Tiffany & Co joins digital fray in China

This week, Tiffany unveiled its ’Journey behind the door’ online campaign, developed by Proximity Live and BBDO, in conjunction with a photography exhibition featuring mainland celebrities. The digital site, at TiffanyKeysPhotos.com, features a sample of the photographers’ works and includes community features, encouraging audiences to share their interpretations of the theme 'Journey behind the door' via BBS posts and photographs.

Tiffany will reward the contributors who gain most views with an invitation to the exhibition’s opening next month in Shanghai and with Tiffany Keys products.

According to Jude Robert, managing partner of Proximity Live, the campaign launched to create a more “holistic approach” to reaching audiences. “Having the Tiffany brand and product seamlessly integrated with a creative campaign without it being deemed ‘commercial’ was a challenge, but that was clearly delivered and the consumers share of voice on social media simply echoes that,” he added.

The campaign follows an active year for luxury brands China's online market. In June, Cartier launched a large-scale, digital-led campaign – developed by Agency.com – to promote its Love charity collection. This month, Coach launched a Chinese version of its website to market products to women in second- and third-tier cities, and within the past few weeks speculation has mounted that Chanel is holding a digital pitch in China.

Luxury brands worldwide have been turning to digital, a medium many previously shunned in order to retain an exclusive feel.

“For luxury specifically, a lot of this focus reflects the general shift of people to using online on a daily basis, and that means affluent individuals who incorporate online activities at home and in the office,” said Eugene Chew, general manager of Agency.com. “This is combined with less being spent on print and money being shifted to an online environment. For luxury, even mature, traditional print publishers like Vogue and Elle invest more in their online side. Conde Nast has a business unit called Conde Net responsible for taking a lot of print work and moving it online.”

Mark Heap, managing director of PHD China, said that the danger of luxury brands losing their ability to “control their brand identity as something very premium” is real, but being able to reach second- and third-tier cities in China at a time when these consumers are beginning to take an interest in luxury makes the risk a worthwhile endeavour.

“It’s certainly a benefit that the internet is truly a nationwide media. Particularly for luxury goods whose media is primarily fashion and lifestyle magazines and outdoor - 60 per cent of these magazines’ readership is based in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. Online offers a way to reach people,” Heap said. “Going online is worthwhile because, as long as the message is controlled well, that risk can be managed. With Tiffany, BBDO has been excellent at helping to define the content and the nature of what the consumer sees, and it makes certain it is absolutely on-brand. As long as it is careful, the risks can be minimised.”

Chew offers another reason why luxury brands in China have recently rushed online: it’s the trend.

“Although a lot of luxury brands won’t admit it, they do look to their competition to see what they are doing,” he said. “For online, there was a tipping point. Luxury brands are now feeling comfortable. Marketing directors in luxury have seen that web 2.0 has taken hold of their communities. This is no longer new and untested.”

To hear more about brands’ reactions to consumers’ changing habits in the recession, and their approach to online, watch MediaTV’s series on luxury brands’ marketing strategies.