EVENTS

SEO Strategy: Why Luxury Brands Should Capitalise on Events

by

Benedicte Soteras

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit: This is the featured image credit

Luxury watch brands should include recurring, international fairs within their SEO strategies in order to reach potential clients. DLG’s Benedicte Soteras explains how.

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

Luxury watch brands should include recurring, international fairs within their SEO strategies in order to reach potential clients. DLG’s Benedicte Soteras explains how.

Recurring seasonal events represent a great opportunity for reaching potential consumers. Specifically applied to the watchmaking industry, such events include annual exhibitions like the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) and the upcoming Baselworld. These international fairs should be fully integrated within the search strategies of brands that are attending and launching products there.

But not all brands currently capitalise on such an opportunity.

Interested in improving your brand’s Search strategy?

Known as two of the most important events of the year for luxury jewellers and watchmakers, participation in the SIHH or Baselworld requires meticulous planning on all fronts. Everyone from the communication and product design to sales and logistics teams have roadmaps established months ahead to ensure the smooth launch of the brands’ latest innovations and creations at such fairs.

SEO teams should also be part of the mix. The DLG (Digital Luxury Group) team demonstrates why in this article.

Online demand for these events is sizeable and growing year on year

Being two of the major shows of the year in terms of attendance numbers, it goes without saying that the demand generated online is expected to be quite important. There were almost over 150% more online searches for SIHH in February 2018 than visitors at the actual event.

Figure 1: Global demand levels for the exact keywords "SIHH" and "Baselworld" (Source: Google Trends, Worldwide, March 2017 to February 2018)

Baselworld

Despite its gradual shrinking in terms of attendance numbers and size, Baselworld (the industry powerhouse with participating brands such as Patek Philippe, Rolex and the Swatch Group) continually generates a strong appetite among online users: Up to 110,000 searches worldwide were performed in March 2017 when the last edition took place.

SIHH

Established in 1991, the SIHH (which throws the spotlight on brands within Richemont’s portfolio, alongside other big names like Audemars Piguet, Parmigiani Fleurier and Hermès) has been growing in popularity. While its attendance numbers are still considered small in comparison with Baselworld’s (20,000 visitors were reported for SIHH's 2018 edition versus Baselword's 106,000 in 2017), the interest it generates online is not negligible.

Figure 2: Attendance numbers and Online Demand for SIHH (2018 edition) and Baselworld (2017 edition)

Event

Visitors for last edition

Yearly Average Search Demand

Search Demand during the Month of the Show

Ratio vs demand/visitors for latest edition

SIHH (2018)

20,000

6,600

49,500

2,48

Baselworld

(2017)

106,000

18,100

110,000

1,04

  • Source: AdWords Keyword Planner, Mar-17 to Feb-18, worldwide demand for "SIHH" and "Baselworld" as unique keywords.
  • As a comparative reference: "Geneva Motor Show" generated 110,000 searches in March 2017.

Both events generated substantial levels of interest with online users. Not only has search demand related to these events been growing year on year (see Figure1), it has also started to overtake the actual number of visitors when looked upon during the month of each event (see Figure 2).

These events represent an opportunity to grow qualified traffic

While precise queries for watch models (e.g. "new models Baselworld", "watches SIHH") are far less numerous than the demand for the main events, they nonetheless represent a great opportunity for brands to gain visibility online during these key moments in the year among a relevant audience.

Demand might be low but it is sustained throughout the year, therefore indicating an opportunity to capitalise on users’ interest all year long.

To put things into perspective, the graph below juxtaposes the demand evolution for queries revolving around new timepiece models at SIHH and Baselworld against that of generic terms related to men’s and women’s watch-gifting.

Figure 3 (Graph): Comparison of global online demand between March 2017 and February 2018

Figure 3 (Table): Comparison of global online demand between March 2017 and February 2018

Demand for specific brands’ and their new models is high

Our insights revealed that an important proportion of users searching for information around the events were doing so in relation to specific brands.

Here are the top 5 watch manufacturers searched for by users in relation to SIHH and Baselworld: (Source: SEMRush & Google Keyword Planner. Dataset: >200 queries)

For Baselworld:

  • Rolex
  • Seiko
  • Tudor
  • Hamilton
  • Longines

For SIHH:

  • Panerai
  • Piaget
  • Jaeger-LeCoultre
  • Ulysse Nardin
  • Audemars Piguet

These brands are being searched for by users, but are they capitalising on this demand effectively from a search perspective? We’ve selected two brands from these shortlists to illustrate what “good” and “not-so-good” look like:

Tudor: Nailing the integration of seasonal events

Audemars Piguet: Room for improvement

  • Dedicated page: only a “new” page listing the year’s models is present on site
    • This means other websites such as Watchtime.com or Hodinkee.com which have covered the brand’s new products at SIHH are likely to outrank Audemarspiguet.com in some market for queries closely related to "Audemars Piguet SIHH"
  • No content on site mentioning the attendance to SIHH

Competition for users’ attention and clicks is fierce

While some brands have aligned their communication channels and ensured their website was providing relevant information at the right time in regards with these key events, other types of media outlets have also been proactively adjusting and capturing this demand.

Image credit: Tag Heuer Live Social Coverage of Baselworld 2017

It won’t come as a surprise, but the top websites making the most of such seasonal traffic opportunities are lifestyle magazines such as Esquire or specialised publishers like Hodinkee or Gear Patrol.

Image credit: Gear Patrol News Piece on SIHH 2018.

The below table ranks the top organic results appearing on the first page of Google.com (US) showing for the query "Baselworld watches" and "SIHH watches". It clearly shows how present such publishers are – occupying half of the results for "Baselworld" and almost all of them for "SIHH". Only a handful of digitally-savvy watch brands such as Rolex, Tudor and Casio are making it among the top results.

Figure 5: Top 10 results showing on Google.com (US) for the query "Baselworld Watches"

Figure 6: Top 10 results showing on Google.com (US) for the query "SIHH Watches"

If many of the big players at such fairs have now implemented dedicated pages on their website around their activities in relation to these events, so have online publishers, magazines and resellers hoping to get a piece of the cake as well when it comes to organic traffic.

Image credit: left – Patek Philippe News Article on Baselworld 2017 . Right – Wempe (luxury retailer) Coverage of Patek Philippe’s New Models at Baselworld 2017

How to include recurring events and fairs in your content & acquisition strategy

Just as brands progressively embraced the use of hashtags to jump in on conversations on social media in relation to major events, content also needs to be at the forefront of event planning for companies wanting to make an impact throughout the event process (before, during and after) and not lose visitors to their competitors or publishers.

Whether for an international fair such as the SIHH, Baselworld or any other recurring event, having a dedicated space on a website is key. Here are a few other key points to bear in mind for an optimum setup:

  • Create and optimise dedicated evergreen landing pages
    • Avoid mentioning a specific year within the URL: www.brand-abc.com/sihh-models/
    • If it makes more sense in your field to add a specific year, for instance, if people might still be searching for models released in previous years, create sub-pages for each year: www.brand-abc.com/sihh-models/2017-watches
  • Add the new pages to your sitemap
  • Build a strong internal linking structure between the hub page, news page, collection page or product page
  • Encourage other departments to share the links to the hub page within their own work stream to strengthen the backlink profile of the page and its authority
    • PR, Social, Distributors, etc.
  • Explore integration of user generated content in relation to the event (#BaselWorld2018 or branded hashtag integrated Instagram flow within the page)

Cover image credit: Creative Commons (CC). Image: Baselworld 2017.

Benedicte Soteras
Benedicte Soteras

Partner, International Client Development and Marketing Director at DLG (Digital Luxury Group)

Benedicte is an experienced Marcom and Digital professional with a demonstrated track record agency-side, who specialises in bringing talents together and making them thrive. She was formerly Head of Client Services at DLG, and Head of Search respectively, having developed a specialism in Search Engine Optimisation. She has worked in Denmark, the UK, France and Italy, and has a passion for luxury, fashion and consumer goods.

EVENTS

SEO Strategy: Why Luxury Brands Should Capitalise on Events

by

Benedicte Soteras

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit : This is the featured image credit

Luxury watch brands should include recurring, international fairs within their SEO strategies in order to reach potential clients. DLG’s Benedicte Soteras explains how.

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

Luxury watch brands should include recurring, international fairs within their SEO strategies in order to reach potential clients. DLG’s Benedicte Soteras explains how.

Recurring seasonal events represent a great opportunity for reaching potential consumers. Specifically applied to the watchmaking industry, such events include annual exhibitions like the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) and the upcoming Baselworld. These international fairs should be fully integrated within the search strategies of brands that are attending and launching products there.

But not all brands currently capitalise on such an opportunity.

Interested in improving your brand’s Search strategy?

Known as two of the most important events of the year for luxury jewellers and watchmakers, participation in the SIHH or Baselworld requires meticulous planning on all fronts. Everyone from the communication and product design to sales and logistics teams have roadmaps established months ahead to ensure the smooth launch of the brands’ latest innovations and creations at such fairs.

SEO teams should also be part of the mix. The DLG (Digital Luxury Group) team demonstrates why in this article.

Online demand for these events is sizeable and growing year on year

Being two of the major shows of the year in terms of attendance numbers, it goes without saying that the demand generated online is expected to be quite important. There were almost over 150% more online searches for SIHH in February 2018 than visitors at the actual event.

Figure 1: Global demand levels for the exact keywords "SIHH" and "Baselworld" (Source: Google Trends, Worldwide, March 2017 to February 2018)

Baselworld

Despite its gradual shrinking in terms of attendance numbers and size, Baselworld (the industry powerhouse with participating brands such as Patek Philippe, Rolex and the Swatch Group) continually generates a strong appetite among online users: Up to 110,000 searches worldwide were performed in March 2017 when the last edition took place.

SIHH

Established in 1991, the SIHH (which throws the spotlight on brands within Richemont’s portfolio, alongside other big names like Audemars Piguet, Parmigiani Fleurier and Hermès) has been growing in popularity. While its attendance numbers are still considered small in comparison with Baselworld’s (20,000 visitors were reported for SIHH's 2018 edition versus Baselword's 106,000 in 2017), the interest it generates online is not negligible.

Figure 2: Attendance numbers and Online Demand for SIHH (2018 edition) and Baselworld (2017 edition)

Event

Visitors for last edition

Yearly Average Search Demand

Search Demand during the Month of the Show

Ratio vs demand/visitors for latest edition

SIHH (2018)

20,000

6,600

49,500

2,48

Baselworld

(2017)

106,000

18,100

110,000

1,04

  • Source: AdWords Keyword Planner, Mar-17 to Feb-18, worldwide demand for "SIHH" and "Baselworld" as unique keywords.
  • As a comparative reference: "Geneva Motor Show" generated 110,000 searches in March 2017.

Both events generated substantial levels of interest with online users. Not only has search demand related to these events been growing year on year (see Figure1), it has also started to overtake the actual number of visitors when looked upon during the month of each event (see Figure 2).

These events represent an opportunity to grow qualified traffic

While precise queries for watch models (e.g. "new models Baselworld", "watches SIHH") are far less numerous than the demand for the main events, they nonetheless represent a great opportunity for brands to gain visibility online during these key moments in the year among a relevant audience.

Demand might be low but it is sustained throughout the year, therefore indicating an opportunity to capitalise on users’ interest all year long.

To put things into perspective, the graph below juxtaposes the demand evolution for queries revolving around new timepiece models at SIHH and Baselworld against that of generic terms related to men’s and women’s watch-gifting.

Figure 3 (Graph): Comparison of global online demand between March 2017 and February 2018

Figure 3 (Table): Comparison of global online demand between March 2017 and February 2018

Demand for specific brands’ and their new models is high

Our insights revealed that an important proportion of users searching for information around the events were doing so in relation to specific brands.

Here are the top 5 watch manufacturers searched for by users in relation to SIHH and Baselworld: (Source: SEMRush & Google Keyword Planner. Dataset: >200 queries)

For Baselworld:

  • Rolex
  • Seiko
  • Tudor
  • Hamilton
  • Longines

For SIHH:

  • Panerai
  • Piaget
  • Jaeger-LeCoultre
  • Ulysse Nardin
  • Audemars Piguet

These brands are being searched for by users, but are they capitalising on this demand effectively from a search perspective? We’ve selected two brands from these shortlists to illustrate what “good” and “not-so-good” look like:

Tudor: Nailing the integration of seasonal events

Audemars Piguet: Room for improvement

  • Dedicated page: only a “new” page listing the year’s models is present on site
    • This means other websites such as Watchtime.com or Hodinkee.com which have covered the brand’s new products at SIHH are likely to outrank Audemarspiguet.com in some market for queries closely related to "Audemars Piguet SIHH"
  • No content on site mentioning the attendance to SIHH

Competition for users’ attention and clicks is fierce

While some brands have aligned their communication channels and ensured their website was providing relevant information at the right time in regards with these key events, other types of media outlets have also been proactively adjusting and capturing this demand.

Image credit: Tag Heuer Live Social Coverage of Baselworld 2017

It won’t come as a surprise, but the top websites making the most of such seasonal traffic opportunities are lifestyle magazines such as Esquire or specialised publishers like Hodinkee or Gear Patrol.

Image credit: Gear Patrol News Piece on SIHH 2018.

The below table ranks the top organic results appearing on the first page of Google.com (US) showing for the query "Baselworld watches" and "SIHH watches". It clearly shows how present such publishers are – occupying half of the results for "Baselworld" and almost all of them for "SIHH". Only a handful of digitally-savvy watch brands such as Rolex, Tudor and Casio are making it among the top results.

Figure 5: Top 10 results showing on Google.com (US) for the query "Baselworld Watches"

Figure 6: Top 10 results showing on Google.com (US) for the query "SIHH Watches"

If many of the big players at such fairs have now implemented dedicated pages on their website around their activities in relation to these events, so have online publishers, magazines and resellers hoping to get a piece of the cake as well when it comes to organic traffic.

Image credit: left – Patek Philippe News Article on Baselworld 2017 . Right – Wempe (luxury retailer) Coverage of Patek Philippe’s New Models at Baselworld 2017

How to include recurring events and fairs in your content & acquisition strategy

Just as brands progressively embraced the use of hashtags to jump in on conversations on social media in relation to major events, content also needs to be at the forefront of event planning for companies wanting to make an impact throughout the event process (before, during and after) and not lose visitors to their competitors or publishers.

Whether for an international fair such as the SIHH, Baselworld or any other recurring event, having a dedicated space on a website is key. Here are a few other key points to bear in mind for an optimum setup:

  • Create and optimise dedicated evergreen landing pages
    • Avoid mentioning a specific year within the URL: www.brand-abc.com/sihh-models/
    • If it makes more sense in your field to add a specific year, for instance, if people might still be searching for models released in previous years, create sub-pages for each year: www.brand-abc.com/sihh-models/2017-watches
  • Add the new pages to your sitemap
  • Build a strong internal linking structure between the hub page, news page, collection page or product page
  • Encourage other departments to share the links to the hub page within their own work stream to strengthen the backlink profile of the page and its authority
    • PR, Social, Distributors, etc.
  • Explore integration of user generated content in relation to the event (#BaselWorld2018 or branded hashtag integrated Instagram flow within the page)

Cover image credit: Creative Commons (CC). Image: Baselworld 2017.

Benedicte Soteras
Benedicte Soteras

Partner, International Client Development and Marketing Director at DLG (Digital Luxury Group)

Benedicte is an experienced Marcom and Digital professional with a demonstrated track record agency-side, who specialises in bringing talents together and making them thrive. She was formerly Head of Client Services at DLG, and Head of Search respectively, having developed a specialism in Search Engine Optimisation. She has worked in Denmark, the UK, France and Italy, and has a passion for luxury, fashion and consumer goods.

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