April 07 2019 | Interviews
The fashion industry has endured so much change since the onset of the digital revolution. Today's PLANOLEADER has witnessed these changes through a number of lenses — Enter Kelsey Panicco, a leading multifaceted creative and social media professional. Since entering the industry, Kelsey has immersed herself in just about every aspect of fashion from trend forecasting to content production and now social media management, which she primarily focuses on in her current role as Social Media Manager at Club Monaco. Unsurprisingly, Kelsey's days are full and brimming with opportunities to flex her many creative muscles on social initiatives for the beloved lifestyle brand. We were ecstatic to have the chance to see her in action at Club Monaco's chic, loft-like HQ in Manhattan. Take a tour of the office below, and meet Kelsey who discusses her career background, the synergy between social and influencer marketing, and her best practices for all things digital.
Hi friends, I'm Kelsey! By day, I'm the Social Media Manager at Club Monaco. My evenings and weekends are sacred for anything experiential, styling, photography, astrology, self-care, and storytelling. But first, coffee...and then maybe a good cocktail.
Originally from Pittsburgh, I moved to New York and graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2014. Throughout college, I interned at magazines, digital agencies, and trend forecasting companies where digital was just beginning to grow, and Instagram had recently been introduced to the world. During most of this, I was a blogger, and that's when I truly fell in love with brand collaborations, social media, and content creation — it's also when I realized that this progressive niche would most likely become mainstream marketing in just a few short years to follow. Before Club Monaco, I started as a fashion trend forecaster and then transitioned back into digital by way of social media within hospitality at RVD Communications. It has been incredibly eye-opening and exciting to watch businesses (small and large) adopt new marketing strategies for the purpose of social media branding and adaptation.
As a content creator, you wear many hats - from production to styling, to identifying trends emerging within the social landscape - but what it all comes down to is strategizing around engaging content that your followers and community will feel inspired enough to share. Club Monaco has an entrepreneurial spirit, and the way we work very much reflects that. It's one of the things I love most about Club — the freedom to collaborate and bring different skill sets and perspectives to whatever project we might be working on. We recently launched our latest, social-first spring campaign, For You., and I was able to leverage my past experience in styling, content creation and strategy to create digestible, high performing and engaging social content from a broader editorial shoot.
I would highly suggest aspiring social media professionals explore different content mediums, and to build their content creation skill sets such as graphic design and videography in order to tell product stories in unique and compelling ways.
Managing social media for an iconic lifestyle brand like Club Monaco is so rewarding. I love it because it's not only a blast creating content with such talented artists, but it challenges me to brainstorm strong ways to engage with our followers online and offline. Club also has an incredible organic following, and we've really begun to place our focus on deepening these relationships and engaging in more meaningful two- way conversations with our fans. A sense of community has always been an integral part of Club Monaco's identity, and it's something I'm really excited about building upon through social. I'm also excited to be incorporating more of our Club Monaco employees into social content. We have such a talented team with impeccable personal style who all wear the product well in their own unique way. It's been really fun to see how each employee styles pieces differently and it's allowed us to create content that showcases the product in really interesting and fresh ways.
Club Monaco is a brand that has such a strong design aesthetic and really excels in creating incredible product across both men's and women's. It's a great opportunity and a fun challenge to keep our content balanced and understand how customers respond to different content. We have a very engaged male following on Instagram, and we've found that they really respond to straightforward content that features our most iconic pieces such as the Grant suit or Connor chino, whereas our female followers tend to prefer product that lives in more of a "real life" environment.
As I touched on earlier, Club Monaco is focused on building a meaningful sense of community — whether that's with our customers in-store through panel discussions and conversation series or in the digital space through personalized campaigns like For You, rooted in customer feedback. The same sentiment applies to the influencers we choose to feature on our platforms. We have a very strong network of brand friends who we continue to partner with season after season and who truly love the brand and product. When it comes to influencer strategy, we always lead with authenticity. We're not interested in one time partnerships, but rather, long-term relationship building. This has allowed us to grow an incredible network of talent who understand and love the brand.
1. Create IRL content that is relatable
2. Post dual gender photography
3. Create community experiences that live on social
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