INFORMA MARKETS FASHION TRANSITIONS TO MMGNET GROUP AND LAUNCHES MMGNET PARENT BRAND

Informa Markets Fashion is transitioning to MMGNET Group, and with it, launches MMGNET [pronounced “magnet”], the new insights and resources-powered parent brand designed to support the broader fashion industry and connect the group’s portfolio of brands and their diverse communities, products, services, and resources. MMGNET Group’s portfolio of B2B fashion industry brands will include MMGNET, MAGIC, COTERIE, PROJECT, and SOURCING at MAGIC.

“This really allows us the opportunity to serve the industry in a new way,” says Kelly Helfman, President of MMGNET Group. “We’ve been great at what we do for a long time, and being a partner for commerce and connection in the live events space is still our core. Now, it’s about expanding and providing value. The content piece is key here, but this also allows us to create more connection points across our communities and our hero brands all year long.”

For decades [MAGIC will celebrate its 90th “birthday” this year], 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,” says Helfman. “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.”

“We are now looking at our portfolio of brands as an ecosystem,” says Teodora Nicolae, Vice President of Marketing, MMGNET Group. “We’re approaching our products, services, and communities to create connection points: and not just internally: Not just the MAGIC and PROJECT community and men’s and so on in a straight line, but more like a web, creating internal and external connections. For example, we’ll release a 2024 fashion consumer outlook report driven by market research and data. One of the findings was that 63% of consumers surveyed said that size and fit are their number one purchasing consideration. If, based on that data, a brand decides it needs to create a better-fitting product, increasing brand loyalty to its customers, then it may ask where to find the technology it needs to accomplish that goal. We can help that brand connect with the appropriate technology company. It’s about supporting the industry and driving that mutual benefit across everything we do.”

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 provide 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.

MMGNET’s creation was based on extensive market research and customer feedback gathered over the last two years, which highlighted new needs driven by the challenges created by ongoing market shifts, continued supply chain challenges, ongoing disruption brought on by direct-to-consumer channels, and continuously evolving consumer preferences and demands. Among these, there is a 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 Nicolae. “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 be built 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 when more touchpoints are created, and the right online and offline connections are made. MMGNET’s “fashion-wide” platform will allow for more connections across existing audiences and communities than ever and the ability to create and nurture new communities across the industry.

Investments in new and dynamic opportunities to gather fashion communities and the broader 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 inform their short- and long-term decisions more strategically. Presented in multiple formats – both online and offline – reports will unpack and analyze salient findings, offering broad perspectives and tailored storylines for the various industry markets and communities.

The third pillar will drive inspiration and provide 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-time 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 and 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 a connection point both in and outside the traditional fashion calendar, online and offline. In the coming months, more initiatives across MMGNET’s live event, trend and insights content programs, and responsibility-focused initiatives will be announced.

For more information, visit mmgnetgroup.com.