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As Fashion Week takes over New York, London, and Milan, designers arent just showcasing their collections on the runwaythey’re taking over LinkedIn. The job-seeking platform reports a fivefold increase in live fashion show broadcasts over the past three years, with 85% of luxury brands turning to the professional social network to reach those with money to spend. LVMH and Louis Vuitton set the trend in 2019, making live fashion shows on LinkedIn the core of their engagement strategy. The move quickly paid off. After unveiling a new mens collection in Shanghai, the brand drew nearly a million potential luxury buyers in just three days. Soon fashion powerhouses like Herms, Dior, Prada, and Balenciaga followed suit, bringing high fashion to the professional network. Since then, LinkedIn has proven to be an essential marketing tool for meeting high-net-worth clients where they are at. After all, every successful professional comes with purchasing power. With over one billion members, more than 30% of LinkedIn users are interested in fashion, a much higher figure than on other social networks. LinkedIn data also reveals that 67% of luxury purchases happen after a career promotion or job change. Brands can tap into these pivotal moments using the platforms Career Changers feature, which identifies users in professional transition, right when theyre most likely to splurge. Fashion is deeply tied to self-expression, and on LinkedIn, where professional identity plays a key role, luxury brands have the opportunity to engage with their audiences in a way that feels relevant, whether its dressing for a leadership role, investing in timeless pieces, or aligning with a particular lifestyle, Stephanie Barret, head of luxury at LinkedIn, tells Fast Company. Unlike mainstream social media, where fashion content competes with a wide range of entertainment-driven content, LinkedIn offers a focused, high-quality environment where professionals engage with premium storytelling. Beyond its corporate roots, the networking platform is adapting to offer services that go further than simple job searches. Features like Live Event Ads enable brands to engage audiences before, during, and after major fashion shows. Additionally, luxury brands looking for ways to promote their content from members or influencers can make use of LinkedIns Thought Leader Ads, generating 2.3 times more clicks than traditional ads. LinkedIns efforts are paying off. A study by influence management platform AmazingContent reveals LinkedIn as the preferred platform by luxury leaders 70% of luxury content engagement is on LinkedIn (compared to 20% on Instagram and 10% on X). At the core, success on LinkedIn is about narrative-driven engagementusing livestreams, industry voices, and interactive content to showcase craftsmanship, heritage, and innovation in a way that resonates with high-intent consumers, says Barret. By tapping into LinkedIns professional audience, brands can align their messaging with key career moments, ensuring they reach people at times when they are naturally inclined to invest in luxury.
Category:
E-Commerce
Apple shareholders on Tuesday are expected to reject an attempt to pressure the technology trendsetter into scrapping its corporate programs designed to diversify its workforce.The proposal drafted by the National Center for Public Policy Researcha self-described conservative think tankurges Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have retreated from diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives currently in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump.It comes a month after the same group presented a similar proposal during Costco’s annual meeting, only to have it overwhelmingly rejected. A similar outcome is expected during Apple’s annual meeting despite the strident objections of critics.Just as Costco does, Apple has steadfastly stood behind diversity and inclusion efforts that its management contends good business sense.But the National Center for Public Policy Research’s proposal has attacked Apple’s diversity commitments for being out of line with recent court rulings and said the programs expose the Cupertino, California, company to an onslaught of potential lawsuits for alleged discrimination. The group estimated about 50,000 Apple employees could file cases against Apple without detailing how it arrived at that figure.“It’s clear that DEI poses litigation, reputational and financial risks to companies, and therefore financial risks to their shareholders, and therefore further risks to companies for not abiding by their fiduciary duties,” the National Center for Public Policy Research says in its proposal.The specter of potential legal trouble was magnified last week when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a federal lawsuit against Target alleging the retailer’s recently scaled-back DEI program alienated many consumers and undercut sales to the detriment of shareholders.In its rebuttal to the anti-DEI proposal, Apple said its program is an integral part of a culture that has helped elevate the company to its current market value of $3.7 trilliongreater than any other business in the world.“We believe that how we conduct ourselves is as critical to Apple’s success as making the best products in the world,” the company said in its statement against the proposal. “We seek to conduct business ethically, honestly, and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.”In its last diversity and inclusion report issued in 2022, Apple disclosed nearly that three-fourths of its global workforce consisted of white and Asian employees. Nearly two-thirds of its employees at that juncture were men.Other major technology companies for years have reported employing mostly white and Asian men, especially in high-paid engineering jobsa tendency that spurred the industry to pursue what have been largely unsuccessful efforts to diversify. Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
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E-Commerce
Tens of thousands of planes take off, land, and perform touch-and-goes at the Marana Regional Airport in southern Arizona every year. Without an air traffic control tower, it’s a calculated dance that requires communication by pilots.Two small planes collided in midair over one of the runways on the outskirts of Tucson last week. One hit the ground and caught fire, sending up a plume of black smoke. The remains of two people were found in the charred wreckage. The other plane was able to land, with those occupants uninjured.The collision was the latest aviation mishap to draw attention in recent weeks. The circumstances vary widely with each case, however, and experts who study aviation accidents say they don’t see any connection between them.Chatter over the airwaves has provided some clues about what happened in Arizona. A chief flight instructor who was in the air with a student that day heard the commotion over the radio: One plane was attempting a touch-and-go when another clipped its propeller while attempting to land.Erwin Castillo, who works for IFLY Pilot Training, recalled hearing one pilot scream: “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! He just hit us.”It will be up to federal investigators to determine what caused the crash, a detailed process that will take months.While some observers suggest having a control tower may have made a difference, experts say not having a tower doesn’t mean the airport is any less safe; pilots just have a different set of communication procedures to follow. How many airports in the U.S. have control towers? Of the 5,100 public airports across the country, only about 10% have towers staffed by people who direct the flow of traffic. These are the busiest of airports, with complex operations and large volumes of commercial flights.For the airports without control towers, pilots rely on radio communications and the principle of “see and avoid” to ensure they can maneuver safely. The concept is drilled into pilots from Day 1 of their training and it’s applicable regardless of the kind of airspace they’re in, said Mike Ginter, a retired Navy aviator and senior vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Air Safety Institute.He likened it to being behind the wheel of a car and practicing all the safety rules learned in driver’s ed.“You don’t have to tell the state police that you’re getting ready to drive to the supermarket to get groceries. You just go out, and you look both ways before you turn, and you turn on your turn signal and you drive,” he explained, saying there are basic tenets of safety that are ingrained in pilots.The system has worked well, considering the sheer number of planes coming and going daily from small airports and the roughly 26 million hours of flight time logged by general aviation pilots. What prompted regulation of the friendly skies? It was a summer day in 1956 when two commercial flights left Los Angeles within minutes of each otherone en route to Chicago and the other to Kansas. Flying under visual flight rules, the planes collided over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 people aboard. The crash site is now a National Historic Landmark.Even though U.S. air traffic had more than doubled since the end of World War II, it was this disaster that helped to fuel efforts to overhaul aviation safety.Legislation was introduced in 1958 to create an independent federal agency that would provide for the safe and efficient use of national airspace. The bill was signed within months and the first Federal Aviation Agency administrator was appointed.Responsibilities evolved, and the agency became the Federal Aviation Administration as air traffic control systems were being modernized. Are new control towers being planned? Through the FAA, airports can apply for federal grants to modernize and build air traffic control towers that are staffed by private companies and contract workers, rather than FAA staff.Nearly 180 airports nationwide are eligible for funding under the program, with most looking to upgrade existing towerssome that date back to the 1940s and others that were meant to be temporary.A review of funding awarded through the program over the past four fiscal year shows a handful of airports were awarded money specifically for site studies, environmental work and construction of new towers. That includes airports in Bend, Oregon; Boulder City, Nevada; and Mankato, Minnesota.In the case of Marana, the airport was first accepted into the program in 2019 but the coronavirus pandemic stalled efforts to get a tower built by the five-year deadline. Airport officials have said they now are on track to complete the project by 2029. Will federal job cuts affect air traffic safety? U.S. President Donald Trump issued a memo in late January to top transportation officials, ordering an immediate assessment of aviation safety following the midair collision of an Army helicopter and commercial passenger jet over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Sixty-seven people were killed.Trump raised questions about hiring practices within the FAA, suggesting previous Democratic administrations had shifted away from merit-based hiring.Some FAA jobs have been eliminated as Trump streamlines the federal workforce and looks to ferret out waste and curb spending, but less than 1% of the agency’s more than 45,000 workers were probationary employees targeted as part of the job cuts, federal officials have said.In addition, the administration has said no air traffic controllers or critical safety personnel were fired as part of the effort. But labor and industry groups say even without cuts, air traffic control towers were already understaffed.Trump has said that he would support legislation aimed at modernizing the nation’s air traffic control system. In a letter sent to members of Congress last week, the industry group Airlines for America pushed for emergency funding for critical air traffic control technology and infrastructure as well as air controller staffing and training. Associated Press writer Sejal Govindarao in Phoenix contributed to this report. Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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