Makip

The Brief

Makip is an online sizing technology specialist, supporting retail, fashion and eCommerce brands with its product, Unisize. Unisize helps consumers try on clothing online and purchase the most suitable and accurately sized clothing item first-time.

Having grown rapidly and successfully in Japan, being used by the Japanese entities of prominent global brands, such as Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, Makip wanted help to launch their business in the UK, a key fashion and e-commerce market, to help retailers reduce their returns rates, by helping customers get the right-sized items every time they shop online.

Our Campaign

To support Makip’s launch into the UK market, ITPR worked with the company to understand its key USP - providing highly accurate online sizing technology for retailers - and how the use of their technology could be turned into newsworthy stories to target journalists in the UK fashion, eCommerce retail press. 

To enhance their launch into the UK market and make a substantial impact, given that Makip had zero presence in the UK, ITPR worked with Makip to plan and deliver comprehensive market research focused on understanding UK consumers’ views of online sizing technology. 

The research surveyed 2,000 UK-based online shoppers to understand their experience of online sizing technology, aiming to uncover the opinions of UK consumers when purchasing clothes online, what drove their decision making and their thoughts on returning items.

Leveraging the insights derived from the market research, the ITPR team crafted distinctive and attention-grabbing headlines, which were used to secure exclusive interviews and media coverage to launch the Makip brand in the UK.

These concise, compelling, and thought-provoking news headlines not only served to explain the research findings but also formed an integral part of a broader media engagement campaign. This campaign aimed to build awareness of the Makip brand, with a focus on becoming known and building trust within key publications.

The media engagement strategy effectively launched Makip into the UK market, amplified awareness of their business and technology, and secured valuable backlinks to the research report hosted on the Makip website.

Additionally, the ITPR team used the insights and opinions presented in the report to create short media comments and opinion articles that delved into the research trends. These pieces offered an expert perspective on the findings, contributing to a more thoughtful and trusted narrative from Makip’s key spokespeople.

Our Results

In the fiercely competitive landscape of the UK fashion sector, which is teeming with technology companies, Makip managed to gain a significant edge by partnering with ITPR. Together, they brought Makip’s unique selling points to the fore and harnessed the unique insights from the market research report.

This strategic collaboration enabled ITPR to outshine the competition by securing placements of news stories and thought leadership articles, not just in key vertical publications but in national UK newspapers!

These media features portrayed Makip as a scale-up business and focused on building a trusted brand which is on its way to becoming a prominent player in the UK fashion technology industry.

The initial campaign created such remarkable success, that Makip chose to continue its partnership with ITPR to further support its growth plans and help launch them into the US and Europe.

• 35 pieces of coverage in six months
• National media coverage in The Guardian
• 7 stories mentioning Makip in the headline
• 40% of coverage contained a backlink 
• 66% of coverage in top-tier publications