Product demonstration meets creative inspiration

Long before the Beckham documentary, there was the Skype Collaboration Project.

Back in 2014, Skype wanted to connect with a younger, tech-savvy audience. Over the previous few years, it had become so much more than a cheap way to call friends and family overseas. Skype had now evolved into a sophisticated collaboration tool. But the problem was, no one really knew.

We created The Skype Collaboration Project to show people everything Skype was now capable of. The new editorial platform was designed to inspire and enable young creatives – while seamlessly demonstrating how Skype’s tools could help them along their journey.

We chose a specific audience to focus on – fashion, one of the most elusive creative industries.

I worked with in-house editorial team of journalists, filmmakers and editors to create on a non-stop stream of original content for aspiring fashion creatives. In just fifteen weeks, we produced 128 articles, interviews, reports and insider tips, which offered a unique insight into the world of fashion.

We also integrated Skype’s technology into the storytelling experience – connecting young creatives with industry experts, as well as industry experts with each other. This included giving our audience exclusive access behind-the-scenes at London and New York Fashion Weeks, and the British Fashion Awards.

To launch The Skype Collaboration Project, we also teamed up with one of fashion's biggest names – Victoria Beckham. As a recent success story and avid Skype user, she was the ideal ambassador for our platform.

As inspiration, we develop a unique interactive editorial, which shared her never-before-told journey from fashion outsider to award-winning designer.

Working with renowned fashion journalist Jonathan Wingfield, the interactive format featured exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes content and previously unseen archival footage. There were also industry-focussed deep-dives, which offered aspiring talent an in-depth insight into designing a collection.

To top it off, we gave fashion fans the opportunity to follow Victoria Beckham and her team at New York Fashion Week, and interact with them via group video calls and video messaging.

The Skype Collaboration Project soon found a dedicated audience. It was embraced by the fashion industry and in just three months the platform had over 4 million unique visitors with a 52% repeat visit rate.

It also generated 391 million social media impressions and $7.2 million in earned media. Our collaboration with Victoria Beckham made headlines around the world, including the front cover of Grazia, The Daily Mail, E! News and Good Morning America.

And, in the process, our audience discovered a whole new side to Skype – as new feature adoption went up by 12%.