Havas Media Group is taking its Italy-based LuxHub worldwide.
Spearheaded in 2012 by Havas Media Group Italy chief executive officer Isabelle Harvie-Watt, the division, headquartered in Milan, provides media, marketing and communication services for fashion and luxury brands. Now, these will be rolled out in newly minted LuxHubs worldwide, to begin with in cities such as London, New York, Paris, and Dubai, where Havas Media Group has an established presence, and later this year places such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Frankfurt and Moscow.
Harvie-Watt spent years in executive communication and marketing roles at Giorgio Armani, Versace and Tod’s and will now add global ceo of LuxHub to her existing title at Havas Media Group. She said the French marketing giant had decided to expand the LuxHub due to a spike in the number of luxury clients requesting specialized media support. Many companies, Harvie-Watt said, have realized that their digital strategy doesn’t sufficiently “match” consumer needs, and they are exploring interactive content and video more than in the past.
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“Brands realize that they need to rapidly change the way they’re communicating,” she said. “But they also need a lot of reassurance, they need the big agency support” backed up by in-depth research and statistics, which LuxHub already provides and plans to bolster.
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For instance, Harvie-Watt and LuxHub UK’s Tammy Smulders – who is now also global executive director of LuxHub – are gearing up to present a new study this month, drawing on data from 1,000 people in the top 10 percent income bracket in China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, the U.S., the UK and the UAE. The findings will illustrate attitudes among these consumers toward various luxury segments, from jewelry to home furnishings and art.
Harvie-Watt said that in recruiting new LuxHub staff worldwide, the company was especially keen on enlisting people with insider industry experience and digital savvy. The ideal recruits will have a grasp of the “desirability and coolness” factor inherent to luxury, but will also know how to build relationships with consumers online.
Partnerships with major publishing houses could also be in LuxHub’s future, Harvie-Watt indicated, although she declined to provide details.