BLogger Stories: Andy Howard

What do you do if you have a full-time job, are a part-time law student and have a few extra seconds to spare? You start a blog that turns into one of Australia's leading fashion blogs. That's Andy Howard's story!

Blogger Story Teller: Andy Howard, Camarilla

By day I'm an eCommerce Business Analyst, and by night I'm an online strategist focusing mainly on Camarilla. I've also recently joined a start-up company, but that's another story ... in addition to the above I'm a part-time Law student, mad keen surfer and global traveler.

Camarilla is the authority on Australian independent fashion and is internationally recognized. Participating in coverage of New York Fashionweek, Mercedes Australian Fashion Week and the development of the independently owned Couture fashion project, Camarilla is well respected in online fashion media circles. Just this week Camarilla has been awarded as a semi-finalist in an Australian entrepreneurship competition, and I'm hoping to reach the finals.

I started Camarilla for a number of reasons;

• The quality of Australian independent fashion is such that it should be globally recognised.
• I was looking to purchase indy fashion online and couldn't locate many outlets or resources, so I started my own. As I found more labels I wanted to share the information, start a marketing channel for the labels and grow a community.
• I wanted to experiment with guerrilla marketing and online strategy.
• I've always loved the web and formerly ran my own small web design business, an
• I wanted to get back in the game!

The fashion industry is overwhelmed by international corporations with huge marketing budgets and expensive traditional media campaigns, and Camarilla is competing with traditional media by using new media, web technology and online guerrila marketing strategy. Camarilla is essentially creating a marketing channel for independent fashion labels through guerrilla marketing - fashion collections are reviewed, and photos and reviews are available on Camarilla internationally at no cost. The conversation between Camarilla readers creates further discussion and reviews. It's international marketing for Australian indy fashion labels and it comes at no cost to the labels.

I've also created a professional blog discussing online strategy, guerrilla marketing and web technology. I'd like to move into the blog consulting arena to help companies not only embrace but leverage from blogging and new media.

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