The AI-enhanced fashion collections that created a new trend in IBM’s creative effectiveness.

In 2016 IBM launched Cognitive Couture, an idea to bring together the artistic vision of a fashion designer and the AI power of IBM Watson, under pressure, to create the world’s first AI-enhanced couture collections.

With a fast-changing demographic of IT buyers and influencers across AP, IBM needed a step change in their communications to avoid losing ground to competitors whose consumer arms gave them a head start with the audience. This idea took the traditional B2B marketing agenda and turned it on its head, creating cultural capital by bringing the promise of IBM’s class-leading AI to life in the most unexpected industry - fashion.

We used IBM Watson’s capabilities to arm designers across three markets, Australia, China and India, with a new tool to find new inspirations and trending looks faster and help their design process in the creation of unique new collections. These collections were revealed at events and distributed through the help of social media, influencers, partners and media.

The collections and IBM achieved huge buzz and acclaim across the three markets helping to navigate IBM’s brand away from legacy perceptions associated with the old mainframe and server days. They also drove a huge commercial impact, generating USD$15.5M in new revenue with a return on media investment of more than 900%.

The success of Cognitive Couture set a new benchmark for IBM’s brand amplification and created a new model for brand activation over the following years that prioritised cultural relevance and allowed IBM to regain recognition and consideration with critical audiences.