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SIHH 2010: The Haute Horlogerie under the WorldWatchReport’s magnifying glass

The Premiere WorldWatchReport 2010 is launched today exclusively for the opening day of the SIHH in Geneva.

Among the main trends revealed by the 2010 report:

Despite a gloomy economical context, demand expressed for Haute Horlogerie brands registers a 14% increase in 2009.Alexa Traffic Rank for htt
Facebook becomes the biggest online community for watch fans, with more than 300'000 declared aficionados. Hublot is the most popular brand there with 56’000 fans.
Emerging markets from the BRIC already account for 12% of global demand for luxury watches on the Internet.

The 6th edition now includes:

BRIC markets Brazil, Russia, India and China
Additional contributions from opinion leaders of the industry
Social Media impact, measured through historical data

The market study is carried out by IC-Agency and published in partnership with Europa Star "the most influential watch magazine", with the precious support of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. It will be officially released during BaselWorld 2010.

Read the press release "SIHH 2010: The Haute Horlogerie under the WorldWatchReport’s magnifying glass".

More information on www.worldwatchreport.com

The Spanish daily paper "El Mundo" asks IC-Agency about Luxury Market Trends

Recently contacted by El Mundo’s editorial team, IC-Agency shared the latest trends in Spanish online demand for luxury watches.

Read the article "El Reloj Marca la Navidad" appeared in Crónica, the luxury section from the famous Spanish daily paper.

Brand protection on Google soon to become a luxury?

With Google's AdWords advertising system currently in place, luxury brands are losing all control of the use of their name on the search engine.

For the past 7 years, a legal battle has been unfolding on the European scene of which the result could send shockwaves throughout the online advertising domain. The protagonists? LVMH and Google.

The american giant, an inevitable point of contact between brands and their clients, holds on average 90% of the online search market in the Europeen Union. This is particularly true for the 5 top export markets for the Swiss watchmaking industry in Europe - France, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom and Spain.

What has Google done to become the target of the "number one" in luxury? In middle of these tensions is the advertising system Google AdWords, which allows the purchasing of keywords that make ads appear for specific queries.

Continue reading this article on Worldtempus, written by IC-Agency in collaboration with Louis Nardin.

Hublot Number 1 on Facebook

The presence of Hublot on Facebook has caught IC-Agency’s attention. With more than 50,000 fans, the "Hublot Genève" page has moved to the top, surpassing Cartier and Tag Heuer, who were until now top leaders on the social network for more than a year.

While 440% represents the average increase of new fans for all watch brands, Hublot’s performance represents an increase of 2500%.

The opportunity to reach 400 millions potential contacts on the largest community website has not escaped Jean-Claude Biver’s attention, CEO of the brand, contacted by IC-Agency, who commented on the brand’s results:

"I am pleased to learn that these results demonstrate that we are a young, high-end brand. It may be the consequence of our general activities on the Net. I think we should use all tools available online without neglecting any of them.

See all the results and analysis in the article ""Facebook and watch brands, one year later" which appeared in Europa Star magazine :

Luxury, E-Mailing and Targeted Communication

Sending informative e-mails to a select, targeted group allows brands to refine their customer relations. Hublot and Raymond Weil have opted in to this strategy.

E-mailing is a communication technique based on sending promotional or informative e-mails from a brand to predetermined members of a network. Occasionally confounded as a mass marketing tool such as spam (unwanted junk mail), this technique actually has many advantages. A few years ago, luxury watch brands swore they would never communicate in this manner. Today, their point of view has changed and some have begun to use this communication technique to take advantage of opportunities like building customer loyalty and the potential sales increase it represents.

Read the following article on Worldtempus, written by IC-Agency in collaboration with Louis Nardin

Cosmetics: Social Media Strategies

The social media strategies of cosmetics brands are at the forefront in the latest edition of BW Confidential, the B2B magazine of the beauty and wellness industry.

It includes points of views from professionals such as Julie Thompson, Interactive marketing director, Lancôme, Steven Plous, Direct Message Lab CEO, Marisa Thalberg, VP Global Online Marketing, Estée Lauder Companies, and Reynald Sauvet, Strategic Planning Director, Digitas.

Note the contribution of David Sadigh of IC Agency, interviewed for the occasion by Oonagh Phillips, editor in chief of the magazine.

You can read the article here.

Book Release: "La communication horlogère - Stratégies et nouvelles technologies"

Available at last! We strongly recommend reading the book "La communication horlogère - Stratégies et nouvelles technologies" which brings together the contributions made during the 12th Journée Internationale du Marketing Horloger, organized last year in La-Chaux-de-Fonds by the Association de Journées de Marketing.

David Sadigh of IC-Agency had the honor of having his presentation "Comment accroître l'efficacité de sa stratégie marketing grâce à Internet?", initially for an audience of 200 professionals in the watch industry, published for a much larger audience. /p>

APlease note the remarkable work done by the book editors in transcribing the analysis and debates, as well as the various research efforts needed for the occasion.
You can purchase the book here.

The 13th edition of this event was held on November 26th, discussing "L'utilisateur Horloger dans un Monde en Mutation ". Rich and exciting discussions were had by the participants in the presence of specialists like Antonio Calce, CEO Corum, Emmanuel Vuille, General Manager Greubel Forsey, Nathalie Veysset, Director De Witt, Françoise Bezzola, Marketing and Communication director TAG Heuer and Gregory Pons from Business Watches & Jewelry.

IC-Agency Participates in the HowToSpendIt.com Launch

The renowned How To Spend It magazine has launched its innovative new website: Howtospendit.com

The Financial Times had chosen Switzerland, more precisely the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel in Lausanne, to organize the launch last October 8th.

IC-Agency made a presentation on "The Essentials of Luxury Digital Marketing”, addressing relevant issues such as the importance of decoding the online environment of its target audience or social media integration.

This was followed by a presentation by DynamicLogic (WPP) and by Razorfish / Avenue A (Publicis) which developed the new Howtospendit.com platform.

Discover the presentation "The Essentials of Luxury Digital Marketing" by Yves-Alain Schwaar, Head of Consulting & Operations, IC-Agency

What are the most important points that need to be addressed before doing online marketing?
Do Luxury shoppers search for your brand online?
How can E-advertising campaigns be effective for Luxury Brands?
How to balance social media and the need for exclusive communication?

In addition to the slides from the presentation available below, please find all videos from this exclusive event on http://www.youtube.com/FTStrategicSales.

The Essentials of Luxury Digital Marketing

View more presentations from IC-Agency, Luxury Digital Marketing.

Our Client, Tag Heuer, Honoured For Its Internet Strategy

Our client Tag Heuer has been honoured for its Internet strategy in a recent study conducted by New York University.

This distinction highlights the numerous efforts undertaken by the luxury watch brand in order to position themselves effectively online.

Among the strengths indentified by the author of the study, search engine optimization, which is managed internationally by IC-Agency, was a crucial factor. In fact, the strategy not only includes Google, Yahoo and Bing but also search engines such as Baidu and Yandex, which are leaders in China and Russia, respectively.

The development of rich multimedia content and the proactivity of the brand on social networks have also contributed to Tag Heuer’s ascension into the top ranks.

Download the case study here.

Read the press release (Reuters).

Haute horlogerie – A Close Look at Ten Brands on the Internet

Europa Star, world-renowned luxury watch publication, published in its August-September 2009 edition IC-Agency's latest article entitled « Haute horlogerie – a close look at ten brands on the Internet ».

Now online, the article examines the online demand of 10 of the most prestigious Swiss brands based on the data collected from the WorldWatchReport 2009 :

Watch consumers have become more and more skilled at researching information about watches, thanks notably to the Internet. The ability to capture and analyze the millions of pieces of information that pass through search engines allows us to identify—nearly in real time—what consumers are looking for. IC-Agency, publisher of the WorldWatchReport 2009, has conducted an exclusive market study deciphering the Internet searches for luxury timekeepers.

For the fifth edition of the WorldWatchReport, more than 300 million online searches involving 25 luxury watch brands in the seven key export markets were analyzed. Among them were ten of the most prestigious brands: Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Breguet, Franck Muller, Girard-Perregaux, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and Zenith.

To better understand searches on the Internet, we are offering - exclusively for the readers of Europa Star - a look at the most notable trends from this study as they relate to brands in the haute horlogerie sector…

Continue reading this article on Europa Star.