Very cool site to launch "love"

Olivier Stip, SVP Marketing Communications Cartier North America gave a really interesting presentation today about how they are engaging their consumer online - lots of banners, blogs, video, beautifully designed mini sites and will simulcast store openings and parties in LA for the new Love campaign via online video. I'll update with links to the actual presentations that are  being given because I really feel that the most resonating part of all of them is simply the presentation of their creative - same underlying strategies usually but a very sophisticated and Luxury consumer targeted look and feel (not sure how to better say that)

Cartier has a tool to define their brand called Brand DNA where they define their brand through it's 1.Personality (innovative dynamic, glamour etc.), 2. Culture (traditional art foundation, royal), 3.Self-Projection (quality, timeless professional), 4. Reflection (successful, watch and jewelry, exclusive), 5. Responsibility (art, celeb, charity), 6.Physical (red box, tank watch panther, love, trinity).  They then take this information and combine it with the knowledge of their consumers - some of which are defined as "Diesel Generation", "Bling Bling" (seriously), "Senior Pashas" (insert image of Trump here), "Female Execs", "Posh Parents" etc... to specifically target their communication.  Very similar I think to our development of personas for our targets. I do like the idea of naming these targets and even using real people or known faces to further develop a clear definition of who we're talking to. I also thought it was useful to think of us talking to a 'group' of people and not just a specifically defined person. 

As impressed as this audience was with how deeply Cartier had embraced online there was a question from an audience member - "when are you going to actually sell your product online?"  The answer wasn't straightforward and had something to do with a test in Japan coming up soon... made me think that even with some of the more forward thinking brands in this market there still exists some hesitation to fully embrace the media that makes your product available to the masses and not just people who are willing to walk in to a store or boutique.

The launch of their Love campaign is kicking off tonight in LA with a huge celebrity private event as well as coordinated online efforts. Again interesting because they are developing standard ad units, some with embedded music videos and there is even a myspace page, a blog and a 'love' community site.  Content again is king here - amazingly beautiful design they are sharing however it is all happening in the same manner we develop campaigns for our clients.  Further reinforcement that working with these clients is less about our knowledge of the Luxury space  but applying what we already know about the internet space and their consumers - where they are online and the fact that what they see from a design standpoint needs to be very rich, beautiful and consistent through all mediums.

After re-reading this I keep finding myself saying 'right, exactly, yes... that's what we already talk about" and really it is... I think we just gotta get one of these clients and prove it... I have my eye on the VP of Mktg for Cadillac, I'll see where it gets me.