Mediatizing Luxury
The problem with marketing luxury to the masses and following Poker's example
I just heard Joe Rogan say something like, “Creativity is stopped by lying.” I wondered, is that why it is almost impossible to mediatize luxury? (Mediatize, as in, turn something into media for consumption by the masses)
The advertisements oozing gold and sparkles and Nicole Kidman straddling the Eiffel Tower are nice. But they cost millions and are not timeless. They don’t provide a satisfying story. People are left feeling empty, or worse, like they’re now missing something unless they can walk away with the watch or handbag. Same for the billboards and watch ads of David Beckham holding his shoulder. Luxury can come off as wildly inappropriate, especially when there is a recession, protests, wars, or bigger issues going on. There is a time, and a place, for luxury. Hence that cringing word, exclusivity.
But what if there didn’t have to be a time and a place? What if luxury figured out how to mediatize itself properly so that the marketing is as timeless as the pieces it represents? So that the viewer can feel like they walked away with something? Like anything, luxury needs context. How do you mediatize that context without making it boring or out of touch, and so that people need it?
You make it entertaining.
I once tried to organize a panel discussion between a watch dealer and a collector who took him to court over overpriced vintage watches. My argument was that this is what people really want to see: two injured parties getting to the truth. Unfortunately, my intentions were misunderstood, and the conclusion was: “This isn’t Jerry Springer.”
So, I had no choice but to conclude that the delusional/out-of-touch/fragile Shire-living professionals in the luxury industry want to stay that way. They might not be aware of how frivolous, foolish, and sometimes greedy, selfish, and, at best, alien they look to the average person. Without the average person, you have no hype. You need your fans, just like the King needs the masses to be a King.
Poker was a gambling habit until it was televised with a hole cam in 2002. Poker went from degenerative filth to entertainment. Now, the world is learning there is an art to poker. Lex Friedman, Joe Rogan, and other podcasters are bringing intellectuals with PHDs and Ivy League educations who are now yammering on about how they need poker to soothe their overflowing brains.
There has always been an art to poker, only now you can peek through a hole cam and see it. There is also something less taboo about watching people openly lose money than the game luxury seems to play with its clients. Poker doesn’t try to be an exclusive club; it’s about the game. Luxury doesn’t know how to show that there is more to it than paying. Not without coming off as pompous mausoleum dwellers.
But chin up, this isn’t a complete bashing. Poker, through that little hole cam, showed that there is more to it than luck, losing, and that insufferable husband who lost his son’s college education from The Sopranos.
Luxury must relinquish its chastity belt and stop blaming its prudence on preserving provenance and heritage. Are you afraid someone else can easily do your job if you’re not the master watchmaker? Or the favorite apprentice they like to diddle? Why are you being like mothers who assure their daughters their virginity will be lost if they use tampons?
There is nothing. Wrong. With. Exploiting. Luxury. Especially when luxury is exploiting the client’s purse!
This is on a slightly different tangent, but in televised poker games, there is always an expensive watch flashing amidst the hands, cards, chips, and green felt. Hell, Hublot and AP logos are always lurking around. So, if luxury is not too good for degenerative gambling—then what are we acting all precious for here?
When is luxury going to stop letting others do the heavy lifting and let itself become the entertainment? Instead of enticing audiences and then turning them away like a Persian bride?
Turn the watch industry into entertainment, and you get the people who are there searching for the “more.” When I say more, I mean the magic. The rush. The climax.
As I said, the entertainment.
In the World Series Poker final, average accountant Chris Moneymaker played and beat shark businessman Sam Farha. Chris Moneymaker went from your average nice guy to an overnight celebrity. Millions followed in his footsteps, trying to become poker players. It was the battle between the harmless-looking, benign son of Santa Claus and the sassy shark businessman, and the unexpected triumph that made that happen. Oh, and the loss of huge sums of money.
Poker caught the world’s attention. THEN people learned the art of the game.
You need to woo your audiences in before you bed them with technical jibber jabber.
Turn the watch buying and selling process into entertainment—pinpoint the suspense and the payoff. If you think the watch is the pay-off in a transaction, oh honey.
In poker the pay-off is seeing who wins the pot at the end. What makes it worth watching is the journey it takes to get there, the bluffing, the shifty eyes peering from above unnecessary sunglasses, the all-ins, the folds …
What is the payoff for watches? Think! The client gets to show it off to their friends, for example. Social media is booming with all these rich girl/boy accounts. The luxury industry needs to harness human nature, package it, and mirror it back.
Stories of watchmakers are always wonderful. Always. I loved listening to Stephen McDonnel describe how he reinvented the perpetual calendar in his soft, Irish lilt. But you know something? I can’t tell you one single detail that stands out. And then there are the poor watchmakers who are harassed to whore out their private struggles. For what? All they’re going to get it sympathy for about five minutes.
NEIN, I say! We need Entertainment, not story-telling.
There is nothing less entertaining than people who purposely talk in technical terms to flex how much more they know than everyone else. And there is nothing less precious than professionals trying to act more precious than the objects they sell.
There is truth to luxury, and there is a way to reveal it to audiences without all hell breaking loose and without causing it to lose its luster. Artists lay everything bare, and look how people flock to museums to see their work. It’s because they’re truthful and human, and there is nothing godlier than that.
Best,
Dom
“Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends.”
—Coco Chanel