foster, Founder, E.L.V. Denim @elvdenim In addition to far-surpassing our original 10-15M PR target by 8M+, our potential influencer reach was also double our initial projections at 5M. The campaign's success was recognised by the British Fashion Council as an annual initiative that combines automotive waste and the unique creative vision of sustainable designers.