Key Takeaways#
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- 72 percent of consumers will only engage with personalized marketing messages, so personalized brand content has become crucial.
- Through data-driven storytelling, some luxury brands have developed unique narratives that unite communities and win the customers’ hearts.
- Luxury houses like Gucci and Burberry now use video content that differentiates them from their competitors.
According to Smart Insights, “72 percent of consumers will only engage with personalized marketing messages.” But in the social media age, consumers are constantly scrolling through their feeds, and creating personalized content that increases visibility and truly connects with users can be difficult.
However, some smart brands are using videos, infographics, and highly-entertaining images to create well-crafted stories that grab our attention. Through data-driven storytelling, some luxury brands have developed unique narratives that unite communities and have won over many customer hearts.
Luxury houses like Gucci and Burberry are world-renowned for reinventing themselves. Today, these two polished and traditional luxury players use video content to differentiate their brands from competitors. But they aren’t the only luxury brands that understand the power of customer-led and immersive storytelling.
Let’s take a look at the luxury players creating rich, ambitious digital experiences that accelerate engagement.
Burberry#
“Luxury brands often lack the technological savoir-faire to craft the right experience,” says Florine Eppe Beauloye, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Luxe Digital. Burberry is the exception. The quintessentially British brand is a leader in the digital world, constantly pushing the limits of business transformation. From user-friendly makeup tutorials and product videography to long-format videos that feature its latest collections or interviews with creatives, Burberry uses epic video content to create a perfectly curated world that is rich in superb experiences.
The Ratberry game, which was launched for the brand’s 2020 Lunar New Year campaign, capitalized on the power of compelling imagery and gaming features to create a brilliant marketing campaign that effectively targeted its desired audience groups.
Moreover, Burberry is using customer-led storytelling and a user-generated content strategy (The Art of the Trench Coat and Burberry Kisses campaigns) to build awareness and brand equity.
Gucci#
The Italian luxury brand is communicating its legacy and heritage to a tech-savvy generation of affluent consumers through compelling video content.
Under Alessandro Michele and Marco Bizzari’s leadership, Gucci has become a storytelling powerhouse, releasing emotionally engaging videos that explore the core values of younger consumers, like radical inclusiveness, diversity, and sustainability.
“Besides its style revamp, embracing millennial values in all its communication efforts contributed a great deal to Gucci’s success in the Middle Kingdom,” says Retail in Asia. “Gucci has tapped into the Gen Next by co-creating communities and thus, increasing brand evangelism.”
The Lunar New Year Campaign featuring Mickey Mouse, Earl Cave, NiNi, and Zoe Bleu Arquette was flirty and whimsical and was brought to life on the Gucci App through special AR filters. Then, for the Cruise 2020 campaign, Gucci launched the hashtag #ComeAsYouAre_RSVP, commemorating the brand’s Italian legacy in a celebrity-filled video campaign.
Tiffany & Co.#
In the West, the American luxury jewelry retailer is grabbing headlines because of its imminent legal battle with LVMH. But in China, Tiffany & Co. is capturing the imagination of wider audiences through a playful digital marketing campaign.
The campaign video, featuring actor Jackson Yee as the new brand ambassador, was a social media sensation. According to WWD, the footage of Yee dancing on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge generated nearly 70 million impressions and 629,000 mentions on Weibo within hours.
Last year, Tiffany & Co. generated buzz in Mainland China with the magnificent “Vision and Virtuosity” exhibition, which was a beautiful reflection on the brand’s biggest successes. “There’s no getting around the fact that brand storytelling via immersive experiences like this one has become an increasingly effective marketing tool for securing and maintaining a loyal customer base,” says Noor Brara for Artnet. “The sprawling exhibition illustrates how brand storytelling is more important than ever."
Luxury brands that miss the mark in digital storytelling in China#
Cartier had a genuine opportunity to market its business to the LGBTQ consumer base, but social media users met the Weibo campaign for the Qixi Festival with apathy and cynicism.
A 60-second ad “has drawn skepticism for portraying people who viewers believe were meant to be gay couples as family or friends,” says The Guardian. Moreover, the video infuriated marriage equality advocates and social media users. “The campaign was much better when it stayed in the area of ambiguity,” said a Douban user, according to The Guardian. “Now, it makes me feel like being gay is something to be ashamed of.”
Meanwhile, Dolce & Gabbana’s attempts to hasten its redemption are not bringing the expected results. The brand’s latest Qixi Festival advertising, which featured virtual models, didn’t seem to protect the company’s values or create a community of like-minded individuals.