NEW YORK CITY — February 8, 2024 — Informa Markets Fashion announced today the group’s brand transition to MMGNET Group, and with it the launch of MMGNET, the new insights and resources-powered parent brand designed to support the wider fashion industry and connect the group’s portfolio of brands and their diverse communities, products, services, and resources more seamlessly and in more ways than ever. Moving forward, MMGNET Group’s portfolio of B2B fashion industry brands will consist of MMGNET, MAGIC, COTERIE, PROJECT, and SOURCING at MAGIC.
For decades, the group’s leading B2B event brands have served the fashion industry as vital meeting grounds for essential discovery servicing global retailers and brands. MMGNET, the group will now deliver an expanded product and service offering, including a steady stream of rich and inspirational content and resources as well as more opportunities for the wider industry to connect and innovate throughout the year, alongside a suite of enhanced digital marketing opportunities.
“This is more than a rebranding or launch of a new parent brand; this is about addressing how we serve our audience and the industry moving forward, as an evolution of our business. We’re focused on doing what we do incredibly well, but better than ever — connecting our customers through our live events — while also enhancing support year-round, both on and offline”, said Kelly Helfman, president, MMGNET Group. “We are fashion’s go-to- partner for live discovery and commerce, now with MMGNET we can also be the industry’s resource for industry connection, insights, business resources, and inspiration.”
The group’s new parent brand, MMGNET, will connect the industry and communities across its existing premier B2B fashion event brands with exclusive content programs and providing research-driven market insights, seasonal trend forecasting, distinct curation and unique business resources designed to empower tangible actions and results. MMGNET will also provide new opportunities for more live connection touchpoints throughout the fashion calendar, new digital marketing opportunities that expand reach and awareness, and a platform to innovate, pilot, and test new formats and products that support current and future industry and customer needs.
The new MMGNET created based on extensive market research and customer feedback gathered over the last 2 years, which highlighted new needs driven by the challenges created by on-going market shifts, continued supply chain challenges, on-going disruption brought on by direct-to-consumer channels, and continuously evolving consumer preferences and demands. Among these, the need for more always-on market insights and trends focused content and resources, more curation and direction, and additional commerce and connection opportunities and community building throughout the year.
“This next chapter is about empowering our customers and the industry in new and expanded ways that drive mutual benefit, growth and progress” said Teodora Nicolae, vice president of Marketing, MMGNET Group. “MMGNET now exists to address the industry’s new needs, and to exist as a synergistic ecosystem that drives more valuable connections across our communities and provides more opportunity than ever for them to interact and engage, to create, to innovate, to discover, and to learn and share knowledge in new ways and new formats.”
MMGNET’s ecosystem of hero brands, communities and cohorts, products, and services will build around four key focus areas: connection and opportunity, actionable industry and market insights, inspiration and trend forecasting, and profitable responsibility. At the core of MMGNET’s mission is helping the industry further tap into the limitless potential for partnerships, growth, innovation, and knowledge-sharing possible when more touchpoints are created and the right connections are made, both on and offline. MMGNET’s “fashion-wide” platform will allow for more connections across existing audiences and communities than ever, as well as the ability to create and nurture new communities across the industry.
Investments in new and dynamic opportunities to gather fashion communities and the wider industry in and outside of the traditional market cycle will support this mission, including global meetups and community events during key moments in the fashion calendar, new format pilots including conference and content-driven live events, and new programs and initiatives around curation and matchmaking across MAGIC, PROJECT, COTERIE, and SOURCING at MAGIC industry events.
The second pillar, actionable industry insights, will drive MMGNET’s expansion and investment in market research and data-driven reports designed to identify and present larger shifts in the global fashion landscape, macro and micro market trends, fluctuations in consumer behavior, and more. Core to the expanded and growing insights program lies the goal of contextualizing data and insights to help professionals and fashion businesses of all sizes utilize findings to more strategically inform their short- and long-term decisions. Presented in multiple formats – both online and offline – reports will unpack and analyze salient findings, offering broad perspectives as well as tailored storylines for the various industry markets and communities.
The third pillar will focus on driving inspiration and providing trend insights, direction, and further curation year- round and across multiple formats. MMGNET will continue to deliver a robust program of seasonal trend forecasting across market segments and categories, while also expanding beyond traditional definitions of “trend” content to supply relevant industry trend forecasts and reporting across fashion technology, real-:me social media consumer trends, sustainability, marketing and branding, and more.
Finally, profitable responsibility is an important value-focused pillar highlighting MMGNET’s commitment to helping the industry and all fashion stakeholders carve a path to a more conscious and responsible future. This will encompass sustainability, environmental stewardship, social empowerment and DE&I initiatives. Plans for expanding the Verified Sustainable program across hero brand communities and events, as well as the IMFC Incubator which supports minority owned fashion brands, are in the works.
MMGNET will serve the entire fashion industry as a go-to-resource and as a connection point both in and outside of the traditional fashion calendar, online and offline. More initiatives across MMGNET’s live event, trend and insights content programs, and responsibility-focused initiatives will be announced in the coming months.
Posted: February 8, 2024
Source: MMGNET Group — a subsidiary of Informa Markets
