Digital Influencers & The Luxury Industry

Chiara Ferragni, founder of The Blonde Salad, already collaborated with brands such as Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

With the legitimization of digital influencers (or content creators as you might call it) as a real and efficient marketing tool, brands are shifting their attention towards this option. A successful way to add value to their brand by carefully selecting content creators that share their values and can create original content while spreading the brand image and placing it in the audience's minds.

One sector usually averse to change is the luxury industry, a comprehensible position when many of the brands rely on the immaterial aura created around their image for decades. But after a few years with Social Media proving to be a reliable tool, particularly Instagram, luxury brands started to embrace it. Not only to increase their reach but also to accomplish two others goals: firstly to set their positioning in the mind of a younger crowd that is more technologically inclined or even radically shift their image in the eyes of the public.

Dolce & Gabbana "Millennials" campaign featured not only celebrities but also digital influencers from around the World.

Secondly and maybe more relevant is to build this image from scratch and educate the ones new to wealth, the so-called nouveau-riche, about the brand and what they stand for. An increasing necessity for a growing UHNW population with new fortunes forged every day and sometimes no awareness concerning several brands, destinations or others related to the lifestyle associated with the industry.

Another point about influencer marketing in this field is the advantage concerning effectiveness over more traditional approaches when it comes to positioning a brand in the consumer's mind. The power of social media allied with the selection of the right opinion makers will translate into a stronger message spread to a broad audience, and even thought it might not only encompass the target clients; it will certainly contribute to educate the public and potentially influence them over future choices.

The "Balmain Army" features some of the most famous faces from Social Media including Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid.

Besides this it also contributes to two fundamental pillars of consumer's perception about a brand: Empathy and Competency. In terms of empathy, is much more likely for a potential client to sympathise with an influencer and replicate his behaviour since the interaction is constant, sees him or her almost every day and consciously made the decision to follow the influencer. Secondly and as referred before, concerning competence, each influencer is usually associated with a certain field of expertise, being it cosmetics, fashion, lifestyle, travelling or others. This provides a much more powerful suggestion since he or she already developed a background in the field and experienced the other options available.

Mariano Di Vaio is one of the most influential when it comes to men's fashion and has worked with luxury brands such as Maserati, Omega and Calvin Klein over the years.

Overall, a campaign with the right partners on social media can be stronger and connect further than one solely focused on more traditional strategies. Maybe not a one stop solution, but definitely something worth including in a marketing plan and it is great to finally see the luxury industry embrace the concept.

What do you think of Influencer Marketing? And particularly when used by Luxury brands?

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