Why Social Media Shouldn’t Dilute Your Luxury Brand

Social media is not a necessary risk that could dilute the ‘luxury’ in your brand, says Jonathan Pease, executive creative director/managing partner at Tongue advertising agency. Rather, he sees it as the ultimate opportunity to be a modern luxury brand. Pease is speaking at luxury brand forum deLux15 in Sydney. He shares an insight into his keynote speech with B&T.

I’m delighted to be joining Mel O’Rourke, the founder of deLux, and an A-grade group of respected thought-leaders in the premium segment for deLux15.

My keynote topic is The Luxury of Social Media and my plan is simple: challenge the audience’s perceptions of social media and prove why it’s the ultimate medium for any luxury brand that doesn’t just want to TALK like a luxury brand, but ACT like one too.

The time for luxury brands to ‘wait and see’ is well and truly over. There is a deafening conversation going on right now on social media about luxury brands and it’s going to continue to get louder with or without the brand owners’ involvement. Luxury brands must take control of their brand conversation on social media and start inspiring and shaping it.

I’ll draw on several of my own case studies during my keynote, but just as a top line observation; let’s think about one component of the social media landscape – Influencers.

Katy Perry, Beyoncé and the Kardashian / West / Jenner genetic mash up have a combined social media audience of over 500 million followers alone. Like many other celebrities and influencers, they all loudly and proudly consume luxury brands. Often willing to photograph, tag and promote with no financial arrangement in place. The conversations that follow their actions on social are widespread and opinionated. These conversations not only shape perceptions of luxury brands but also consumer purchase intent.

Luxury brands live and breathe on social media right now and the brand owners need to embrace it. Social Media and the responsiveness of digital present an unprecedented opportunity for luxury and aspirant luxury brands. But here’s the rub: the current ‘rules’ of social media are at odds with the doctrine of luxury brands. This is where my keynote will begin.

I’ll also be joining an exciting panel chat alongside Margaret Zhang, Jess Blanch and David Abela on the day. My agency, Tongue, works deeply in the social media and advises several leading luxury brands.

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