WorldWatchReport™ Benchmark: Do Luxury Watch Brands Make Smart Investments Online?
Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
The first insights from this year’s WorldWatchReport™ Benchmark indicate that luxury watch brands have invested substantially in digital advertising channels, however the best opportunities may be elsewhere.
Is my digital advertising strategy well-balanced compared to the rest of the luxury watch industry? Where are my growth opportunities? Do my competitors have higher or lower traffic quality?
These are some of the questions that the WorldWatchReport™ Benchmark offers insights into. From global trends to investments in advertising, in this age of digital marketing, there is no such thing as a one-fits-all strategy and success is all about carefully-crafted methodology.
Maximising digital ROI
Produced by DLG (Digital Luxury Group)*, an international digital marketing and communications agency for luxury brands, the WWR analyses the online performance of luxury watch brands exploring topics ranging from the role of a brand's website and the impact of social media on drive-to-store, to the importance of balancing owned and earned media.
“The WWR Benchmark is a unique report providing comparison points on all major web analytics indicators for the luxury watch industry. It helps brands better position their investments to maximise their digital ROI," explains Yoann Chapel, Head of Client Services at DLG.
Data-Driven Impact
This year’s panel includes more than 15 brands among the 62 eligible on the market and includes 135 million sessions that have been analysed for their 2017 performance.
DLG analyses data-driven statistics to decipher the most compelling and impactful statistics ranging from traffic growth to advertising to product pages.
Paid and owned channels
The first insights released are focused on luxury watch brands' online investments. In 2017, traffic to luxury watch websites mostly came from owned and earned channels, but more and more from paid channels too.
Key trends of 2017 include watch website traffic growth and stabilisation, a growing dependence on advertising, and optimised advertising activity targeted toward specific pages.
“The major opportunities uncovered by the report are linked to the traffic acquisition mix. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains the key traffic driver and should be considered a priority, while there is still a lot of room to optimise the paid media mix," Chapel adds.
To access the WorldWatchReport Benchmark's Insights 1, download the full report via the link below. And stay tuned for more insights to follow soon.
WorldWatchReport Benchmark 2018 – Insights 1
*Luxury Society is the editorial division of DLG (Digital Luxury Group)
Editor, International, Luxury Society
Dino Auciello is the International Editor of Luxury Society. He is also Head of Marketing & Client Development at DLG, the parent company of Luxury Society. Based in Geneva, Dino was previously Deputy Chief Editor of the Swiss business magazine, Bilan.