73% of luxury brands find maintaining exclusivity and aspiration on social media their biggest challenge
Fashion and Beauty Monitor, the leading influencer marketing and PR solutions provider for the fashion, beauty and lifestyle industries, today released ‘The New Face of Luxury’ research report, conducted in association with Econsultancy.
For some time, the mass market appeal of social media seemed to be in contradiction to the privacy and exclusivity of the luxury industry, creating understandable caution among luxury brands. ‘The New Face of Luxury’ report considers the luxury fashion, beauty and lifestyle sector specifically, and explores how it is embracing the emerging space of influencer marketing.
Backed by independent research, in the shape of an online survey of a highly targeted base of professionals working across the luxury fashion, beauty and lifestyle sectors, the findings offer valuable trends and insights on how luxury brands can collaborate successfully with this ‘new’ breed of influencers.
Key findings from the report include:
73% of luxury brands are active within influencer marketing: yet almost half of luxury respondents admit their influencer marketing programme is only a year or less than a year old
65% say their approach to influencer marketing is “effective”: content collaborations are proving effective for 73% of luxury brands
78% of luxury brands are searching for influencers manually: finding influencers who are the right fit is the single most important criteria for success for 44% of luxury brands
Mid-tier influencers hold the greatest appeal for 40% of luxury brands: and top tier influencers continue to hold the most appeal for only 17% of luxury brands
61% of luxury brands believe that personal brand building is of utmost importance to influencers: however, despite the emphasis on personal integrity, just under half (49%) of luxury respondents believe that influencers are also driven by monetary rewards
Revenue generated is important to 62% of luxury brands: additionally, a resounding 79% of luxury brands measure the success of their influencer collaborations through web traffic generated
73% say maintaining exclusivity and aspiration on social media is their biggest challenge: controlling the narrative of influencer-led campaigns is proving “challenging” for 59% luxury brands
Influencer marketing is still a numbers game: 77% of luxury respondents say the number of followers an influencer has is “critical” or “very important”
59% of luxury brands are spending less than 10% of their marketing budget on influencers: Budget is proving to be the greatest factor holding them back from running an effective influencer marketing strategy
5 Trends to Watch:
66% of luxury brands are expecting their influencer marketing budget to increase over the next year
46% plan to commit more resource to managing influencer relationships
20% of luxury brands expect to work more with micro-influencers
18% of luxury brands hope to be more experimental in the way they choose to work with influencers, trying out new formats and ways of partnering
Influencers will continue to negotiate partnerships and contracts more on their terms, taking the lead with artistic direction
“The luxury industry has always thrived on word-of-mouth by way of personal recommendations and social connections to create desire, invoke aspiration, even envy. But for an industry that prides itself on exclusivity, adopting a mass marketing approach via social influencers, has come with some caution,” said Priyanka Dayal, Content Marketing Manager at Fashion and Beauty Monitor. “The findings from the report underscore a need for luxury brands to adopt a more inclusive, less experimental approach to influencer marketing. Forging partnerships with influencers who complement their brand values, will ensure luxury brands engage more authentically with their existing customers, whilst staying relevant for their future generation of buyers.”
Respondents represent agencies, brands, media and influencers who either represent a luxury brand or work closely with the luxury industry.
The non-luxury respondents within the report represent professionals working in fashion, beauty and lifestyle sectors who also have an influencer marketing strategy in place.
Overall, the data goes some way towards explaining the way luxury brands have so far worked with influencers, providing valuable intelligence on how the fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands particularly can better tailor their approach to influencers when it comes to content marketing.
‘The New Face of Luxury’ report marks Fashion and Beauty Monitor’s continued commitment in providing all the intelligence and insights that drive the fashion, beauty and lifestyle industry forward.