Editor’s Note: This is an element of a sequence devoted to Baselworld 2016. Josh Sims is a contract author, watch skilled and writer of “Icons of Style”.
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Florence Welch is probably not a well known identify to folks of a sure age, however that didn’t cease Gucci from asserting the singer as their new face of watches and jewellery.
Her music, notes Alessandro Michele, the inventive director of the Italian vogue big, “in many ways evokes the spirit of Gucci”.
Come Baselworld this month, different watch corporations will definitely be asserting their very own makes an attempt to specific their inside beings by way of celebrities.
Some names could also be extra acquainted than others – Tag Heuer lately launched Tom Brady, Jeremy Lin and Giancarlo Stanton to characterize its new Connected smartwatch for instance (all American athletes). Regardless of their stage of fame, it’s their impact on the longer term of the product that issues.
Indeed, Tag Heuer raised eyebrows final yr when it signed mannequin Cara Delevingne, placing her in a billboard advert during which she wasn’t even sporting a watch. Her function, because the CEO put it, was “to open our minds to the brashness and boldness of today’s youth”.
Fame for rent just isn’t a brand new advertising and marketing ploy of course. Some celebrities have loved lengthy relationships with their watchmakers: Roger Federer for Rolex, Kate Winslet for Longines, and so forth. But others are a lot much less constant.
Hugh Jackman signed with Montblanc final yr after a spell showcasing the watches of Harry Winston, whereas Raymond Weil slapped Charlize Theron with a $20-million breach-of-contract go well with when she was caught – and photographed – sporting a Dior watch to an occasion somewhat than one of the Shine watches she was being paid $3 million to put on.
According to Rod Kohler – managing director of Revolution, a advertising and marketing company that works with Rolex on its sports activities advertising and marketing program – whereas a two- or three-year contract may work to launch a brand new watch line, the long-term offers are extra profitable by far, lasting lengthy sufficient to get past the sense that that is merely a cash-for-credibility relationship. You want somebody who is likely to be stated to epitomize the values of the model.
“It has to make sense to have any ambassador,” agrees Breitling’s vice-president Jean-Paul Girardin. “John Travolta [a long-term Breitling ambassador] is a famous actor, of course. But he’s also an active and very serious pilot. It has to feel like a real collaboration.”
It is to this finish that, for instance, Richard Mille’s sports activities ambassadors, amongst them Rafael Nadal and Felipe Massa, truly use their watches whereas enjoying and driving. It helps, of course, that sports activities personalities account for the largest single share of Facebook and Twitter utilization.
The model is the star
Arguably there’s a rising divide within the watch world as to the use of ambassadors, or “friends of the brand,” as they’re usually known as. Patek Philippe, Tudor and Roger Dubuis are some of the manufacturers which have determined in opposition to their use, maybe with good motive.
“Whatever ambassador you pick, it’s a big risk, and there are many examples of it going wrong,” suggests Dorothee Henrio, Roger Dubuis’ international advertising and marketing director.
She may nicely cite Tag Heuer’s shut escape in ending its contract with Maria Sharapova final December, a couple of months earlier than her current drug scandal.
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“The idea for us now is that Roger Dubuis, the brand, is the star, which works because our customer is doesn’t aspire to sports stars or Hollywood types, even if that might make sense for luxury products in general.”
There is a 3rd approach nonetheless: Hamilton’s major ambassador is already lifeless. The model works with the Elvis Foundation – the King wore a Hamilton watch in Blue Hawaii, and on different events – to safe Presley as one of their faces.
“Sure, traditional brand ambassadors still work. So many watch brands wouldn’t still use them if they didn’t,” argues Hamilton’s CEO Sylvain Dolla. “But the patron right now is far sharper.
They’re able to look into the authenticity of these relationships; they’ll examine it on-line. Consumers right now don’t simply purchase a watch as a result of some well-known individual is fronting it.”