ASOS Likes
Our client Jo Emerson was quoted extensively on Tuesday in an article by Siam Goorwich on ASOS Likes. As the largest online independent fashion and beauty retailer in the UK, appearing on ASOS.com was a great bit of PR for Jo. Sitting on a subdomain of the main ASOS site (likes.asos.com), ASOS Likes provides a steady stream of daily content covering three categories: ‘Look Hot,’ ‘Be Smart,’ and ‘Have Fun.’
As an owned media play, ASOS Likes makes total sense for ASOS.com. Their entire business model depends on generating traffic. Regular, high-quality content attracts organic search traffic. This has led ASOS to start a high-quality blog with a team of staff writers while cost-cutting traditional media are turning more to flexible freelancers.
Journalism is not dying, it’s metamorphosing.
We may be witnessing a reorganization of the media landscape, but let’s take a moment to reflect on the fantastic coverage we secured for our client.
Although the hook for the story was World Complement Day, and three experts were sited in total, the bulk of the coverage was quotations from Jo, including this little gem:
I can tell immediately if someone has at least a modicum of healthy self-esteem by how they accept a compliment. If I tell someone they look nice and they say, “Thank you’ while grinning and looking me in the eye I know they have at least some self respect. Enough to accept the gift I’m giving them! If they look down, try to deny the compliment or blush I’m pretty sure I’m dealing with a fairly bruised reed.
Even better than the coverage itself perhaps, Jo’s website and online confidence course were plugged with links (and vitally, the link to Jo’s course was a ‘do follow’ link). ASOS.com has a whopping 85 Domain Authority according to Moz, so that will do wonders for Jo’s SEO.
And wait, it gets better.
WQAD recycled the ASOS Likes story
The next morning we found that American television station WQAD, based in the Quad Cities straddling Illinois and Iowa, had quoted Jo’s appearance on ASOS Likes to create a new version of the same piece for their website. Entitled ‘Can’t take a compliment? Just do these two things’, this article introduces Jo (and her online confidence course) to a whole new audience without any extra effort. Boom!
The fact that WQAD, a representative of ‘old media,’ was quoting lifestyle advice from a British online retailers website is also a perfect example of the power of the new style of ‘owned media’ controlled by brands. Up until recently, brands went to television stations to get exposure, either through advertising or PR. Now brands can draw attention to themselves by creating their own content, which old media firms like WQAD will try to ride on the back of to boost their profiles. The old media paradigm is being turned on its head!
Jo is, of course, delighted with her coverage – whether in the UK or in Iowa – and even more delighted to associate her personal brand with one as powerful as ASOS’.
We’re already working on new opportunities for our clients to appear on other non-traditional, ‘owned’ media outlets. Maybe if we’re lucky we will even reach the Quad Cities again!
ASOS, meanwhile, are growing their owned media stable far beyond just the ASOS Likes blog. Check out the first episode of #DigiDating, a brand new online dating show from ASOS Likes which ‘aims to sort the digi from the dodgy.’