Italian fashion label Gucci is Luxury Daily’s 2016 Luxury Marketer of the Year for its revamped advertising image under the creative direction of Alessandro Michele.

Gucci won over first runner’s-up Chanel and second runner’s-up Burberry. All three brands were able to adapt and connect with a new generation of consumers while not losing focus on their luxury positioning.

The Luxury Marketer of the Year award was decided based on luxury marketing efforts with impeccable strategy, tactics, creative, executive and results. All candidates selected by the Luxury Daily editorial team and from reader nominations had to have appeared in Luxury Daily coverage this year. Judging was based purely on merit.

Gucci made over

2016 marked the first full year with Mr. Michele at the head of Kering-owned Gucci. Aside shifting the brand’s apparel and accessories design, he has made his mark on the brand’s marketing, replacing an overt sex appeal with a more romantic femininity.

This included a new effort for Gucci Guilty starring Jared Leto that portrayed a subtle sexuality (Gucci’s visual representation of fragrance hopes to shatter society norms) and ensemble runway collection campaigns shot in destinations such as Berlin, Tokyo and Britain’s Chatsworth House.

Playing off motifs created by Mr. Michele, Gucci unveiled a series of artistic initiatives that deconstructed these themes. Its customizable Ace Sneaker was the subject of creative short films, while its codes became the basis for a multiplatform project that spanned a physical space in Tokyo and online mediums (Gucci makes room for reinterpreting brand codes).

Allowing consumers to put their own spin on these new icons of the brand, Gucci also launched customization programs for select products.

During 2016, Gucci opened new headquarters in Milan, centralizing a number of operations in a repurposed aeronautical factory. This Gucci Hub will serve as a location for fashion shows and acts as a physical representation of its changing aesthetic (Gucci takes nontraditional office approach for multipurpose Milan headquarters).

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ARTICLE PARU DANS LE NYT, ELIZABETH PATON, LE 05-12-2016

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Millennials, the much-studied generation whose behavior has seduced and puzzled luxury brands in equal measure, are no longer the sole focus for companies hoping to attract new customers: Generation Z, the label given to those born since 1995, is the latest target audience, thanks to their future purchasing power and the influence they hold over the spending of their parents and grandparents.

Unlike their older peers, who have watched technology gradually embed itself in their daily lives, members of Generation Z are known as “digital natives”: those who cannot remember what it is like to not have a cellphone permanently attached to their hand.

“This is an impulsive group who will turn adverts off, call BS really easily and hate being talked down to,” said Meridith Valiando Rojas, co-founder and chief executive of DigiTour Media, a Los Angeles-based group that has led the way in a booming events trend in live entertainment. “They know there is always something else out there as they have always had that information at their fingertips. That is hard for many brands to contend with.”

DigiTour Media hosts festivals where social media stars step out from behind their bedroom webcams and meet their teenage fan base. The festivals showcase people who have created mass followings on YouTube, Instagram and Music.ly, the lip-syncing app with over 100 million monthly users and that anyone over 21 is unlikely to have heard of. DigiTour Media group now puts on approximately 200 events a year, comprising both DigiFests (one- or two-day showcases) or DigiTours (groups of performers who rove the United States). The combined reach of the acts is 350 million people.

“It is all about bringing the internet to life — their internet to life,” said Ms. Valiando Rojas at The New York Times’s Global Leaders’ Collective conference, held in Washington this past week. A former music executive, she recognized in 2010 that there was no equivalent of a music festival on the market for younger teenagers. She also saw that when it came to hormone-fueled popularity, 21st-century social media stars had as much clout as the biggest boy bands.

“Generation Z are the most influential group of consumers right now. Whether or not they are buying luxury today, they will be tomorrow,” Ms. Valiando Rojas said. “So understanding where they think, where they go and how to advertise to them without rubbing them up the wrong way is crucial.”

That more and more people are looking for experience-led luxury purchases over products is another factor in why brands should be looking to build relationships with this demographic, both on and off their phones.

There is a distinction between Generation Z and millennials in how they behave within their social media communities. Millennials are keen to be unique, but members of Generation Z want to be popular and part of a group. Having grown up immersed in social media, members of Generation Z define their identity by how many “Likes’’ they get on Facebook or how many followers they have. They see their online personalities as extensions of themselves

“That is why these influencers are so important: Teenagers today trust these voices,” Ms. Valiando Rojas said, adding that she booked acts based on their popularity and what the followers of her company’s social media accounts suggested. She pointed to Baby Ariel (age 16), Jacob Sartorius (age 14) and the Dolan Twins (age 16) as some of the biggest names to watch.

ARTICLE PARU DANS LE JOURNAL LES OBSERVATEURS.CH, SUISSE, LE 05-12-2016

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Fidel Castro, héros de la révolution marxiste latino-américaine, est mort depuis maintenant une semaine et sa dépouille croule sous les éloges funèbres dispensés par une pseudo-élite intellectuelle superficielle qui s’extasie devant les faux concepts humanistes du communisme international. Toujours les mêmes bobos conformistes de la pensée unique qui dispensent des bobards à longueur de temps et trompent énormément.

Fidel Castro ne fut pas seulement un sanguinaire révolutionnaire, un dictateur féroce, un boucher pour les pauvres Cubains, un ennemi politique sans état d’âme, qui transforma, « l’île en une énorme prison entourée d’eau » selon les mots de sa propre sœur Juanita qui n’ira pas à son enterrement. Au nom d’une révolution des pauvres sensée libérer les prolétariens et apporter le bonheur à Cuba il en fit son domaine personnel pour son plus grand avantage et se maintenir au pouvoir. De révolutionnaire marxiste il devint millionnaire capitaliste tout en cultivant, pour le public et les médias complaisants, l’image idyllique du chef incorruptible et détaché des biens matériels : le pur des purs révolutionnaires qui en privé nage dans l’or pendant que son peuple meurt de faim.

Selon le magasine Forbes, Fidel Castro faisait partie des hommes « les plus riches parmi les rois, les reines et les dictateurs. » La fortune de Castro est estimée à 900 millions de dollars dus en partie aux revenus d’une minière d’or et de nombreuses entreprises d’États sous son contrôle. Certains observateurs occidentaux et cubains expatriés parlent aussi d’une banque en Angleterre et de 270 entreprises de par le monde sous son emprise. On est bien loin des quelques pesos avec lesquels il se targuait de vivre, à l’instar de la majeur partie des Cubains.

Yacht en bois rare, whisky de 12 ans d’âge, belles femmes, jacuzzi, étaient quelques unes des commodités que s’offrait le Lider maximo. Propriétaire d’une île paradisiaque proche de Cuba, Cayo Piedra, il aimait y recevoir des personnalités comme l’inhumain président de l’Allemagne de l’Est Erich Honecker qui décida de l’érection du mur de Berlin ou l’écrivain communiste Gabriel García Márquez.

« Il laissait entendre que la révolution ne lui donnait aucun répit, aucun plaisir, qu’il ignorait et méprisait le concept bourgeois de vacances. Il mentait  » affirme un des ses anciens compagnons d’armes resté à ses côtés jusqu’en 1994, le lieutenant-colonel Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, réfugié ensuite à Miami et décédé mystérieusement après ses révélations sur le dictateur cubain parues dans un livre intitulé « Double vie de Fidel Castro ».

« Il était convaincu que Cuba était sa propriété » écrit Sanchez. Outre la vie capitaliste, tant honnis en public mais si aimée en cachette, il aimait les femmes : il eut plusieurs épouses, plusieurs maîtresses et huit enfants qui tout comme lui aiment la vie luxueuse. Le colonel Sanchez raconte : « Pendant que son peuple mourrait de faim Fidel Castro a vécu avec toutes les commodités. Et cela est vrai aussi pour ses huit enfants, les diverses épouses et amantes. Le tout dans le plus grand secret ».

NOVEMBER, 30, 2016.

London: While the prospect of Brexit is weighing on much of the British economy, tourism and luxury goods businesses are cashing in on bargain-hungry visitors lured by the slide in the pound.

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London’s tourism agency says sales of goods eligible for sales-tax exemption have gone up by a third since the Brexit vote in June, which sent the pound sterling plunging against the euro and dollar. ”We calculated that over the last four months it’s been about 12% cheaper for Europeans to come and shop here,” said Chris Gottlieb, head of leisure marketing at the agency London & Partners. The pound is now at 1.17 euros compared with 1.3 euros before the shock vote to leave the European Union, while it has also fallen to US$1.25 from US$1.49. The result is that London has become the cheapest city for luxury goods shopping in the world in dollar terms, according to a study by Deloitte.

‘GOING TO SPEND MUCH MORE’

In tourist areas, the effects are evident. ”We’re going to spend much more money than we planned to,” said Radostina Nonova, a Bulgarian tourist, laughing as she lugged her bags on Carnaby Street - in the heart of London’s shopping district. ”We didn’t plan to shop too much but it’s obvious that the prices are very good for us. ”So we shop and we can afford to eat and drink outside. That was not possible years ago,” she said.

French tourist Christophe Disic said he did not come just because the pound was low but “when we changed our money we realised we had a few more pounds for fewer euros”. When speaking to US tourists, shopkeepers are quick to take out their calculators. ”We’re an American brand. Our products are designed and assembled in the States. But with the weakening of the pound it actually happens to be cheaper for the American tourists to buy an American product in London,” said Denis Sagajevs, who works in Shinola, a shop selling watches and leather accessories. ”It’s affected by the fact that they can claim VAT on their way back. We pretty much on a day-to-day basis explain that to customers from the States. It happens to be quite a strong sales driver,” he said.

50 PER CENT INCREASE IN SHOPPERS

Some shops are adapting their advertising and sales tactics to the new consumer behaviour. ”Before the vote, European tourists were couples who came to be together and maybe bought a couple of things,” said James, the manager of a luxury men’s clothes shop on Carnaby Street. ”Now, there are groups of friends who rush in. They grab everything they can carry.” James estimated that European and US shoppers coming to his store have increased by around 50%. Instead of spending on costly advertising in British newspapers as it did before, his firm is changing tactic to appeal more to overseas visitors. They have put up signs outside Underground train stations near the shop.

But there are doubts about how long the boom can last. While the good health of the British economy was confirmed by solid growth of 0.5% in the third quarter, the official forecasts for 2017 have been lowered to 1.4% from 2.2%. ”Our British customer sales are not as strong as before the vote and we don’t even know if this tourism boom is going to last,” James said. - AFP