Would you model lingerie in exchange for free underwear?
May 2, 2016 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Paying for models and photographers for advertisements is one of the biggest financial burdens for any new garment company, so a Chinese lingerie company has largely circumvented this issue by crowdsourcing its ads.
Shanghai company O2 appealed for its customers to send in high-quality photographs of themselves modelling the brand’s luxury lingerie. If the photos were good enough, they were used in promotional material.
Rather than being paid for their efforts, the customers whose photos are selected receive one free set of lingerie for every three sets they model.
This clever strategy means that O2 saves bundles of cash that they would typically have to spend on paying models, make-up artists, lighting technicians and professional photographers to carry out photo shoots.
The chief executive of O2, Daini Xu, told e27 that they had about 500 customer models who had sent in photos of themselves, and they received about five new applications every day.
Xu said the applications came from every corner of China and the women had occupations like reporter, student and photographer.
“We wanted normal people, like office ladies and students,” Ms Xu said. “Our program is more about letting users experience (our lingerie), to let them wear something they’ve never worn before.
“They’re very self-confident. Their self-acceptance comes from themselves. Many of them acknowledge: ‘Yes, I am beautiful.’”
Despite the fact that the customer photos are not the result of typical professional photo shoots, the ones displayed on the O2 website do not look amateurish.
The above set, for example, shows a beautiful young Chinese lady posing in O2 lingerie against a contrastingly ugly industrial backdrop – the kind of scene for which ever-growing modern China has become famous.
The campaign aims not only to reduce costs in advertising campaigns but also to engage customers, who may be able to develop a deeper relationship with the company, beyond merely using its products.
