Mmgnet Group’s Plans to Join and Empower the Trend Trade

Informa Markets Trend, now Mmgnet Group, is launching a brand new father or mother firm to ship the corporate’s strategic shift right into a year-round vogue market insights useful resource, along with innovating the actions of B2B vogue occasions like Magic, Coterie and Mission within the US. The shift is reflective of the corporate’s mission to cater for the style business at massive and function a connection level for the group’s portfolio and their various communities.

Mmgnet’s new product choices embrace development reporting, business insights and enterprise assets that present a gradual stream of inspiration-led or analytical content material. This output will embrace programming extra key moments for the broader business to attach and innovate collectively all year long, alongside a set of enhanced digital advertising and marketing alternatives. Its goal is to assist join, inform and empower the business.

With its well-established historical past in American and worldwide vogue markets, Mmgnet Group is tapped into an expansive neighborhood from which it each gathers — and shares — data-led data, traits and insights. In 2023 alone, the model’s occasions attracted almost 100,000 retailers, consumers, press, influencers and different business professionals to attend the model business occasions throughout the US. Its digital attain and on-line communities already consists of over 600,000 business professionals representing vogue retail, manufacturers and design, sourcing and manufacturing, advertising and marketing and inventive, schooling and extra.

Now, BoF sits down with Kelly Helfman and Teodora Nicolae to be taught extra about Mmgnet Group, its developed providing and community-led focus transferring ahead.

What led to the choice to transition Informa Markets Trend to Mmgnet Group?

Kelly Helfman: There are extra challenges than ever throughout the vogue business as an entire and we requested ourselves: how can we resolve for this? Over the previous few years, we performed market analysis, buyer surveys and held conversations inside and outdoors of our current communities and we realised that, whereas we will’t resolve for all the pieces, we will deepen the connections we make and take that to the following stage with a view to assist the business discover the solutions and assist they want.

On the coronary heart of Mmgnet, our goal is about arming individuals with data and alternatives, whether or not it’s in-person at our reside occasions or digitally, exterior of these occasions. We need to join our viewers throughout segments year-round — that is what our clients have been saying that they want.

Why does your neighborhood and a wider cross part of the business want extra expansive knowledge and programming?

Teodora Nicolae: Intestine emotions type an enormous a part of selections made within the vogue business, however if you wish to run a worthwhile, higher enterprise, you could make knowledgeable selections. We are going to nonetheless present our development programme with the color palettes, the silhouettes and the higher-level aesthetic inspiration, however we additionally need to present a wider vary of business knowledge and insights, together with know-how, sustainability, shopper and retail traits.

The important thing phrases listed below are “actionable insights” — we need to assist individuals make higher enterprise selections transferring ahead, to provide our clients and our communities a greater understanding of what’s taking place inside totally different markets and the business usually. Nobody wants extra knowledge with out context, in order that vital subsequent step is how you can contextualise it — to attach the dots and make it actionable, whether or not you’re a small start-up designer or a big vogue model.

Nobody wants extra knowledge with out context, in order that vital subsequent step is how you can contextualise it — to attach the dots and make it actionable.

KH: Will probably be thrilling to deliver collectively, each on-line and offline, totally different communities to debate the outcomes and traits that we’re seeing, to speak about the way forward for this enterprise digitally in addition to in-person. We reached and engaged virtually 1,000,000 individuals final yr. That’s an enormous digital platform with lots of alternative.

How do you gather and share the info that informs your insights?

TN: It’s a mixture of surveying, market analysis, forecasting — and we gather knowledge on a worldwide stage in addition to the regional stage in North America. It is usually about anecdotal conversations we have now with our communities. We’re well-positioned to gather this data with our reside occasions and business gatherings. We additionally work with the appropriate companions who perceive what’s taking place within the business.

KH: What we have now all the time performed nicely is join with our neighborhood in-person, speaking to them and understanding their ache factors within the totally different market sectors and on a worldwide scale. At Coterie, for instance, we have now over 30 nations represented and we regularly hear from the consumers and producers there concerning the challenges they face producing beneath totally different governmental guidelines and rules. With Mmgnet, we will now create this connection each digitally and in-person.

TN: And to attach smaller cohorts throughout our segments, we will additionally begin testing and piloting new codecs, new merchandise. For instance, we intend to create in-person, intimate neighborhood occasions throughout vogue weeks or in particular segments of the market, comparable to bringing collectively those that are keen about sustainability in sourcing, to debate what’s taking place within the business, what’s related, what’s of curiosity to them.

How is Mmgnet working in direction of worthwhile duty?

KH: Now we have an enormous duty, as an business accomplice and useful resource for the neighborhood, round sustainability and social duty. We have a look at how we will additional assist designers to supply and manufacture extra responsibly by way of strategic partnerships with non-profits, for instance.

What we have now all the time performed nicely is join with our neighborhood in-person, speaking to them and understanding their ache factors within the totally different market sectors and on a worldwide scale.

Now we have had nice programmes with verification of sustainable manufacturers beneath UN requirements. In 2020, we launched a programme known as Trend for Change, by way of which we assist and sponsor minority-owned rising manufacturers to come back to our reveals. We provide consulting, mentorship and assets — it’s a nurturing course of all through a few reveals to fulfill nice retailers. We’re going to proceed to reinforce that, with new pillars beneath the Trend for Change programme.

TN: We’re utilizing the time period “worthwhile duty” as a result of we imagine that these two issues will not be mutually unique. Whereas we don’t essentially know what the reply is to get to that “nirvana,” as we wish to name it, we’re dedicated to making an attempt to determine it out collectively — and we do imagine it’s doable.

What’s within the pipeline for 2024 and past?

TN: This isn’t only a new model launch. We need to ensure that all the pieces we intend to do, we do. To start with, we can be releasing our first actionable insights report quickly on “2024 US Trend Shopper Outlook”, which is a wealthy piece of content material. It’s consultant of the kind of insights, programming and content material that we need to proceed to supply year-round.

KH: We are going to announce a few of these neighborhood meet-ups exterior of our market cycles within the subsequent month or so, which we intend to align with many different main international moments, even exterior of vogue. We’re additionally taking a look at how you can develop our verified sustainable and IMFC programmes, on which we are going to announce extra quickly. And at last, we’re exploring methods to higher energy up our true matchmaking programmes transferring ahead.

This can be a sponsored characteristic paid for by Mmgnet Group as a part of a BoF partnership.