Louis Vuitton's Digital Focus Will Keep It in Fashion, Says Director
Underscoring a productive one-year run in social media, the 156-year-old brand revealed at Advertising Week that its third live-video fashion show on Facebook will air on Oct. 6.
New York — Louis Vuitton is approaching its digital marketing about as seriously as its haute couture nowadays. At least that’s what the 156-year-old Parisian fashion brand attempted to make clear during a panel at Advertising Week on Tuesday.
Take digital director Kamel Ouadi’s reaction to fellow panelist and L2 Think Tank founder Scott Galloway, who minutes prior had named Louis Vuitton as a brand that has low equity among Gen Y consumers compared to older age groups (or a “glass house” scenario, as Galloway called it). Ouadi opened his presentation with a comeback line. “Digital is a core, core component of our strategy,” he said, before turning to address the panel. “So I hope that I can convince you to move [us] from a ‘glass house’ position to another one.”
Ouadi then laid out his team’s digital marketing activities in what amounted to an impromptu, roundabout defense to Galloway’s claim.
On Oct. 6, Ouadi said, Louis Vuitton will run its third live fashion show on Facebook in the last year. The 7:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time show – featuring designer Marc Jacobs – will run “10 to 15 minutes” and be accessible on his brand’s iPhone and iPad apps. That video presentation and additional footage will then be available on Facebook a few hours later, he said. “There will be an hour and a half of red carpet coverage,” Ouadi explained to ClickZ after the panel.
The brand is also using 360-degree technology that will allow users to adjust their camera angle as they watch the footage, he said. Earlier on stage, the digital director quipped about keeping social media content fresh: “Sometimes I feel like a TV programmer. Every week, I have to ask myself, ‘What is the story this week?'”
Such programming efforts have seemingly paid off. During the last 16 months, Louis Vuitton has attracted 1.3 million Facebook “likers” and 145,000 Twitter followers. Those audiences – along with 26,400 Foursquare followers – will be leveraged next week to spread the word about the Facebook fashion show, Ouadi said.
A dedicated Facebook page for an ongoing campaign – titled “The Art of Travel by Louis Vuitton” – is being used to host and promote the webcast. Visitors can sign up for a virtual guest list for the fashion show and earn a Louis Vuitton badge that will appear in their newsfeeds. The video footage will also be uploaded to the brand’s YouTube channel, which Ouadi said has more than 679,000 views.
Lastly, the digital director pointed to his brand’s seven-month-old site, Nowness.com, which aims to provide articles, video, and images covering contemporary arts and global lifestyle. “Content is everything,” Ouadi said. “It’s pretty hard to express yourself better in a banner [ad].”
