LUXHUB

INSIGHTS

2014
LUXURY
DIGITAL
OUTLOOK

CONTENTS
4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
7 Introduction
10 WebsiteS
20 E-Commerce
24 Mobile
28
Social Media
34
Search & EMail
38
The Result

2 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

TRENDS 3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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4 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

he Middle East is synonymous

with the luxury industry. Luxury
stores, products and media seem
to be visually and cognitively
present all around our environment,
which consequently filters into every
part of our lives, ethos and culture. As
such, its power and importance as an industry within the region and its growth
are increasing year on year, and those
who play the most pivotal and powerful roles in making this happen are the
high and ultra-net-worth individuals
originating from the region. Ultimately, the luxury industry in the Middle
East is here to fulfil their desires and,
as such, luxury brands must adapt to
their specific needs. Yet, while this may
seem a simple task, these regional luxury consumers requirements and buying
prowesses are in constant flux, adapting
to their broadening global knowledge,

their technology based lives, changing current trends and consumer habits. Thus, the Middle Easts high-networth individuals are becoming a progressively, very demanding and hungry
consumer bracket.
With such rapid movement in consumer trends, particularly in the context of
our digitally advancing world, luxury
brands, advertisers and publishers are
on a persistent progression towards enhancing their digital properties, content
and offerings. An industry which had
once been left behind or wanted to
from our digital age, by continuing to
rely on the traditional media spill-over
from their globally branded content and
advertising, is beginning to change. The
luxury industry has been fearful and
hesitant of the digital sphere for many
reasons, from loss of exclusivity to sheer
indifference, but we are now witnessing

a renaissance of digital luxury marketing on an international scale. In the

Middle East, as the regions mobile and
broadband penetration deepens, growing its web-based footprint and usage of
social platforms, and developing homegrown e-commerce and m-commerce
platforms, the demand and need for digitalised luxury is most definitely here.
So, how are luxury brands adapting to
this change and what progress has been
made so far?
Luxury brands, as a whole, have a
unique position within the market, more
acutely than other brand sectors, as they
are subject to strict media guidelines,
touch-points and methodologies from
their global branding teams. In addition,
because aspiration and perceived value
drive purchase consideration, they are
more hesitant than other categories to
move into the digital space, as it means
TRENDS 5

 arabianEye

relinquishing creative and content control, which is required at a local level

for digital best practice. Moreover, in
the Middle East, they must also appeal to a market which has particular
tastes, cultural differences, languages and traditions while retaining the
aforementioned points. Such parameters played a defining role in this first
Luxury Digital Outlook Report, where
we examined how luxury brands scored
across various digital marketing activities, in terms of: social media, mobile,
content, website presence and content,
e/m-commerce, email marketing, and
digital competency on a regional, local and country specific scale. Furthermore, we have delivered a ranking of
luxury brands within each category, to
establish which brand(s) are leading in
overall advancement and localisation
within the digital space. We looked at
how this is affecting the status of luxury
brands, the industry as a whole in the
region, and what this means for the out6 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

look of the market. The future of luxury,

its intricacies and development is something that we are committed to at Havas Media Middle East. While we work
with a variety of brands across all our
various disciplines and their numerous
verticals, we hold luxury as one of our
key areas of expertise, and truly understand its importance, not only within the
regions media market but as an industry
to increase regional growth.
This research project, carried out underneath Havas Media Middle Easts luxury intelligence group LuxHub, not only
serves to guide these brands on future
decisions around brand strategy, digital communication and platform development, but also as agency stakeholders, helps us prioritise those decisions
by channeling and identifying gaps to
build better more effective and relevant
advertising solutions, with real data and
insights at the core.
By examining our research in comparison to global and local benchmarks,

we developed a ranking system across

these digital marketing categories in an
effort to not only showcase where luxury brands stand regionally, in terms
of the digital sophistication of their
communications and platforms, but also
where these brands rank against their
global peers.
The data that we analysed was gathered
over the course of Q3 and Q4 2013 from
a variety of open source data platforms
and proprietary Havas tools.
At the core of the data and this document
lays a hard truth about luxury brands in
the region, and while there are some examples of brands that are winning within a few digital platforms, by and large
this sector severely lags behind in the
majority of core, targeted and strategic
digital communication competencies.
We shall explore the data that delivered
this result, and the effects this data will
have on the experience and expectations
of the regions increasingly important
and powerful luxury consumers.

INTRODUCTION
The Need for a Luxury Digital Report

At the crossroads between data-driven

insights, the perfect regional setting, and
our passion for luxury, we as an agency
found ourselves, and from all of these
factors the LuxHub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook was born.
Innovation, creativity and the employment of technology to lead the marketplace is the backbone of our communications ethos. Marketing, as a whole, has
changed forever, and with it the needs
and questions of advertisers. Technology and communications are irrevocably intertwined, so by placing digital at
the core of our agency model, it is our
way to Change Faster as an agency
and be agile and quick for our clients.
Change Faster in this moving environment means also providing insights in
order to jump into different market realities where numerous media adoption

trends are taking place. Media has never

been so real-time and flexible, with ever
changing digital touch points and technology as the driving force behind this.
Technology and data are motoring our
digitally integrated and strategic offering, which is successfully fulfilling the
ever changing and developing requirements of current and new clients alike.
This has never been more so, or more
of a hot topic, for our luxury clients and
in general for the luxury industry in the
region. Luxury, in all its verticals, is an
important driving force behind trade,
tourism, growth and the majority of other industries in the region, not to mention its high-net-worth inhabitants.
Since the inception of Havas Media
Middle East, we have had a special and
insightful relationship with many luxury brands, and so we pride ourselves on
being at the forefront of trends, develop-

ments and communications that affect

and influence this industry and its consumers. As such, our aim became to not
only deliver our luxury clients relevant
content and strategies, but also use real
data to back this up - a research project
with them in mind. Our objective was
to ignite change and progression in the
field of luxury and also promote the
Middle East as a market which should
no longer be ignored. Thus, we wanted
a project that paralleled global and local
benchmarks which would bring to light
the stark reality of luxury in the regions
digital world to its consumers, brands
and marketers.
The idea was simple: examine content,
competency and presence across various
digital channels. These were to include:
websites, e-commerce, social media,
mobile, search and email. We wanted
to know what brands in various luxury
TRENDS 7

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FASHION BRANDS

Alexander McQueen
Alfred Dunhill
Armani
Balenciaga
Burberry
Calvin Klein
Carolina Herrera
Celine

Chanel
Christian Louboutin
Coach
Dior
Dolce & Gabbana
Elie Saab
Ermenegildo Zegna
Fendi

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WATCH AND JEWELLERY BRANDS

Audemars Piguet
Baume et Mercier
Blancpain
Cartier
Chanel Jewellery
Chaumet

Chopard
Corum
Damiani
De Beers
Dior
Graff

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FRAGRANCE AND COSMETIC BRANDS

sectors fashion, watches and jewellery,

and fragrance and cosmetics for both
men and women are doing within the
region, and to what extent. We could then
identify which brands are really owning
and developing their digital properties
and media mix, and those who are slipping behind this advancing pack. Using
proprietary Havas research and tools, as
well as our market understanding and
open resources, we were then able to
draw data-driven conclusions as to why
this is happening and what it means in
the bigger picture.
The struggle for a brand to be both global and local, in terms of created media
and content, is a difficult and complex
situation facing luxury brands world8 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

Armani
Balenciaga
Hugo Boss
Bottega Veneta
Burberry
Cartier
Chanel

Chlo
Clarins
Clinique
Clive Christian
Creed
Dior
Dolce & Gabbana

Givenchy
Gucci
Giuseppe Zanotti
Herms
Hugo Boss
Jimmy Choo
Lanvin
Louis Vuitton

Marc Jacobs
Miu Miu
Nina Ricci
Oscar de la Renta
Prada
Ralph Lauren
Roberto Cavalli
Saint Laurent

Tods
Tom Ford
Tory Burch
Valentino
Versace

Harry Winston
Hublot
Jaeger-LeCoultre
Korloff
Longines
Neil Lane

Omega
Patek Philippe
Piaget
Raymond Weil
Rolex
Tiffany & Co

Van Cleef & Arpels

Zenith Watches

Este Lauder
Fendi
Givenchy
Guerlain
Herms
Jimmy Choo
Cavalli Fragrances

La Prairie
Lancme
Marc Jacobs
MontBlanc
Nina Ricci
Paco Rabanne
Prada

Tom Ford
Valentino
Van Cleef & Arpels
Versace
Yves Saint Laurent

wide, and particularly here in the Middle

East. With languages, cultural and lifestyle traditions varying from country to
country, and even from city to city, luxury brands have been somewhat carefully
generic in producing regional content,
and thus far, have been treading very
lightly in terms of digital presence.
However, this broad positioning is beginning to cause concerns around how
they are truly engaging the local consumer-population through their content
and user experience, within the digital
world. The acceptation that global luxury brands need not bother with localised content and media presence in the
region is taking its toll on how far many
luxury brands can reach into the lives of

the wealthiest consumers that the Middle East has to offer. Despite the regions
efforts to ascertain original content
development, and the popularity of this
movement, it still seems to be falling on
deaf ears.
For a while it seems that we in the Middle East have been happy to accept this
lack of effort and resign ourselves to
the fact that we are still an emerging
marketplace to these large international
businesses.
But times are changing, and with the
luxury market in the region growing
year upon year, the necessity to focus
on what the local consumer wants and
how they want to be engaged by a brand
is becoming more important. With the

regional luxury market comprising of

an estimated 6.6 billion and growing,
according to the 2013 Luxury Goods
Worldwide Market Survey from Bain
& Company, Middle Eastern consumers have the highest per capita spend on
luxury goods in the world at just over
$1,900, and overall the region is the 10th
largest global luxury market. Therefore,
the Middle East is not so much an emerging marketplace, but a fully emerged one
when it comes to luxury.
Fundamentally, it has come to a crunch
point for global luxury brands to firmly
accept that the regions affluent consumers are now yearning for localised, personalised and created digital content and
advancement. They want to be drawn
closer to the brand, associate with its superior exclusivity and, most of all, make
a meaningful connection with a brand
in which they can intrinsically identify themselves as an individual amongst
their family, friends and peers.
In another recent Havas research project on Luxury Perceptions and Habits
in KSA and the UAE, we saw that 90
per cent of our luxury consumer respondents are now researching products and
brands online before purchasing, hence
the necessity for brands to win in digital
is most definitely there.
Moreover, with the local Arab population spending an average of six
hours of their daily time online via
their PC, mobile and/or tablet (2013
InMobi and Havas Digital Research), it
is easy to see why the Middle East market is demanding more enriched content
and technological advancement on these
digital platforms.

Research Brands

As part of the LuxHub: 2014 Luxury

Digital Outlook we looked at a range
of luxury brands that widely operate
throughout the Middle East.
This list included: 36 fashion brands; 26
watch and jewellery brands and 33 fragrance and cosmetic brands. These particular brands were chosen by looking

at brand perception, proliferation and

physical presence in the region. Ultimately, we looked at what type of luxury
products are most likely to be purchased
online ranging from those at entry level,
fragrances and cosmetics, to fashion and
accessories, and to the higher end of bespoke watches and jewellery.
Such categories also constitute those
products which appeal to a wide luxury audience, and are the luxury sectors
that are most likely to be followed and
engaged with, because of the constantly
changing trends and seasons.

they portray their brand in the digital

space. What they do and do not is a decision rather than a failing. This report
is here to provide a digital benchmark
system for luxury brands, not to criticize their brand or their respective agencies. At the end of each main section,
we have served to give a recommendation as to how brands can easily fulfill
these requirements and elements to truly
enhance their overall digital offering
and properties.

Research Methodologies

Due to the numerous and multiple brands

examined 95 separate brands over the
three different categories a variety of
data sources were needed and used to
gain the raw insights for the research.
These included specific digital tools and
extensive desktop research across a large
variety of pages, email newsletters, platforms and applications, to individually
monitor and analyse the particular elements within each of those sources.
We divided the research analysis into six
main sections: websites, mobile, e-commerce, social media, search and email.
Within each section we examined specific elements relevant to those sections
that are the foundation and universal
benchmarks for digital activation and
competency, as well as a particular focus
on localisation. By examining these elements we developed a scorecard to measure each brand, in order to achieve the
base competency.
Over all the sections, we identified 117
core digital competencies for websites,
social media, e-commerce, mobile,
search and email.
These universal benchmarks are constantly evolving, changing and becoming more developed year-on-year.
Although our end result compares
one brands score against another, the
principal takeaway is that the brands
are not competing against one another,
but really against themselves in how

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BRANDS SurvEYED

TRENDS 9

WEBSITES

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Introduction

10 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

Websites are what we perceive to be the

core digital base for any brand globally
or locally. They are often the first touchpoint with a brand, and will lead to further exploration and engagement across
other platforms. In addition, it is also a
place where a consumer will look to find
out about general brand material, a particular product or nearby store. Websites
are also the point of reference for any
such information because the site has
been produced by the brand, and therefore it is a reliable and trustworthy source
for the most up to date information.
All the brands that we examined throughout this report had global websites,
with the majority being in English and/or
the brands country-of-origin language.
All the sites which we analysed had the
option of directly translating the content
into several other languages. The majori-

ty of these were from Europe with the addition of Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese
and Russian in many cases. However, we
wanted to dive deeper into how website
content was not only translated, but how
it was adapted and curated for the regional audience. To further expand upon this
examination, we looked at which brands
were using localised content and/or Arabic language content on their global websites. Localised content in this case is
defined as content created and written
specifically for the Arab market. Arabic
content, in this case, is defined as general
content translated into Arabic.
We then wanted to see if the brands had
any regional or country specific website
presence or content. Furthermore, we
developed this idea by examining the
websites functionality: from HTML vs.
flash, social media linking and sharing,
to product search and availability, to local

currency conversion, customer service,

and newsletter sign-up.
As the first point of discussion in this
research, this initial section showed the
bleak reality of the absence of many basic
digital communication requirements and
technological competencies within the
website environment, that some of the
worlds leading luxury brands not only
did not have in the region, but in some
cases globally.

Global Websites

Arabic Content
Upon beginning to review the websites
we firstly looked at which sites gave users
the option to select their region, in our
case this was the Middle East, or a specific country within the region.
Out of the fashion brands only 33 per
cent listed the Middle East or any of its
countries as an option, followed by 27
TRENDS 11

Yes
No

Fragrance & cosmetic

Brands with ARABIC
Content

8%

WATCH & JEWELLERY

Brands with ARABIC
content
7%

21%

92%

79%

All brands with arabic content

93%

REgional and/or country website

6%

8%
Yes
No

92%

Fashion - store locator

functionality
Yes
No

5%

95%

per cent for fragrances and cosmetics and

11 per cent for watches and jewellery.
Overall, only 27 per cent of brands we
looked at even mentioned the Middle East
on their websites as its regional location.
Out of those, we then examined which
websites had Arabic content.
From the three categories we examined, the luxury fragrance and cosmetic
brands had the highest percentage of Arabic content at 21 per cent. Namely, Hugo
Boss, Chanel, Clinique, Este Lauder, La
Prairie, Lancme and Saint Laurent.
This was then followed by the fashion
category, which was very far behind, with
only 8 per cent having any Arabic content.
The fashion brands that made up the 8 per
cent were Carolina Herrera, Elie Saab and
Ralph Lauren.
The only two watch and jewellery
brands to have had Arabic content were
Piaget and Patek Philippe.
Localised Content
With more than 20 million Google
12 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

Watches & jewellery store locator

functionality
12%

88%

searches in Arabic coming from the GCC

every day (Source: ThinkwithGoogle.
com Search Analytics), brands must fully
comprehend the importance of localised
content for the regions digital users. Thus,
to follow on from Arabic content, we saw
the stark reality of how few global luxury
brands had localised content.
Fragrances and sosmetics led with 18
per cent, compared to watches and jewellery with just 3 per cent. The fragrance
and cosmetics brands that we saw leading
this section were: Clinique, Este Lauder,
La Prairie and Lancme.
The fashion category had zero brands
with localised content.
The only watch and jewellery brand to
feature localised content on its website
was Piaget.
What we concluded from the above data
is that there are a small percentage of
brands that realise that having at least an
Arabic translate-facility and some local
content is important to engaging a local
consumer. The reasons behind this are

Fragrances & cosmetics store locator functionality

6%

94%

many: time, cost and work, but it is also

the continued reliance on generic content
over-spill in order to satisfy an evergrowing global audience. A large part of
this may be due to global hesitation to relinquish content creation to local markets
because of a perceived dilution of brand
affinity and exclusiveness. In a more
positive way we saw that several brands
comprehended that not all of their international readers are literate in English,
and would intuitively prefer to read and
engage with a brand in their own native
language. Fundamentally, we must consider this as the most basic step towards
fully localised and original content, but
one has to start somewhere.

Regional and Country Websites

Advancing a notch along the chain of

digital sophistication, we explored whether the brands had regional websites, i.e.
a website that is specific to the Middle
East and in most cases had a me in the
URL. Regional websites offer brands a

Corbis

92%

closer step towards engaging market-specific consumers, and allow for much more
freedom of localisation and the ability
to be much more targeted. However, we
found that this was not the case.
None of the fashion, watch or jewellery
brands that featured in our research had
any regional website for the Middle East.
The only four brands that came from the
fragrance and cosmetics category and
were the French beauty-market leaders
Clinique, Este Lauder and Lancme,
and Swiss cosmetics brand La Prairie.
We saw from this that it was the beauty products, i.e. products that are more
accessible, who are making headway in
the digital space. By having much more
leeway to use digital platforms, less strict
guidelines on Arabic content and branding, they have the opportunity to be
much bolder when it comes to localisation so as to not affect their overall brand
image or identity.
We then analysed if the brands had
country level websites.
The sole fashion brand to have country
specific website was British-born Burberry and for watches and jewellery,
Swiss luxury watch maker Piaget, both
with UAE-based URLs.
However, the Burberry site was only
available in English, making Piaget the
only brand within our list of brands to
have Arabic content on their country site.
The brands that had regional sites did
not appear in this country section, leaving the fragrance and cosmetics category with no country websites at all.

Website Functionality

Introduction
Expanding upon regionally specific
content and website presence, we also included website functionalities to highlight
the functional and user-experience competencies of the brands digital properties. The ability for a local consumer
to be able to locate a store near to their
home or office, see what a product costs
in their native currency, to merely having
a country specific customer service, are

Corbis

Fashion Brands with

ARABIC content

really the foundations for any brand to

have in a global market, never mind in
the world of luxury and the region, where
a high level of service is always expected.
Of all of these functionalities, it is perceived that customer service is the most
important part of a luxury brands consumer relationship holding in its grasp the
personalised quality of service, the aftercare and fundamentally the loyalty of
a customer.
Store Locator
Of the brands examined from the
fashion category, 95 per cent of global
websites had a store locator, for watches
and jewellery 88 per cent, and from fragrance and cosmetics 94 per cent.
It is interesting to see that watches and
jewellery had a significantly lower
percentage which is most likely due to
the fact that they are present in many
local concessions which may not appear.
However, we would also assume this is
also very much the case for fragrances

and cosmetics, as until recently with Burberry and Chanel in London, for example,
there have been no specific beauty stores
for luxury brands. Moreover, due to the
mass nature of their products and their
presence at multi-brand outlets, they may
not be able to be specific about store
locations. And yet we could surmise
that perhaps due to their products being
readily available and sold by international retailers it is probably easy to place
their locations.
Products
The next most prevalent point of information which online consumers will look for
are specific products.
89 per cent of luxury fashion brands featured their products for users to browse.
For watches and jewellery this number
goes up to 96 per cent, which is interesting when compared to the smaller
percentage of brands with store-locators
more products to view, but less option
to see where they are held.
TRENDS 13

Fashion - websites with

Products overview
Yes
No

watches & jewellery websites with

products overview
4%

11%

89%

6%

96%

Fashion - websites with

Products prices
in local currency

Fragrances & cosmetics websites with

products overview

94%

watches & jewellery websites with Products

prices in local currency

Fragrances & cosmetics websites with Products

prices in local currency

5%

3%
100%

95%

97%

Websites with newsletter Localised and/or regional

websites with FaceBook
sign up functionality
social sharing
29%
46%

37%
54%

63%

Corbis

71%

GLOBAL websites with

facebook social sharing

For fragrance and cosmetics, 94 per cent

had products featured on their websites
which we consider low for this category.
In fact to not have 100 per cent of websites
with such basic information is somewhat
akin to having a physical store with less
than full shelves. It could be argued that
this type of product needs to be tried and
tested in store, which is particularly true
for the Middle Eastern consumer, and therefore there may not be much point displaying them in the digital realm. But this
does not hold logically as the website is an
informative base that will hopefully lead
to trial.
In-Store Availability
From the websites that had product
viewing functionality and store-locators,
we then examined those that showed instore availability.
14 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

For the fashion brands 95 per cent

showed availability, for watches and
jewellery 93 per cent and fragrance and
cosmetics 97 per cent.
Such high percentage scores in this
section clearly shows the relevancy of
e-commerce, and even if not, that brands
should have this functionality to drive
consumers to store.
Prices in Local Currency
In terms of localisation, it is important for
regional consumers to see their own currencies and/or exchanges, especially for
the Middle East where prices can vary
largely from country to country.
Out of the websites which did show products online, 95 per cent of the fashion
brands researched did not have local currency prices, no watches and jewellery
brands had them and 97 per cent of fra-

grance and cosmetics brands did not.

Those brands which did show a local
currency in this category were Burberry,
once again, and American luxury accessories brand Coach both showing prices
in local Arabic currency.
Country Specific Customer Service
Delving deeper into localised website
features and functionality, we looked at
the important necessity for any luxury
brand, especially in the region, its customer service. This could be a local telephone number or email that is specific to
a country and their consumers.
For fashion, half the brands had this
service, 62 per cent did for watches and
jewellery and slightly lower was fragrance and cosmetics with 61 per cent.
From this we could surmise that those
products which need the most attentive

customer care, due to their long-term

wear and cost, came from the watch and
jewellery category. Fragrance and cosmetic brands also had with a very high
percentage although it seems unlikely
that a customer would return or exchange
a beauty product. The feature of customer
service also bears weight on what levels of
importance, or lack thereof, brands give to
e-commerce, digital communication, and
the local purchase habits and needs that
the Middle Eastern consumer has.
Newsletter
Newsletters, as a form of email-based
communication, is a topic that we will go
into in detail later in this document. For
this sub-section we examined newsletter
sign-up and availability on websites.
Newsletters have been a traditional cornerstone for brands as part of their digital

marketing arsenal for a long time. Luxury

brands globally have not shied away from
email-marketing either, especially as they
have globally rolled out e-commerce as
a channel for sales. Apart from acting
as a trigger for e-commerce, newsletters
are also a branding and promotional device for new launches, events and brand
news, especially for the latter. There
was a significant level of newsletter use
and integration across the brands investigated, it was surprising, however, and
we believe an obvious gap, that not all
brands are active with email-marketing
in the region.
In addition to their global websites, we
have seen a few leading brands launch
smaller micro-sites to elaborate upon the
brands storytelling, to go in-depth into
current collections inspiration or cover
special events/exhibitions. Evidence of

this can be witnessed with the Inside

Chanel site and Dolce & Gabbanas
Swide.com, a blog-style universe of the
brand. Yet another method for brands to
drive storytelling and create a reason to
connect online with their customers is
via an e-newsletter. E-newsletters provide
a direct response mechanism to brands
by delivering a highly segmented and
content-targeted vehicle to drive both
awareness and conversion within their
consumer groups.
In the fashion category, the only brand
not to have a newsletter was Dolce & Gabanna although its blog-site Swide.com
did, which linked from its homepage,
making it only 3 per cent to not have this
functionality.
For watches and jewellery a much greater number did not have a newsletter signup functionality at 30 per cent, and for
TRENDS 15

 Getty Images

fragrance and cosmetics it was slightly

lower at 17 per cent.
In general we could consider that fashion
brands have more events, fashion-shows,
and lifestyle/entertainment news to
convey to their loyal audience. However,
for watches and jewellery the changes in
collections and styles would not update
so much, and nor would the purchase of
such items be as frequent. It is, however,
surprising that fragrances and cosmetics is low when the demand for new and
novel fragrances and products is so high
particularly in the Middle East and
due to their price-points, a higher volume
of their products are sold. There is a large
opportunity here for luxury brands to
16 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

develop localised lifestyle content which

they can leverage across channels such
as email to drive engagement and brand
affinity

Website Social Integration

Social media for the majority of luxury

brands remains a daunting prospect and
an underutilised channel. The lack of
content control; the mass media ethos;
the fear of losing ones exclusivity and
perceived touch-points to massification, we see are the key drivers of lack
of uptake. But when properly managed
there can be no doubt that it is just
as important as other traditional and
digital mediums.

Strategically, we firmly believe that

a lack of focus and underinvestment
in locally relevant social channels by
luxury brands will be at their medium
to longer term detriment. Consumers are
continuingly evolving, and while this
is a clich, it is an ever relevant clich
supercharged by social. Use, initiation,
management and consistent strategy on
social at a local level, for the brands we
looked at were nowhere near the levels
they should be at. To brand-proof
themselves and their future, even luxury
brands must play a more proactive role
to assess and activate relevant social
footprints. If not only for the significant
levels of their current consumers who

Social Media Links and Sharing

Overall, 62 per cent of the localised,
Arabic and/or regional websites had social media links available, compared to
91 per cent of global websites.
Of these socially linked Arabised sites,
all had a YouTube link, although only 69
per cent of global websites had this channel available to view.
Overall, 54 per cent of localised, Arabic
and/or regional sites had a Twitter link,
which is significantly lower than global
sites at 77 per cent.
When we discuss these channels in much
more detail in the social media section,
starting on page 28, we will see whether
these social channels are in fact regional
or global pages, and how localised their
content sharing is.
54 per cent of the brands which had
localised and/or on their global websites, or had regional websites, also had a
Facebook link from the website and had
their pages enabled for Facebook sharing,
which is quite close to the 63 per cent of
global websites that had this facility.
Consequently, only 46 per cent of
these local, Arabic and regional sites,
which had Twitter links, also had Twitter
enabled sharing available.
Moving to the other social channels of
Instagram, Pinterest and Google+, we
saw that only 31 per cent of local, Arabic
and regional websites had these channels
available on their homepages compared

Getty Images

have integrated social in their day-today lives, but especially for their consumers of tomorrow where social channels
will be their default information, engagement, discovery and brand inspiration
platforms.
While we will go into much more detail
on this subject and its various and numerous platforms later, in terms of website
functionality we looked at whether there
were firstly social media links from the
websites and, secondly, whether brands
enabled direct social sharing of product
pages, specifically from their localised,
regional or country sites.

Fashion Flash only vs. html

Watches & jewellery Flash only vs. html

7%

11%

89%
HTML

fragrances & cosmetics Flash only vs. html

99%

9%

91%

Flash

to almost double that for global sites.

These local and global gaps were clear
and must be addressed in line with developing their owned social media channels and enhancing their websites digital
competencies.

Website Technology

Flash vs. HTML

With 77 per cent of local mobile users
accessing the web via their device daily
(Source: ThinkwithGoogle.com Mobile
Planet UAE) Flash is becoming a platform of the past and should not be used
within the website space. This, combined with the drawbacks of Flash with
search optimisation, make the use of the

technology in web environments a symbol of a brands slow uptake and adaptation into the digital sphere. HTML is the
most basic and standardised technology
through which websites are indexed by
all web browsers, and particularly search
engines for SEO. So, while Flash may
make a website look creative and interactive, it does not work well with many
browsers and can be extremely slow to
work and upload. Moreover, it disables
any search indexing possibilities, so engines like Google and Bing etc. will not
be able to read the site and rank it within
their search result listings.
Overall, a high majority of fashion
brands at 89 per cent had HTML webTRENDS 17

Website Results
Brand
Elie Saab (F)
Armani (F)
Lancme (F/C)
Clinique (F/C)
Este Lauder (F/C)

Score out of 34
19
18
18
18
18

Overall website scores

30
25
20
15
10
5
Getty Images

sites, whilst the remaining 11% used

Flash platforms. These Flash sites included brands such as Chlo, Elie Saab,
Lanvin, Nina Ricci, Ralph Lauren and
Tom Ford.
An even greater majority of watch
and jewellery brands (93 per cent) used
HTML, with Corum being the only brand
website to use Flash.
Comparatively it was slightly lower
for fragrances and cosmetics, when
compared to watches and jewellery,
with the category having just 91 per cent
of brands using HTML. Those which
used Flash were: Chlo, Guerlain, Nina
Ricci and Tom Ford.

Conclusion

A website fully represents a brand online,

it is often the brands first door online
and a consumers first port-of-call. And
yet, with some of the findings we have
18 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

discovered above there seems to be a major gap in some of the most rudimentary
digital competencies, but particularly the
amount of locally based content, presence
and functionality.
The reality is that global luxury brands
have yet to invest in optimising their
website properties in order to more effectively engage the local consumer on a
more personal and contextual level, and
this could be for many reasons. First, and
foremost, their perception of the markets
consumers habits and needs, followed by
general unwillingness and apathy towards
earned engagement via social channels because of loss of exclusivity in the
digital world.
The idea that the Middle East is still an
emerging market also means that many
brands believe the regions luxury market
is still young and behind the times when it
comes to e-commerce, online media and

engagement. While shopping in a mall remains a popular social activity enjoyed by

the Arab population, according to Internet Word Stats the Middle Easts internet
penetration is at 40.4 per cent, and with
the rest-of-world average being 34.1 per
cent it clearly shows the absolute importance of digital in the region. That said,
this figure is typically only considers PCbased access. Therefore, when we consider
smartphone penetration as an additional
proxy for internet access above desktop,
this figure is arguably much higher as
smartphone penetration is over 74 per
cent (Source: Google Mobile Planet, January 2014 Middle East) compared to
the world average of 44 per cent (Source:
Google Mobile Planet, January 2014
All Countries).
In terms of luxury brands, it is a clear indication that they must see and accept that
the online world in the region is a golden

opportunity for their brand to invest in.

The first to market with a more advanced
website strategy in the region will be able
to leap-frog the competition and become
a category leader very quickly. With more
people in the Middle East who are spending time on digital channels, brands
need to ensure a localised web presence
and content to remain relevant. Saudi
Arabia is by far the biggest luxury market
in the region, followed by the UAE, Qatar
and Kuwait, so we must surmise that this
is where the luxury brands are focusing
their time. Interestingly, therefore in Saudi, where English is not widely spoken to
a proficient level (Source: English Proficiency Index KSA ranking 41.19), local
and Arabic content would be a priority of
these brands wanting to engage the luxury consumer, this is clearly not the case.
However, at this current point in time we
would be quite wrong.

Website Results
Overall, the highest scoring category, in
terms of website competency and technology, was fragrances and cosmetics with
10, followed by fashion with nine and
watches and jewellery with eight. However, if we only consider the elements
which were based on localisation of the
websites, the leading category, by a long
way, was fragrances and cosmetics with
the most Arabic content.
Recommendation
In the 2013 Luxury Brand Perception study by Havas, we found 95 per cent of the
regional respondents researched luxury
products online, and no doubt websites
would have been their first point-of-call.
While some in the Arab World do read
English, many do not, and therefore it
is imperative to have at least an Arabic
translation available. Localised content

Fashion

Watches
& jewellery

Fragrances
& cosmetics

is also crucial, as the region continues to

become a hungrier consumer of the written word in their own language and needful of personalised and engaging content
that is relevant to their context, culture,
habits and lives.
Excellence in customer service is also something that is demanded and desired, as
throughout the Middle East service is at a
very high standard.
The user experience and functionality
of website properties is also a key factor
as the sophistication and expectations
of the Middle East consumer continue to evolve. Therefore we strongly
recommend a continuing march towards enhancing Arabic content towards localised content, as well as
making sure the user experience on a
website is of the same standard as a
physical store to maintain a brands
luxury benchmarks.
TRENDS 19

E-COMMERCE
Introduction

E-commerce, for the many markets around

the world, is part of everyday life, and for
luxury e-commerce international companies, such as Net-A-Porter.com, mywardrobe.com and mytheresa.com have definitely shown how luxury can be purchased
online, without losing a brands exclusivity
or succumbing to massification. The carefully selected collection pieces and brands
propose a boutique-style digital offering
which maintains that luxury shopping experience. This is also combined with very
acute guidelines on their customer service,
shipping and returns policies, as well as
beautiful packaging. Shopping online for
luxury must not just seem to be a quickclick purchase, but an easy experience
which can be just as exclusive as buying
in-store. Companies such as the above have
helped to guide individual luxury brands to
change their perception of e-commerce, to
20 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

show that there is a demand for it and that

brands and their products can continue to
remain just as elusive in the digital world.
What we must bear in mind, at this current time, is that e-commerce in the Middle East is hindered at the point of delivery and payment. This is particularly true
in KSA, where cash-on-delivery models
are a favoured payment method and are
consequently plaguing growth, which is
contributing to high levels of cancelled
transactions. However, we do foresee an
inevitable change. As online payment becomes more trusted, as delivery assurances
become more robust, and as ever-demanding consumers gravitate online to access
the hard-to-secure pieces which often sell
out quickly in-store, luxury e-commerce in
the region will grow. Underpinning these
structural and consumer realities and inevitabilities is that e-commerce enables
greater ease, efficiency and choice. While

the region is typified by a mall culture

as a social cornerstone, and this will not
change, it will be enhanced via enabling
out-of-mall purchasing online.

E-commerce and Functionality

Of the brands we researched across the

three categories, we found that a substantial 70 per cent did not have e-commerce
available on their global websites.
Of those that did have this available, only
5 per cent offered shipping to the region,
these included: Alexander McQueen, Giuseppe Zanotti, Jimmy Choo, Roberto Cavalli and Tory Burch.
75 per cent of brands that offered e-commerce also offered a Wish List or Favourites List option, which is a positive for
future e-commerce growth and sophistication.
26 per cent of the brands that offered
e-commerce also offered an Others
TRENDS 21

Yes
No

E-Commerce services with others also

viewed function
Yes
No

25%

26%
74%

75%

E-Commerce services with abandoned

cart notification
Yes
No

E-Commerce services offering customers

promotional codes
Yes
No

30%

26%
74%

70%

E-Commerce Results

Overall E-commerce scores

Brand Score out of 12

Jimmy Choo (F)
9
Ralph Lauren (F)
9
Saint Laurent (F/C)
9
Versace (F/C)
9
Tory Burch (F)
8

12

also viewed or You may also like

function on their product pages, to enhance greater usability and increase
in time and money spent online. They
were: Jimmy Choo, Ralph Lauren, Versace, Saint Laurent and De Beers for
watches and jewellery.
At check-out, 74 per cent of e-commerce
enabled brands offered a discount/promotional code option. With the majority of
luxury brands not very akin with discounting their items it was not an expected feature. Those which did not were: Burberry,
Lanvin, Prada and De Beers.
70 per cent of enabled brands also had
an Abandoned Cart notification for the
user, i.e. a message to notify the consumer when they had tried to navigate away
from the site without purchasing items
in their bag. This is a basic e-commerce
functionality and it was not universal
across sites that did have e-commerce.

All the brand websites that offered

e-commerce sent a personalised confirmation email to the consumer after
purchase, but only 52 per cent of them
offered a shipment tracking service.

22 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

8
4
0

Fashion

Conclusion

Watches
& jewellery

Getty Images

E-Commerce services with wishlist/

favorites list function

Fragrances &
cosmetics

Upon consideration of this analysis, what

we must bear in mind throughout is that
none of the brands offered any regional
e-commerce, and that neither did those
brands which we previously saw had regional or country websites in the Middle
East. All e-commerce that we analysed
came from the brands main global websites. This is most likely the case because
the majority of items will be coming from
their central distribution houses in the
brands country of origin.
However, we can also conclude that e-commerce does not seem to be a priority for the
region. Yet, when considering what other

research has told us (Luxury Brand Perceptions and Habits 2013), that 50 per cent
of respondents in KSA and the UAE are
now buying luxury brands online, e-commerce is a real opportunity for these brands
to capitalise on. Moreover, if regional or
local distribution is an issue and reason behind this absence, there is nothing to say
brands cannot ship from their central distribution house as it seems to be no issue
for several brands who are already shipping to the Middle East. In addition, this
line of thought can also be taken when considering the problems surrounding online
payment and delivery albeit that KSA
is a separate situation altogether. Therefore, it seems that e-commerce is perhaps
a platform which brands globally remain
indifferent to, and that without local content there is not the incentive or motivation
to enhance their e-commerce channels to a
market-specific level.

E-Commerce Results
For this section the scores on global
e-commerce properties in general were
quite high, a promising sign indeed for
luxury digital growth and the regional
market of a zero base locally and a minuscule base globally. Across the section
we examined 12 e-commerce elements
that the brands should have on their
websites.
None of the 95 brands investigated had
any form of regional e-commerce.
For the fashion category there were
several leaders with the same score, they
were: Jimmy Choo, Ralph Lauren, Saint
Laurent and Versace with nine, followed
by Tory Burch, Giuseppe Zanotti and
Alfred Dunhill with a score of eight out
of a possible 12.
Within the watches and jewellery category, the only brand that qualified into
having a score was De Beers, as it was

the sole brand to offer e-commerce on

their global site, and therefore the rest
of the brands in this section scored zero.
With six points out of a possible 12, the
result for De Beers was fair when compared to those in the fashion category,
but within its product and pricing context and peerage, it was a sole example
for the watches and jewellery category.
For the fragrances and cosmetics sector, it was the leading Fashion house fragrances that scored the highest with nine
points. These were Jimmy Choo, Versace and Yves Saint Laurent who also
offered their fragrances and cosmetics
for purchase on their global websites.
Aside from these, we then saw Balenciaga and Burberry score relatively highly
with seven.
The leading category for e-commerce
was fashion, with an average score of
nine, and with only one brand qualify-

ing, watches and jewellery scored a seven, as did fragrances and cosmetics.
Recommendation
Whilst shopping in the region remains a
very social activity, with local consumers
usually shopping with groups of friends
and family, we are seeing a continuing
march by the Arab World to shop online
and as part of their daily routine. Quite
similarly to the websites, the more localised and luxurious the e-commerce experience can be the better. Brands should
also pay much more attention to local and
easy payment options, up-to-date currency
conversions for specific countries, tracking, shipping and return services, as well
as the packing of the product upon delivery. Local customer service is, again, very
important at this stage and should always
remain prevalent throughout the entire
purchase process.
TRENDS 23

MOBILE

Corbis

Introduction

24 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

In our increasingly digital world, many

brands are progressing towards enhancing their digital properties, content, and
offerings in the region, albeit at a slower
rate than we would argue is necessary.
Mobile penetration, growth and usage in
the region is leading this march, and is
putting even greater demand on luxury
brands to become more digital and mobile focused. It can safely be said that mobile will become the digital window into
the luxury world for consumers in the
Middle East in the coming years. We are
systematically seeing a steady growth in
not just the size of brand investments into
mobile channels and platforms, but also
the increasingly centralised role these
platforms are playing within a brands
overall marketing plan and media mix.
The Middle East certainly has a unique
position within the mobile space, with

the proliferation of smart mobile devices

now over 74 per cent, and over 94 per
cent of users accessing the web daily
(Source: ThinkwithGoogle.com Mobile Planet KSA and UAE). Therefore,
for the mobile section we looked at the
brands websites from a mobile perspective in terms of responsiveness and user
experience, the ability for m-commerce,
applications, and what types of devices
were able to access them.

Optimisation and Responsive Design

We saw a slight majority of global sites

were optimised for mobile viewing at 54
per cent, which showed some steps taken
towards the mobile frontier.
After this, 33 per cent of the sites were
purely desktop versions of the original
global website .
7 per cent of the brands had responsive
designs and this included brands such as:

Chanel, Fendi, Miu Miu and Tory Burch

for fashion.
However, those sites which we saw were
Flash and not HTML in the previous website section were not able to be viewed via
mobile at all. Another reason why Flash
websites should be avoided at all costs
even if there is a perceived benefit to aesthetic value. These were: Givenchy, Tom
Ford, Korloff and Guerlain. Subsequently,
it was only Chanel to offer a responsive design and the option to view the content in
Arabic, although only for its fragrance and
cosmetics lines.

M-Commerce

Although growing of a low base, e-commerce is increasing in the region and it is

hopeful that m-commerce will follow in
step. None of the brands in our research
had any form of regional m-commerce
and the only brand who offered global
TRENDS 25

Type of Mobile sites

Mobile Optimized
Desktop Version
Responsive
Broken/Flash

m-commerce was Burberry, a strong digital brand throughout this research. However, as with their e-commerce site, they
did not offer shipping to the Middle East,
even though prices were shown in Emirati dirhams and products could be added
to your cart.

Applications

With Andriod phones dominating the

regions mobile and smartphone market, we firstly looked at Android applications.
A minuscule 4 per cent of brands
researched had a native Android application, thus making the outcome
of our study in this area unpromising.
Only Dolce & Gabbana for the fashion
brands, Audemars Piguet, Jaeger LeCoultre and Van Cleef & Arpels, Mont
Blanc for watches and jewellery, and
Lancme for fragrances and cosmetics
had Android applications.
26 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

It is interesting to see within this mobile application section that the watch
and fragrance category had the largest propensity of brands feature, while
elsewhere in the research they have
fallen well behind in several major
sections and competencies. In terms of
content, none of these applications were
in Arabic.
Consequently, we then analysed iOS
products with Apples iPad and iPhone.
22 per cent of brands did have an iPad
app, and 23 per cent had an application
available for iPhone.
While there was as nascent level of
applications across all platforms, none
of the brands had any regional or localised application.
Further to this, we looked at what
devices were able to view these
applications.
While the majority of the brands did
not have an application, we saw that iOS

dominated with 28 per cent of the share,

only 5 per cent of the applications were
optimised for both iOS and Android,
and just 3 per cent for Android only.
With Androids leading the regions
smartphone and mobile market, it is interesting that these global luxury brands
have continued to stick with the iOS
platform for their applications, which
is most likely the product of choice in
their brand home country and the Western market. There is a perception in the
region that iOS attracts a more premium consumer, however pure penetration
figures for Android in the Middle East
does not support this. The propensity
for users in the region to have multiple
handsets also suggests that even regional
high-net-worth consumers are very likely to be on Android. While there may be
an association of coolness associated
with iOS, the business rationale for not
being on Android is questionable.

Conclusion

Mobile and tablet usage in the Middle

East is growing at a rapid rate. We are
seeing a proliferation of tablet devices
and the eclipse of desktop by mobile for
online content consumption. We can attribute this to the expanding and maturing mobile services from ISPs, greater accessibility to smart devices, and a young
and growing tech-savvy population in the
region. An interesting trend that we are
witnessing in the region is the growth of
m-commerce. As e-commerce platforms
hopefully continue to grow in localisation, presence and sophistication within
the region, m-commerce is surely set to
expand in step. While we can see that it is
still very much in its infancy regionally,
we foresee that m-commerce will serve
as a catalyst to create more sophisticated mobile requirements for brands across
owned digital properties.
However, little at the moment seems to

Mobile applications operating systems

7%
33%

6%

Neither
IOS
IOS and Android
Android Only

54%

3%
5%
28%

64%

Mobile results

Overall mobile scores

Brand Score out of 12

Dolce & Gabbana (F)
6
Chanel (F/C)
6
Tory Burch (F)
6
Cartier (W/J)
6
Lancme (F/C)
6

10

have been done by luxury brands to understand the Middle Easts mobile-user in
terms of brand usage and consumption of
mobile content. Yet, with Burberry leading the way in this category, in design and
enhanced user experience, it is evident
that a few principal international players are realising the importance of mobile and tablet platforms to enhance their
overall digital and integrated offering.
The leading category in this section was,
in fact, watches and jewellery with an average score of three. Fashion, as well as
fragrances and cosmetics both averagely
scored two to fall just below.

periences that are specific to the regions

consumer. Arab users will continue to
own and use more than one device, with
tablet devices set to lead this change.
Luxury brands, therefore, must take
advantage of this movement and pay increasing attention as to what devices the
Arab world are using, as well as when and
how they are using them too.
Responsive UX and design solutions will
be more pivotal than ever to ensure that
a luxury brands content and messages
reach their relevant mobile audience. A
significant movement to responsive design thinking is the next evolution of this,
and will become an absolute necessity for
luxury brands to ensure they are mobile
and tablet ready. Poor web experiences,
as we have seen for luxury brands in the
region on mobile, will be punished by
users as a larger percentage of browsing,
and eventually shopping, happens on mobile and tablet devices.

Recommendation
Over the next year or so we will see continued and escalated demand for all types
of connected content and experiences via
mobile and tablet platforms. In turn, this
will create a greater demand for highly
customised content and mobile-led ex-

8
4
0

Fashion

Watches
& jewellery

Fragrances &
cosmetics

TRENDS 27

SOCIAL MEDIA

Getty Images

Introduction

28 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

Luxury and social media channels have

never been comfortable bedfellows. But
in a rapidly evolving social landscape,
brands should be targeting their audience
to increase earned and shared loyalty,
without losing their brand integrity to
massification. With word-of-mouth being said to be the most popular source of
trustworthy information by the regions
local consumers (Nielson 2013), social
media must play an integral and inevitable role in this engagement cycle.
In recent years, the concept and ethos of
luxury has dramatically changed, and we
have witnessed a shift in media and brand
strategy to embrace the diversification of
media touch points. As a more advanced
emerging market, the Middle East has
been at the forefront of these changes,
with local consumers having buying power, the time and the hunger for copious

product consumption. In terms of media,

this approach to consumption has also filtered down into the regions digital space,
indeed because of its inherent accessibility and sociability a very important part
of the regions culture. With time spent
online among the highest in the world,
brands are looking to the social digital
sphere to target this audience. However,
its still very much in its early stages.

Facebook

Predominantly all of the brands we

looked at had official global Facebook
pages at 97 per cent. Those which did
not were Celine for the fashion category and Clive Christian for fragrances
and cosmetics.
We then looked at all the brands with
global Facebook pages that had either
localised posts. Across all categories the
brands scored a zero.

Out of our 95 brands only 4 per cent

had regionally specific Facebook pages,
which all came from the fragrance and
cosmetics category. These were: Clarins, Clinique, Este Lauder, Guerlain and
Lancme, who were also the only brands
that had country specific websites, and
posted in English and Arabic.
None of the brands examined had a
country specific Facebook page for the
region.
The fan-base size of Facebook pages
varied greatly:
4 per cent of them had over 10 million
fans
5 per cent had between 5 and 10 million
18 per cent had between 1 and 5 million
25 per cent had between 250,000 and
one million fans
Burberry with over 15 million fans led
the way, followed by Louis Vuitton with
over 14 million, Dior with over 12 milTRENDS 29

luxury brands with regional

facebook pages
Yes
No

25%

global facebook pages

with over 10 million fans

4%

4%

Yes
No
96%
75%

luxury brands with global

twitter handles
Yes
No

96%

luxury brands with regional

twitter handles
Yes
No

24%
30%

26%

70%
76%

Results

Getty Images

Brand
Clarins (F/C)
Burberry (F)
Lancme (F/C)
Louis Vuitton (F)
La Prairie (F/C)

lion, Gucci with more than 11 million

and Chanel with over 9 million, were the
fashion brands with the highest number
of fans.
Tiffany & Co. was the leader for watches and jewellery with more than 4 million, followed by Cartier and Rolex, both
with just over one million Facebook fans.
Clinique had the highest amount of fans
with over 6 million for fragrances and
cosmetics, followed by Lancme with
more than 5 million and Clarins with
more than 1 million.
The rest of the brands fell much lower
on the scale with less than 50 thousand
fans in most cases. It is interesting to see
here, that the brands which had Arabic
posts and regional Facebook pages also
had the largest amount of fans in their
category.
Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Longines, Cla30 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

rins, Este Lauder, Lancme and Tom

Ford were the only brands which we saw
had used paid media on Facebook.
Lancme, Clarins and Clinque were
also the only brands to have had run
Facebook competitions for the fragrance
and cosmetics category.
Piaget and Longines were the only two
brands for watches and jewellery to have
had Facebook competitions.
Once again within the fashion category it was Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Tom
Ford to have used Facebook applications
on their pages.
Facebook applications were used by
Harry Winston, Longines and Piaget for
Watches and Jewellery.
Clarins, Clinique, Este Lauder and
Lancme for fragrances and cosmetics
also used Facebook applications.
Another issue, which arises from the

lack of local Facebook presence, is brand

rankings when it comes to search within
the site. Facebook search is now carefully
monitored by geo-locators, so if a brand
does not have a local page it will not appear in a Facebook search, only the top
20 per cent of similar local pages will
appear. Therefore, this also means that
any suggested posts or ads, even from a
brands global page, will not appear in
the search because they do not have a local presence in the region. Conclusively,
without a local page, brands are simply
not reaching all of their possible consumers outside of their central hub market.
Even so, the whole ethos of social media is sharing sharing content, sharing
ideas, sharing images and thoughts with
friends and family so, if all the content
is in English or there is little or no content
relating to the Middle Easts consumers

daily lives, the potential benefit of engaging a local audience is minimised.

Twitter

Of all the brands we examined, 76 per

cent had current global twitter accounts
Only a very small proportion at 3 per
cent had regional Twitter handles, which
were: Burberry and Clarins.
Burberry, Chanel and Dior, with over 2
million, had the largest amount of followers, trailed by Dolce & Gabanna, Marc
Jacobs, Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent
with just over 1 million.
Burberry was, again, the only brand to
have owned hashtags.
Consequently, out of the aforementioned
brands with regional handles, we looked
at the amount of Arabic posts on their
feed over a six-month period.
We saw that Chanel had the highest

3%

97%

Overall social media scores

Score out of 40
30
22
19
10
10

amount of Arabic posts across all of the

brands that were part of our research,
with over 17,000. Chanel was then followed by Rolex, Dior, Giuseppe Zanotti,
Burberry and Prada.
Within the Fashion category the demographic split of followers was fairly even
with 52 per cent being female and 48 per
cent being male.
The split was reversed for watches
and jewellery, with males comprising
53 per cent of the share and females at
47 per cent.
For beauty and fragrances the split
was unsurprisingly female dominated
at 65 per cent We then examined what
language followers were mentioning the
brands in, by looking at the most recent
200 mentions.
Out of that number, 74 per cent were not
in English.

20
15
10
5
0
Fashion

Watches
& jewellery

Fragrances &
cosmetics

When we filtered this down and looked

at the Arabic mentions, of that non-English percentage, a large 58 per cent were
in Arabic.
With this insight, we then decided to look
at the previous 300 mentions before the
last 200.
When combined, a staggering 94 per
cent were not in English, and 22 per cent
were in Arabic.
Consequently, looking back at the last
1,000 twitter mentions, 15 per cent were
in English and of the remaining 85 per
cent which were not in English, 14 per
cent of those were in Arabic.
From the last 10,000 mentions altogether, 5 per cent were in Arabic.
Finally, in all historic tweets mentioning researched brands on Twitter,
Arabic comprised 12.5 per cent of the
overall share.
TRENDS 31

the other major social media channels in

terms of users, we saw that no brands that
we looked at had any regional presence
on Google+.

arabianEye.com

Conclusion

Instagram and Pinterest

Although Instagram is very much an upand-coming platform for luxury brands,

no brands that were part of our research
had any regional account specific to the
Middle East. This was also true for Pinterest across the board. Yet, with Instagram generating 15 times the level of
luxury brand engagement as Facebook
in the region, despite having only onetenth Facebooks reach, it is a platform of
increasing importance.
Interestingly for the regional market, we
have witnessed Instagram beginning to
take a share away from traditional media
within a brands media spend. We have
also seen that many local consumers like
to stay updated on luxury brands via Instagram, with the majority of them following the brands themselves, as well as the
fashion bloggers, leaders, icons and designers that surround them. Yet, with no
32 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

Instagram regional presence and the proliferation of Arabic on mobile and search,
luxury brands are missing out on a significant engagement opportunity throughout the Middle East. Pinterest however,
while it is a suitable platform to generate
awareness, does not have the ability to engage and earn followers that Instagram,
Facebook or Twitter has, nor does it have
the same ability to control how content is
shared, and in general its proliferation as
a channel is not as high as these other social platforms.

YouTube and Google+

Online video has become an increasingly central component to the digital media
scene over the past decade, with almost
all luxury brands having global YouTube
channels. With television commercial
clutter increasing, luxury brands are now
using online video to continue the story

online. Moreover, online video has the

ability to truly tell the story of a brand
more than print or written content. Over
the last few years we have also witnessed
the rising popularity of live streaming
fashion shows, as well as recording the
shows to later display on their YouTube
channels for all to view.
With nearly all the brands researched
having global YouTube channels, those
who had Arabic content on these were
Jaeger Le Coultre and Piaget. Similar
to our findings on Facebook the only
brands that had regionally specific YouTube Channels were Clarins, Clinique
and Lancme, and were the only brands,
when compared to Jaeger Le Coultre and
Piaget, to update their channel on a weekly basis. There was no localised content
on any global or regional YouTube channel that was analysed.
With Google + still very much behind

No doubt, consumers today want to be engaged. With the younger generation having
more buying influence and fearlessness to
try new forms of communication, brands
must not forgo social channels. The key
focus, therefore, must be to build brand
desire for both current and new consumers, without becoming too accessible to the
mainstream. By sticking to strict content
and strategy rules, the online consumer
experience and brand perception can be
exactly as it is in-store or at VIP events
exclusive and personal. In doing so, the
brand also becomes more engaged with
the consumer and thus more meaningful.
So, where a media strategy was once linear (brand-media-consumer) in the digital
world and especially with social media, it
can become circular (brand discovery-engagement-immersion-validation) a total
360-degree approach, and still remain as
elusively powerful.
In another proprietary Havas research
study we saw that over 90 per cent of
luxury regional consumers used a variety of social media sites each day (Luxury Perceptions and Habits in KSA and
the UAE 2013), and with the Middle East
having over 90 million unique internet
users (Source: InternetWebStats.com),
it seems unjustifiable that brands are not
there to engage with them. From the luxury consumers in our Luxury Perceptions
research, 58 per cent of respondents followed luxury brands to keep up with
trends, fashion and would like to see more
local content on social sites. We could also
infer that this percentage would be higher
if more brands were present on social media to be followed at a local level.
Results
Across all of the social media platforms
we looked at a very large number of digital competencies in this field. We saw

Clarins, Burberry and Lancme steaming

ahead of the pack, particularly for localisation. Comparatively, the other brands
across all categories scored very low
within this platform.
For Facebook, Lancme, Clinique and
Guerlain were the firm leaders for fragrances and cosmetics in terms of regionalisation, scoring three out the possible
four localised elements. However, in terms
of overall Facebook usage the Fashion
brands were ahead with Louis Vuitton getting a score of six out of 10, followed by
Tom Ford with a score of five and Chanel
with four. All other brands scores were
extremely low; particularly for the fashion-fragrance brands, as they all only
had one Facebook page to cover all their
various lines and categories. Watches and
fragrances also scored very poorly, with
only Piaget gaining a noticeable six points.
Across the other social channels, aside
from YouTube, all brands scored a zero for
regional social media competencies. Jaeger Le Coultre, Piaget, Clarins, Clinique
and Lancme all scored four points out of
a possible 10 for YouTube.

Overall, the results for the social media

section were quite mixed; particularly
due to the fact the major fashion houses
had only one page or account to cover all
of their category lines. By looking at the
content on the pages which was not a
part of this report we saw that the majority was always about entry-level products from the Fragrances and Cosmetics
category.

Recommendation

Being social and socialising is an integral

part of the regions culture and with mobile and internet platforms taking this into
the digital space, social media must play a
pivotal role with a brands digital properties and media mix. Content is at the heart
of social sharing, whether it is written, a
video or an image, and therefore it must
be contextually relevant to the regions
consumer. As we see Arabic becoming
more digitally spoken language, brands
must continue to infiltrate this knowledge
into all their social channels, from owned
hashtags, to applications, region-specific
pages and localised content.
TRENDS 33

SEARCH AND EMAIL

Introduction

Luxury brands must approach their digital

presence as an integrated offering. Therefore, while websites, mobile, ecommerce
and social media dominate as digital touchpoints, we need to ensure that inbound
channels to the brands properties are also
developed and catered to a local audience.
Search and email marketing boost and
drive traffic to a brands digital platforms,
content, and overall business in an extremely competitive market. Search is the first
battlefield for a brand in digital, and can
deliver the healthiest ROI through organic
and paid engagement in both the very short
term and long term. With almost 80 per
cent of the local population using search to
find information and content daily on both
their mobiles and PCs (Source: ThinkWithGoogle.com: Mobile Planet), search plays
an integral role in how consumers find, discover, and engage with a brand.
34 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

Paid Search

Search is often overlooked within the

context of digital competency, giving
way to mobile and social media being
more visible platforms. Yet, with competition higher than ever in the digital
world, it is something extremely necessary, especially for those brands with a
regional presence, or those trying to establish one. With more than 20 million
Google Searches in Arabic each day
(Source: ThinkWithGoogle.com), Arabic content and search optimisation is an
increasingly important activity across a
brands digital properties.
A substantial 23 per cent of brands that
we looked at were undertaking SEM in
the region. These were Burberry, Chanel,
Coach, Dior, Gucci, Oscar de la Renta
and Ralph Lauren for fashion; Audemars
Piguet, Cartier, Chanel Jewellery, Dior,
Jaeger LeCoultre, Omega, Patek Philippe,

Piaget and Tiffany & Co. for watches and

jewellery; and Burberry, Cartier, Chanel
Beauty, Dior, Este Lauder and Lancme
for fragrances and cosmetics.
It is important to point out that Burberry, Chanel and Dior, who appeared in
each of our three categories, were actively targeting each of those categories
via SEM.

Email

After looking at the newsletter availability and functionality on the brands

websites, we then probed deeper into the
newsletters and other email communication platforms (such as email direct
marketing), to discover how brands were
communicating with their audiences.
The greatest percentage of brands,
were not sending out any newsletters
at all.
The most active brands were commuTRENDS 35

Brands undermarketing search engine

marketing (SEM)
SEM
No

Sent newsletters frequency

5+ a month

23%

3-5 a month

10%

1-2 a month

11%

Less than 1 a month

77%

8%

7%
68%

0 newsletter sent

international newsletters VS Promotional Newsletters

64%

Informational and promotional newsletter

SEARCH Results

nicating one to two times per month

via email.
For the brands that were sending newsletters, we investigated the features and
the content.
Almost 80 per cent of the newsletters
had a call to action defined by calls to
visit the website, or click though for further content and information.
With the calls to action mostly being a
link to a brands website, of that number
96 per cent took users to a relevant content page.
10 per cent of newsletters from brands
contained Arabic language content.
28 per cent had social media links to
their global social media channels:
We then compared the newsletters con36 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

4
2
0

tent as to whether it was information or

promotion based.
Over 60 per cent of newsletters featured both information and a promotion
with an even split between the two.

Conclusion

Upon our analysis in this sections, a remarkably low number of luxury brands
were engaged in paid search activities
within the Middle East.
Given this lack of competition, the development of even a small SEM plan
will allow for ownership of generic
keywords on search across the category.
This shortfall is most likely a symptom
of the lack of regionally relevant website and social properties in the Middle

East, in terms of language and content;

and the complete lack of any regional
website presence or e-commerce facility of many brands.
In terms of email marketing, luxury
brands approach to content was also
poor. Although, some brands seem to be
leading the way with Arabic language
content and relevant calls to action,
email marketing was generally simple in
its approach.
With poor content, users will
look elsewhere for engaging information and visuals which will ultimately
lead to brand-consumer disassociation
and apathy, something that we are sure
that luxury brands do not want to
happen.

Fashion

Watches
& jewellery

18%

Promotional newsletter

19%

EMAIL

Score out of 6
6
6
6
6
6

Corbis

Brand
Jimmy Choo (F)
Gucci (F)
Miu Miu (F)
Dolce & Gabbana (F)
Chanel (F/C)

Overall SEARCH scores

Informational newsletter

Fragrances &
cosmetics

Results
Across Search we had six possible elements that brands could score in. Overall, the results were quite high, with the
majority of all brands covered scoring
five points.
Therefore it was the major fashion houses with the highest average score in this
section with four, and watches jewellery
and fragrances and cosmetics both with
two. If the content of these e-newsletters
were taken into account, we would have
seen that much of the content covers all
of their various lines, particularly for
fragrances and beauty.
Recommendation
Search activity must be done by any

Brand
Louis Vuitton (F)
Ralph Lauren (F)
Dolce & Gabanna (F)
Burberry (F)
Gucci (F)

Overall EMAIL scores

Score out of 15
12
10
9
8
8

brand, particularly for those which

are not using paid media. Platforms
which continue to reuse generic global content will be scored poorly by
both the search providers and the
consumer in mind. As with mobile
and social media, it is clear that with
search there is a great opportunity for
luxury brands to very quickly leapfrog their competition and achieve a
high level of short and medium-term
success in an uncluttered search
environment.
Email should also follow suit, with
relevant and targeted content to the
end luxury consumer. There should
be a good mix of promotion and information-based content, with intui-

15
10
5
0

Fashion

Watches
& jewellery

Fragrances &
cosmetics

tive calls to action, a good media mix

of video and visual imagery, as well
as keeping in line with their website and social media branding and
voice. There is a large opportunity in
email-marketing in terms of segmentation and contextual relevancy to the
Middle Eastern market. The curation
and creation of luxury and lifestyle
content within the email newsletter
approach is also missing, with most
content being around products and
brand communication. As with web,
mobile, paid search, and social media, our data shows a relatively low
competency level for luxury brands
in the region, with the exception of a
few leaders.
TRENDS 37

WATCHES & JEWELLERY

Brand Score
Audemars Piguet
24
Baume et Mercier
21
Blancpain 17
Bulgari 19
Cartier 26
Chanel Jewelery
24
Chaumet 21
Chopard 18
Corum 14

THE RESULTS
The final part of our LuxHub research
was to provide an overall score, taking
into account the individual scores in each
core section. Each brand was given one
point for each of the base digital competencies that are considered as the universal elements that all luxury brands digital properties should include.
Throughout this scoring system our focus remained on those elements which
most greatly affected a brands regional
and local presence and content, and within that, the digital sophistications which
were used.
As we have seen during this research,
regional presence and content is almost

non-existent for many brands. Therefore,

when we consider that the brands were
scored out of a total 117 points, the stark
reality of this lack of local and regional
content affected the overall scores considerably. Moreover, it is also clear as
to the small importance given to digital
properties and platforms by these brands
and global category leaders, as well as
how they are globally slipping behind
in the sophistication of these properties
when ultimately they should be at the
forefront of innovative design, innovation
and technology.
It is interesting to see from the above that
it is the fashion brands dominating the

top scores. However, as we know, because

they have lines across all the categories
they are able to spread themselves as
a brand across all platforms simultaneously. Although the subject of the
content that we researched was not a governing factor in this research, it may well
show that the majority will be mostly
covering their fragrance and cosmetics
lines, which we generally comprehend
to be more suitable for digital because
of their mass nature and entry-level
luxury prices. This point is particularly interesting and for the next LuxHub
Luxury Digital Outlook is something that
we will look into further.

Dior 30
Dolce & Gabanna
35
Elie Saab
32
Ermenegildo Zegna
21
Fendi 25
Givenchy 21
Gucci 33
Guiseppe Zannoti
21
Hermes 21
Hugo Boss
23
Jimmy Choo
29
Lanvin 35
Louis Vuitton
34

Marc Jacobs
32
Miu Miu
26
Nina Ricci
17
Oscar De La Renta
21
Prada 22
Ralph Lauren
38
Roberto Cavalli
26
Tods 22
Tom Ford
16
Tory Burch
36
Valentino 27
Versace 27
YSL 33

38 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

Neil Lane
20
Omega 21
Patek Philippe
12
Piaget 40
Raymond Weil
21
Rolex 30
Tiffany & Co.
20
Van Cleef & Arpels
22
Zenith Watches
8

Creed 18
Dior 30
Dolce & Gabanna
24
Este Lauder
21
Fendi 25
Givenchy 21
Guerlain 19
Hermes 21
Jimmy Choo
27
Cavalli Fragrances
16
La Prairie
20

Lancme 25
Marc Jacobs
23
MontBlanc 24
Nina Ricci
18
Paco Rabanne
19
Prada 24
Tom Ford
14
Valentino 23
Van Cleef & Aprels
23
Versace 27
YSL 32

Fragrances & Cosmetics

Brand Score
Armani 40
Balenciaga 30
Boss 20
Bottega Veneta
24
Burberry 40
Cartier 13
Chanel 26
Chloe 27
Clarins 41
Clinique 22
Clive Christian
10

OVERALL SCORES

Overall SCORES

Corbis

FASHION Score
Alexander McQueen
31
Alfred Dunhill
26
Armani 36
Balenciaga 29
Burberry 48
Calvin Klein
21
Carolina Herrera
19
Celine 13
Chanel 33
Chloe 26
Christian Louboutin
18
Coach 25

Damiani 20
De Beers
23
Dior 20
Graff 16
Harry Winston
26
Hublot 18
Jaeger-LeCoultre 26
Korloff 21
Longines 19

110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Fashion

Watches
& jewellery

Fragrances &
cosmetics
TRENDS 39

Getty Images

Top Five Scoring Brands Total Digital Competency (117)

Burberry (F)
48
Clarins (F/C)
41
Piaget (W/J)
40
Armani (F)
40
Ralph Lauren (F)
38

CONCLUSION
Luxury and the Digital Space

Luxury brands can no longer ignore the

power of the digital sphere and must
certainly harness its reach and integral
importance to secure and enhance their
brands future. As we have seen, many
brands are leading the pack and trying
new digital platforms and advancements
to improve their properties, and yet for
the majority it still remains a daunting
prospect. Nevertheless, while luxury
brands may have fears about the digital
world, it has many opportunities. It allows for instant and relevant engagement
40 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

that is audible, visual and interactive,

while remaining aspirational. It also offers brands platforms on which they can
create original content that is specific and
targeted for a market, a space in which
to develop e/m-commerce and where
everything can be easily and affordably
changed per product range, season and
region. For the ever-changing habits and
developing desires of the luxury consumer, particularly here in the region, this
can no doubt be the most effective way to
generate and sustain relevant connection.
This is, of course, not to say that luxury

brands should forget traditional advertising mediums and other forms of engagement. An integrated, non-linear strategic
approach is consistently the best way for
deeper brand enrichment, and to keep up
with their consumers rapidly developing
buying, research and media behaviours
which are spanning all platforms simultaneously.
Across and throughout everything that
luxury brands do and produce in the
digital space, it is imperative for them to
remember their end consumer and their
context, to ensure that that it is relevant

to the consumer and also that their brand

message remains consistent and aspirational. It is important to remember that
it is always the brand that is the luxury,
and not always the inherent product itself. All too often enough for many luxury brands, doing something worthwhile
on digital means building an immersive
experience through augmented reality,
or creating engagement through a social-media voting activity. Such examples
as these are not appropriate for a desired
luxury consumer or for a luxury brand to
hold on to its premium positioning. When

digitally communicating luxury propositions, brands should only communicate

relevant value to their consumers that deliver strong brand values and dont go too
far as to become diluted or damaging.
Indeed this effort is slowed by brands
within the luxury category globally, who
continue to generate generic content,
deploy Flash websites, which also lack
e-commerce, fail to provide segmented
and targeted email programmes, and in
many cases are without any social platform. What remains to be true is that
many luxury brands continue to see the

Middle East as an emerging market, and

therefore do not see it as an important
place to consolidate their efforts.

Content is King

This is exasperated by a desire for central

governance and control of their brands
communication and content, in fear of
deviation from carefully planned brand
strategy and tone of voice. However, as
brands become instinctively more global and as consumers tastes continue to
evolve, demand for relevant content will
undoubtedly grow and this control will
TRENDS 41

APPENDIX
ABOUT LUXHUB

LuxHub began in 2012 and has since set

out to become the regional voice for luxury intelligence and media insight. From
the latest in luxury and media news to
insightful interviews and hot topics and
trends, our aim is to provide the region
with locally produced, original content
that specially has the Middle Eastern
luxury industry as its focus.
At Havas we pride ourselves on being
at the forefront of trends, developments
and communications that affect and in-

fluence the luxury industry as a whole

and its consumers. So, for us, LuxHub
is a digital representation of our passion
to achieve this and a space on which we
can express and share our expertise, our
thoughts and our creativity for both our
clients and the wider luxury and media
communities.
Updated on a weekly basis and with a
monthly newsletter from the Editor, we
hope that LuxHub can generate change
and ignite passion for local content
and thought leadership in the region,

and will ultimately deepen digital,

luxury content engagement with the
regions users which is at the heart
of this first and annual Luxury Digital
Outlook.
The Luxhub Insights 2015 Luxury
Digital Outlook will start in Q4 of
this year. It will not only begin to
compare 2014 results against this
report, but also look further into the
content itself what is says, how it is
written and how far it goes into engaging the regions local consumer.

services. Our commitment to a digitally

integrated operating model is represented by Havas Digital Middle East, which
operates across both media and creative,
and reflects Havas continued commitment to digital at the core model. As a
result of our simple corporate structure,

we ensure our clients needs are met by

creating a unified culture of teams that
can focus on delivering client value rather than reporting into large brand hierarchies. By placing technology and data at
the heart of what we do, we are ready for
being change agents for our clients.

ABOUT HAVAS MEDIA MIDDLE EAST

no doubt have to loosen. In terms of local content, advertising and product purchasing many brands still do not take into
account the cultural differences and traditions compared to the West. Moreover,
they continue to believe that because
English is spoken so widely, they do not
need to have Arabic content. But consumers are demanding it, and we can see that
through more time spent online, product
research, social media and the rise of
e-commerce that the priority and desire
is here. From another proprietary Havas
study, (Luxury Brand Perceptions and
Habits 2013) we discovered that a resolute
84 per cent of respondents would prefer
for global brands to use local media content to carry their global brand message
and image to the region. Therefore, we
must have more Arabic content, media
and sources for luxury brands to fully engage the luxury consumer and, advance
the luxury market in the Middle East to
the next level.
The Arab world is an increasingly hungry
consumer of content, however, as we have
42 I Luxhub Insights: 2014 Luxury Digital Outlook

seen, luxury brands do not seem to be

producing much that is regionally specific, and therefore leaving globally generic
content continuing to consume the digital
space. From websites where we saw poor
regional presence and minimal localised
content, to many brands failing to have
even the most basic of website functionalities, it is a stark reality to face. E-commerce will undoubtedly increase, but is,
however, hindered in the region by several payment and delivery issues. Social
media, again, will play a more important
role for luxury clients, but until the brands
begin to engage in Arabic, progress will
surely be slow. The same issue arose
across all the sections that were analysed,
yet it was a few leading brands in mobile
that really showed the most promise for
the local consumer and regional content. Perhaps mobile and tablet platforms
will show the fastest increase in regional content, commerce and technological
advancement for luxury brands, maybe
with brands altogether passing over webbased content and commerce. Although

this is purely conjecture, what we must

understand throughout this paper is that
luxury brands are on a continuous journey towards enhancing their digital properties, albeit slowly in the region, and at
the heart of this is the realisation that the
production of local content and relevant
value is pivotal.
Content is key to driving creative and
meaningful advertising, and should always be seen by luxury brands within
a context specifically that of the Arab
world. To harness and control this, brands
must contextualise their global content
and media, to make it relevant and engaging for the local regional consumer,
to maintain a brands, a consumers and
the medias environment identities in this
ever-growing mass world. Specifically
for the Middle East, brands need to communicate with modernity and cultural
thoughtfulness, to develop original content and contextually driven advertising
that isnt globally generic to ultimately
ensure the growth of the luxury industry
and the growth of the region altogether.

Havas Media Middle East is living a great

momentum. Our mission is to Change
Faster for our clients and our industry,
and over the past several years many
changes have happened, both in terms
of our company structure, our ideologies and methods, but also in the clients
we handle. We are a hub of international
talent which plays a pivotal role not only
within the region but also with our extensive Havas Media Group global network
the worlds fastest-growing media group,
operating in over 126 markets around the
world.
As a company, our unique, simple and
agile structure is created to promote
integration, digital expertise and fluency at the core of all our operations and

ACCREDITATIONS

Strategy and Development

Piero Poli, General Manager
Havas Digital Middle East
Houda Tohme, Deputy General Manager
Havas Media UAE
Darius LaBelle, Client Services Director
Havas Digital UAE

Content and Written Analysis

Amelia Priday, Marketing Executive
Havas Media Middle East
Creative and Production
Ciaran Bonass, Creative Director
Havas Digital UAE
Aldar Kurdi, Interactive Senior Art Director
Havas Digital UAE
TRENDS 43

LUXHUB

INSIGHTS

2014
LUXURY
DIGITAL
OUTLOOK