The New Hot Trend in Fashion Marketing

Founded by the former Product Manager of digital publishing, e-commerce & mobile applications for brands such as CBC, Vancouver & Sochi Olympics and BlackFriday, Mona Akhavi has built an online marketing platform that is disrupting the traditional channels of advertising. Sidebuy is a data-driven online platform that enables the management and measurement of influence marketing.

Influence marketing is about conveying the retailer & brand’s message through the voice of an influencer who other consumers like and trust, instead of the mass. This new marketing channel has emerged with the advent of social media and is shifting how consumers collect information when it comes to making purchasing decisions.

With her experience as an engineer, Mona had the technical background to combine with her side projects in e-commerce & Fashion to start Sidebuy in Yaletown.

“I’ve always wanted to combine technology with fashion & lifestyle to bring value for brands & retailers locally & globally,” Mona says about starting Sidebuy.

Working in an environment where companies spend millions of dollars on online & traditional advertising, Mona saw an opportunity to make the lifetime of the consumer longer by engaging them with the brands. “Brands can scream out & promote all great things about themselves on traditional channels, and reach the masses one time, but it’s more effective to reach relevant customers and influence them to go from like to love to loyalty. That can be done through bloggers & influencers. Because customers trust and believe their peers. In fact, based on a recent study by Nielsen, 90% of consumers rely on their peer recommendations while only 33% trust paid ads” as Mona mentions.

Lifestyle bloggers are the new generation of influencers. They are active brand advocates who enjoy a wide, and at the same time, targeted reach on their social media. “What sets influence marketing apart and make it more effective from conventional marketing channels is that consumers are actively searching for this user-generated content since they find it more authentic and reliable. As the recent survey by Research Now revealed, 84% of consumers make a purchase based on a blog post. This high number is due to the extensive reach, relevance, and engagement that bloggers present. From the identification of needs to the evaluation of alternatives, bloggers and influencers are helping buyers to make more informed decisions, in less time.”

Marketing is now all about personalization instead of globalization and collaborating with bloggers is the best way brands can convey a personalized message to a targeted audience. Mona firmly believes in the effectiveness of influence marketing and considers it “The” marketing channel of the future. And Sidebuy is aiming to be the marketplace of choice for bloggers and brands to collaborate.