Online clothing store ASOS wants to be seen as more than just a place customers come, fill their virtual bags and piss off again. It wants to be seen as a fashion destination.
This isn’t a new vision for the brand, says Australia’s country manager, Jo Shapland, but one that has had a further push with the launch of its new proposition for students, ASOS on Campus.
Launched on Monday, the initiative seeks to find 10 university students who will create content for the online brand for the full academic year, paid of course, with one student offered a full-time paid internship at the end.
“Content has always been very core to the brand and, for several years now, we think it’s important to be seen as not only a store, but also as a broader destination,” said Shapland. “We want our customers to be happy to peruse not only clothing but information too and be inspired by our stylists and other customers.
“This is an evolution of that. Having our customers participate in that process and create their own content, suddenly it’s a whole different ball game.”
The Aussie version of the initiative is the first to launch globally due to our academic year starting before the UK, US and other European countries.
ASOS is far from the only brand to offer internships, but Shalpand says they’re expecting a fair amount of applications.
“First and foremost, the only way to be in the running for the internship is by being passionate and a content creator for us for the full year,” she said.
“Students have always been an incredibly important demographic for ASOS.
“Obviously they’re highly engaged in the fashion space and our brand is youth oriented. If you get the formulas right with the demographic, you have a very powerful and mobilising support network for your brand.”
