Luxury Jewelers Collaborate with Bloggers
Many bloggers started out as passionate and unbiased lone reporters, but today some have managers and contracts and charge thousands of pounds for a mention. And watch and jewellery brands are increasingly seeking to capitalise on their influence.
Coronet Diamonds attracted 30,000 Facebook likes within a week of launch, which the brand attributes to its relationships with fashion and lifestyle bloggers, such as Italian street style blog The Blonde Salad, which claims to receive more than 110,000 views daily.
Coronet, which was launched last year by Aaron Shum Jewelry, a Hong Kong manufacturer, worked with Vokent, a Californian digital marketing agency. Coronet’s products will be sold by Chow Tai Fook, a Chinese retailer with 2,000 points of sale in 400 Asian cities.
“Forty per cent of the Google results for branded and technical watch terms are blogs and forums,” says Florent Bondoux, head of strategy and client services at Digital Luxury Group, a strategy and research company that has identified more than 200 luxury watch blogs outside China. Fewer than 10 of them capture 90 per cent of watch aficionados.
Ledbury Research recently found that the biggest marketing activity for 75 per cent of UK luxury industry chief executives was investing in ecommerce and social media platforms.
Successful bloggers have moved beyond charging for advertising as their only revenue stream and work with consultancies such as New York-based Digital Brand Architects to secure collaborations ranging from creating content to tailor-made promotions, events and design projects.
Prices vary from nothing and free products to as much as $10,000 for a featured post, according to Daniel Saynt, founder and creative director of Socialyte, a collective that calls itself an influencer casting agency. “Factors include the influencer’s fan base and the success of previous campaigns.
Established street photographer Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist blog has shot campaigns with Tiffany & Co and Saks Fifth Avenue. Such collaborations mean bloggers can earn more than $50,000 a session, says Mr Saynt.
Piaget recently flew five bloggers to its Geneva headquarters to shoot and style a digital campaign for the Piaget Rose collection.
“When measuring the success of such collaborations, we consider the influence of the bloggers – the number of their fans, followers and views,” says Atissa Tadjadod, Piaget communications director. “We saw awesome articles about this partnership in New York, Los Angeles, France, Germany and Spain, where the Piaget Rose creations were beautifully showcased in very modern interpretations.
Tacori partnered with Wendy Nguyen a fashion blogger from Wendy’s Lookbook. She was announced as brand ambassador and commissioned to design a Promise bracelet, in a campaign culminating in editorials, videos and banner space on her site.
Tateossian chose five British menswear bloggers to design limited edition bracelets which launched at London Collection: Men 2014, although Tateossian says no fee was involved.
“Most smaller fashion sites that adopted a traditionally journalistic approach are barely making enough in ad revenue for it to be anything more than a hobby,” says Mr Saynt.
Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg of Ann Street Studio worked on photography for Chopard’s website and Tumblr account. Aimee Song, the fashion blogger behind Song of Style, has promoted Tiffany & Co’s Atlas collection.
Anish Bhatt, founder and editor in chief of Watch Anish, says: “The challenge when working with brands is to offer them something new and efficient. With social media, companies are able to see a much deeper penetration plus clearer analytics and return on investment than is possible through more traditional methods.”
Most brands including Patek Philippe, Cartier, IWC and Vacheron Constantin work with bloggers. But when it comes to a social media strategy, some brands are cautious.
“In the short term, our customers interact with Patek Philippe via our website,” the company says. Panerai says it is currently updating its social media strategy.
When asked about the risks in paying bloggers for content, several Richemont-owned brands declined to comment.
Fashion We Like founder and content strategist Haris Stavridis whose clients include de Grisogono says: “Savvy bloggers now act more like media companies. Brands are looking for return on investment and are open to bloggers as worthy collaborators.”
Scott Galloway, clinical professor of marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business and founder of L2, a think-tank for digital innovation, advises: “The best collaborations let bloggers do what they do best: curate content that resonates with their established audience.
“Discerning readers will quickly detect when a blogger has gone corporate.”
