What is the New Luxury: Step Out of the Ordinary and Be Extraordinary

Louis Vuitton got it right a few years ago when they released a truly simple, back to basics message in a beautiful rendition entitled ‘Journeys’, directed by Bruno Aveillan.

Leaving an indelible impression, Aveillan has set the benchmark for branded content with his films for brands such as Cartier, Swarovski Crystals, Audi, Samsung among many others. Each time, in every commercial, there is a heartfelt transparency that gets the viewer’s mind stimulated and an attraction to join in and be part of the offering.

‘Journeys’ led me to ascertain that today’s luxury is indeed an experience, emotion and knowledge. A journey:

“A journey reflects exceptional discoveries and a vast knowledge of both our inner senses and the perception of the outer world.”

We all, including luxury brands and especially the target audience in its world, find the attraction of a journey to place our everyday on hold and understand what it is that ticks the boxes. Spiritual or as an actual voyage, the luxury of a journey leaves your comfort behind, allows to unlock something truly interesting. Unveiling the exquisite and the aesthetic.

The Luxury of a Journey

It is through working hand in hand with luxury industries such as in yachting, private aviation, fashion, interiors, cars and jewellery that the question has stuck in me? What is the new luxury? What is it that the elite crave for today? Are we moving away from an era of traditional luxury nurtured by the baby boomers with the arrival of the brash Millennials, overloaded by ideals of brands craving to impress with the same old? The apex has been reached and it is now finally time for luxury brands to take a step aside of the conventional box and pause for a moment to reflect on the new ‘how’?

Unsurprisingly, a 2014 survey in the US found that 78% of Millennials would rather spend money on a desirable experience or event rather than buying a desirable object.

This journey of self-actualization leads to a constant quest for the rare and the new – for brands that reflect personal aspirations. To such an extent that new and little known have appeal – heritage, provenance and tradition mean little. This is a generation that look up to Airbnb, for whom an apartment in a residential area with a local host is much more desirable than a five-star hotel with a marble atrium in the most sought-after district in town.

The winds of change are blowing, cut and paste will no longer cut it especially where competing for clients and/or a reduction in demand kicks in within a more uncertain macro picture.

A Journey / Louis Vuitton

The Elixir of the New Luxury

We live in a more technology enabled time where it is easier to defy habits, change your environment and interrogate the world. The new consumer needs to be approached in a very different way. Their desire to seek out and discover for themselves suggests a very different type of marketing. Their desire to experience but not necessarily own a very different type of product.

For a while now there have been signs of bubbling beneath the surface. Cross collaboration, creativity, being bold, stepping out of comfort zones, research and development, new materials and technology, eco-innovation are all inspiring and drawing on what today’s luxury industry is in desperate need for. However this is also a double edged sword for businesses and individuals because competitors and clients are open to the same opportunities more than ever as well. What is the key then to excel and stand out for the multitude of brands?

Brands are faced with the necessity of looking at how they could be doing things differently, how to stand apart, and perhaps most importantly clearly answer up front why a client should give us their attention. That’s the most difficult for brands today. Having the humbling and extraordinary ability to capture the attitude or essence of a brand. That means taking a stance that perhaps shakes the fundament of its core to deliver something more sincere and raw.

The elixir of the new luxury is the mastering art of capturing the extraordinary that leave a lasting impression on the viewer. It is the ability to create these different worlds, realities and to pull the viewer into them. Experiential marketing. The journey. A quest for the extraordinary.