Christian Kurtzke doesn’t carry a crystal ball, but he might as well do so given his predictions about the future of luxury.
The chief executive officer of Together Group, a London-based global collective of creative agencies and immersive technology, marketing and production companies, believes that luxury brands, which are currently in a slump, will not return to the strong single-digit growth of years past, and that spending will shift to “intangibles,” bespoke experiences, health, well-being and feel-good moments.
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Kurtzke believes the shift in attitude is “seismic,” and that if luxury brands want to future-proof, they’ll need to rethink the way they do business. He said the switch has already occurred in the restaurant and automotive industries, which have been forced to evolve, “dematerialize” their offers, and put the emphasis on intangibles, experience over product, and software over hardware.
“The luxury groups of the future will no longer be based on hard products, but on experiences, wellness and quality of life. That means luxury brands, particularly in fashion and beauty, need to re-platform,” he said in an interview.
He said the opening of the first Dior spa in the U.S., which takes up an entire top floor of the New York flagship, was a great example of how some big luxury brands have begun accenting the intangibles.
Kurtzke, who has a Ph.D. in engineering, served as CEO at Porsche Design and of Meissen Couture Luxury Group, and has held top jobs at Boston Consulting Group and Siemens. Kurtzke’s dream is for Together’s agencies to become “transformational partners,” helping clients envision the future rather than make decisions based on past trends.
The Together companies include creative agency Construct; forecaster The Future Laboratory, and Noë & Associates, which specializes in architecture and design branding. There is also fashion show and events producer OBO Global; market research specialist Hot Pot China; Visualisation One, which creates immersive, CGI experiences for high-end building and property projects, and Purple, which specializes in communications, events and VIP services.
Those 14 agencies work individually, and in tandem, for clients ranging from Richemont, Prada Group, Louis Vuitton and Chanel to Claridge’s, Aman and Rosewood hotels.
Kurtzke isn’t the only one who believes in the power of intangible luxury. Morgan Stanley said in a recent report that the aging population’s focus on broader well-being “represents a strong potential tailwind for luxury beauty products,” while Bain & Co. and Altagamma noted that in the first quarter of 2025, “experiential luxury continued to outpace its tangible counterpart.”
Wellness brands are outperforming at Unilever, and investors including Iris Ventures are putting their money behind products that enhance well-being. Earlier this year Iris Ventures published a report demonstrating that health is wealth and that people of all ages are looking for small, consistent ways to live healthy, vibrant lives for as long as possible.
Kurtzke said Together’s agencies are already using their diverse skills to help clients position themselves for the future.
Construct has created the branding for the Aman and Lana hotels (the latter of which belongs to the Dorchester Collection) while OBO has been busy with runway shows for Elie Saab, L’Oréal and events including the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics in 2024 (via its affiliate Paname 24).
Kurtzke said Elie Saab’s 45th anniversary show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last November was a good example of OBO’s work, and attention to detail. The show, “1001 Seasons of Elie Saab,” featured performances by Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, Camila Cabello, Amr Diab, and Nancy Ajram.
Dion performed a medley of her greatest hits, “and if you listen to the music, you hear Middle Eastern rhythms, and you see Celine Dion embracing that moment. The moment the music starts, you know it’s not the typical Western, pre-packaged performance,” said Kurtzke.
He added: “She sings, and you see the whole crowd getting to their feet. You feel they were deeply touched because somebody took care, and showed respect” for the local culture.
Together is also leveraging market research undertaken by Hot Pot China to determine what sort of hotel spas to create in the region. “We need to speak to a diversity of Chinese audiences, and not take a colonial, Westernized approach. Those days are over and markets have moved on,” he said.
He’s proud of the virtual experiences that Together’s agencies, such as Imerza and Visualisation One, are able to create using “digital twin” technology, which creates virtual, 3D replicas of buildings, hotels and entire resorts before the first shovel even hits the ground.
The 3D spaces are accurate up to two centimeters, which means that people can walk through hotel suites and apartments virtually, see where rays of sunshine hit the balcony, hear birdsong and the lapping of the sea, and visualize what life there might feel like.
Kurtzke is also hoping to offer the same digital twin technology to fashion’s creative directors so they can design their dream stores, events spaces and bespoke experiences for clients.
Although Together’s agencies can already show a designer what their dream of a fashion show will look like, the group wants to go further, faster.
“We want to go to any creative director and say, ‘What is your creative vision? Let’s model it all the way through, and take it into retail, and a host of other live experiences,'” said Kurtzke.
“We want to preserve the whole richness of a designer’s creative vision and design what inspires them,” he said, adding that Together will be able to capture any feeling and aesthetic the designer wants.
“The creative director will become the composer” of the brand and store experience, he added, “and we will translate their dreams, and the world they envision” into reality.