Audi introduces 4G LTE high-speed broadband standard in its cars, as Ritz Carlton launches on Sina Weibo and Yoox teams up with Harper’s Bazaar
DIGITAL
The Latest Digital: Audi, Gucci & Net-a-Porter
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Credit: This is the featured image credit
Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
Audi introduces 4G LTE high-speed broadband standard in its cars, as Ritz Carlton launches on Sina Weibo and Yoox teams up with Harper’s Bazaar
Audi introduces 4G LTE high-speed broadband standard in its cars, as Ritz Carlton launches on Sina Weibo and Yoox teams up with Harper’s Bazaar
Social media is not helping brands sell clothes, according to Mashable. And Twitter isn’t influencing purchases, according to new research by NetBase. Indeed, back in 2011 many a retailer and luxury brand expected Facebook and other social media channels to become major storefronts for their platforms.
“We expect Facebook will become a major channel of commerce,” revealed Oscar de la Renta CEO, Alex Bolen, at the time. Tory Burch CMO Miki Berardelli, echoed his sentiments: “We believe that social shopping, or F-commerce as everyone is calling it now, is the future of eCommerce.”
Yet 2013 research by L2 Think Tank suggests that over the past four years, less than 0.25% of new customers have been acquired through Facebook and less than .01% from Twitter. Their report also found that customers acquired through social media were lower spenders than those acquired by search.
“ Less than 0.25% of new customers have been acquired through Facebook, less than .01% from Twitter ”
According to NetBase, newcomers like Instagram and Pinterest more heavily influence shopping – by women, for fashion – than Twitter, despite the fact that 66% of ‘self-proclaimed fashionistas’ and 75% of ‘social shoppers’ actively use a Twitter account.
Based on their research, the actual social networks that are helping the fashion conscious make purchasing decisions are more likely to be Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram:
• 72% of social shoppers say they check Facebook before making a purchase
• 56% of fashionistas check in on Facebook first
• Nearly half of both groups check Pinterest for fashion inspiration
• 42% of women (aged 18-29) check Instagram
Amazon, Amazon Art
Amazon has launched Amazon Art, a marketplace that includes more than 40,000 works of art by the likes of Norman Rockwell and Claude Monet from over 150 galleries and dealers. Among the first batch of artworks on sale are Andy Warhol’s “Sachiko” ($450k), Claude Monet’s “L’Enfant à la tasse” ($1.45m), Norman Rockwell’s “Willie Gillis: Package from Home” ($4.85m), down to a selection of Clifford Ross photography from $200 a print.
Website: amazon.com
Source: Luxuo
Audi, 4G Broadband
Audi will offer the new 4G LTE high-speed broadband standard in its cars. The technology will enable the exchange of large amounts of data via the Internet, such as music and films in HD quality. Some of the possibilities that 4G LTE will allow include Skype video chat, voice-to-text (e-mail and SMS dictation), and vehicle and home monitoring.
Website: audi.com
Source: Motor Authority
Audi, Augmented Reality App
Audi has partnered with Metaio to create an augmented reality mobile application that can recognise and expound upon over 300 elements of the A3 model to allow for a deeper and accessible understanding of the vehicle. The A3 eKurzinfo app identifies facets of the A3 vehicle from the windshield wiper’s insignia to engine components and gives how-to information or virtual maintenance tutorials.
Download: A3 eKurzinfo
Source: Luxury Daily
Christian Louboutin, eCommerce
Christian Louboutin launched its first online store in Asia, shipping to shoppers in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. This marks the French footwear specialist’s third e-commerce launch, with online boutiques already present in North America and Europe since 2010.
Website: asia.christianlouboutin.com
Source: Blouin ArtInfo
Fendi Casa, Website
Fendi has revamped its Fendi Casa portal as part of its overall Fendi Universe digital flagship. Users can now browse content featuring large images, short films and simplified browsing capabilities. Through the new Casa site, consumers can watch a video overview, view a catalogue of products, see interior design images and locate showrooms.
Website: fendi.com/fendi-casa
Source: Luxury Daily
Four Seasons, Pinterest
Pin.Pack.Go is a new Pinterest trip planning service that connects holiday planners with Four Seasons local experts around the world, in 70 locations. Guests can share photos and ideas directly with Four Seasons insiders who will help them to build travel itineraries, including everything from restaurant reservations to local fashion trends.
Pinterest: pinterest.com/fourseasons
Source: Four Seasons Magazine
Gucci, Google Maps
Gucci is launching indoor viewing on Google Maps, joining the Google Business Photos project. Visitors will now be able to browse through Gucci’s Milan men’s flagship, via mobile, tablet and desktop through browser and App navigation. On the Google Maps App for Android and iOS, users can access the in-store view using the accelerometer that allows navigation simply by moving around one’s device.
Website: plus.google.com/gucci
Source: WWD
Harper’s Bazaar & Yoox, ShopBazaar
Harper’s Bazaar and Yoox Group have signed an agreement that will establish Yoox Group as the primary partner of ShopBazaar.com, a content-to-commerce online store that allows readers to shop the pages of the magazine, where Bazaar’s editors select products.
At the time of the launch, Bazaar partnered with Saks Fifth Avenue, though its inaugural retail partnership with Saks ended in June.
Website: shop.harpersbazaar.com
Source: WWD
Mulberry, Website
British label Mulberry is bolstering its eCommerce efforts through a new simplified Web site launched in late August. The brand’s updated site offers a simple design with multiple touch points for consumers to click to shop certain products and collections from the homepage.
Website: mulberry.com
Source: Luxury Daily
Net-a-Porter, Social Network
Net-a-porter Group has created a new mobile app – The Netbook – to create a social network of users sharing their favorite products from the luxury e-tailer. To begin with, access to the app will be by invitation only. Net-a-porter’s editors, buyers and public relations teams will be armed with individually numbered invitation cards, which they will pass out to members of the fashion pack during London, Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks.
Source: WWD
Ritz-Carlton, Chinese Website
Following a year of comprehensive research to deepen the understanding of Chinese consumers, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, has launched a new Chinese website and debuts today, a page on Sina Weibo; the first Mandarin language social media channel for the luxury brand. The brand will launch a Chinese mobile site by year-end.
Website: ritzcarlton.com/cn
Sina Weibo: e.weibo.com/ritzcarlton
For more in the series of The Latest Digital, please see our most recent editions as follows:
– The Latest Digital: Christie’s, Hermès & Salvatore Ferragamo
– The Latest Digital: BMW, Baccarat & Alexander McQueen
– The Latest Digital: Baselworld, Zegna & Ferrari
Creative Strategist, Digital
Sophie Doran is currently Senior Creative Strategist, Digital at Karla Otto. Prior to this role, she was the Paris-based editor-in-chief of Luxury Society. Prior to joining Luxury Society, Sophie completed her MBA in Melbourne, Australia, with a focus on luxury brand dynamics and leadership, whilst simultaneously working in management roles for several luxury retailers.
