How Hugo Boss bounced back and the role of creator relationships in boosting Index scores

*This article is part of our Advanced Membership package. To enjoy unlimited access to The Long View from Vogue Business and bi-monthly Market Insights Reports and webinars, sign up for Advanced Membership* [*here*](https://www.voguebusiness.com/membership)*.* *This is one of the six chapters comprising the Vogue Business Index: Summer 2022 edition and should be read in conjunction with the others. Please use the table of contents at the bottom of the page to navigate between the chapters of the Vogue Business Index: Summer 2022 edition.* **Key takeaways** - **High-stature collabs work.** The celebrity-stacked Hugo Boss rebrand drove a surge in interest in the brand online, with Chinese consumers much more likely than others to say celebrities are influencing what they purchase. That shows the dangers of getting on the wrong side of public opinion in the country. - **Luxury shoppers respect legacy media.** There may be a temptation to eschew traditional media channels entirely with the control that social media publicity campaigns offer, but luxury consumers in most countries are far more likely to respect newspaper and magazine articles than branded Instagram posts. - **Cultivate creator relationships.** Supreme has benefitted from its relationships with skateboarding filmmakers, while Gucci and Bottega Veneta have solidified their links with Italian music culture. NFTs and the metaverse more generally offer further opportunities for luxury’s crossover into different art forms. Brands should seek out collaborations and connections that underline their values and tap into relevant cultural networks. [#article: /articles/62b5ddfbd3a7ba78735206e2] ## **What works in China?** Canada Goose was the brand driving the most interest on Wechat and Weibo at various points this winter, but not for the reasons that the Canadian outerwear specialists would welcome. The [brand was caught up in a scandal](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/canada-goose-under-fresh-fire-china-over-no-return-policies-2021-12-02/) around its returns policy when a customer posted on social media that she was refused a refund by the brand. "If you… behave arrogantly and in a superior way, adopt discriminatory policies, be condescending and bully customers, you will for sure lose the trust of consumers and be abandoned by the market," the Chinese government-backed Chinese Consumer Association wrote in an opinion piece about the incident. The brand swiftly updated its return policy but has not dwelled much on the issue, following a similar playbook to Burberry, which generally [dodged the question of Xinjiang cotton](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-14/china-forces-better-cotton-initiative-fashion-brands-to-be-quiet-over-xinjiang) after being criticised for its membership of the Xinjiang-excluding Better Cotton Initiative. More extreme crises may require further measures: Dolce & Gabbana CEO Alfonso Dolce has admitted the brand has had to be more “discreet” in its communications campaigns since [a scandal over its advertising in 2018](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-10/dolce-gabbana-still-haunted-by-china-debacle-wants-to-stay-independent). These sorts of crises may not stop brands growing in China, but they may lead to them missing out on the sorts of big advertising partnerships that build further momentum in the region. Forty-one per cent of luxury shoppers in China say that celebrities such as actors, pop stars and sports personalities influence their purchases, compared with 24 per cent globally. Influencers are viewed as much less important, with just 22 per cent of consumers here citing them as a driver of shopping decisions. Also of note in the Wechat and Weibo data was that some of the big social media moments in China last year came from winter and ski wear collections in the runup to the Beijing Winter Olympics. Prada’s Linea Rossa Autumn/Winter 2021 ski wear campaign saw searches surge by 3000 per cent on Wechat, Hugo Boss [resumed winter sports marketing campaigns during the month of its relaunch](https://group.hugoboss.com/en/sponsorship/sports-sponsorship/winter-sports) and searches of Ralph Lauren, the manufacturer of the US team kits, saw a more than three hundredfold increase during the month of the games. [#image: /photos/62bb05ca03c3720bad00dcd2] Leaning into big events like this shows the powerful marketing opportunities that exist outside of traditional planning cycles, but consideration must be given to the additional resources that might be required to keep engaging with consumers throughout the year. ## Western luxury consumers and legacy media European luxury consumers are much more likely to say they are influenced by legacy media (newspapers and magazines) when making luxury purchases than they are by social media. That gap is particularly pronounced in the UK, where nearly three-quarters of consumers cite magazines and newspaper articles as an important information source versus 38 per cent that say the same about social networks. Disentangling these two channels is harder than ever, given that so much consumption of legacy media now takes place online and in many cases, those consumers would have been driven there because of links on social media. While a magazine article about an exciting young fashion brand may stick more in the memory, an ad on social media may have got lost in the shuffle despite being the final straw that leads a consumer to the checkout. [#image: /photos/62b9c399d3a7ba7873520764] It is nevertheless a striking demonstration of how much stature an article in a culturally important magazine or newspaper can still convey. Allowing a brand’s strategy on, for example, ESG to be tested against journalistic standards can also help give further credence to these efforts. China is the only country where social media is viewed as considerably more important than magazine or newspaper articles as an information source. The brands driving the most interest on *Vogue*’s own runway gallery pages of the AW22 fashion shows this year were Chanel, Dior and Valentino. The AW22 Gucci show, which integrated parts of the collaboration with Adidas, saw unique users to the brand’s gallery more than double (up 133 per cent) on its SS22 gallery. Meanwhile, the final Virgil Abloh show at Off-White had 407 per cent more visitors than the brand’s previous outing. This once again highlights how much success can hinge on the cult of the founder or creative lead when their personal stature is inherent to the brand’s story. ## **Brands continue to go all-in on video** Dior was once again the strongest brand within the digital pillar. The brand received 287 million YouTube views between October and March 2022, a 50 per cent uplift on the 6-month period preceding and over four times as many as the next most-viewed brand, Ralph Lauren. These blockbuster numbers continue to be driven by its fragrance commercials (the Christmas 2022 edition has a staggering 82 million views), but most brands would envy the numbers it draws on its regular content. Recent hits include a behind-the-scenes tour with South Korean singer and brand ambassador Jisoo, which has been viewed nearly 6 million times. Across all brands, fashion shows are among the videos driving the most interest. Enthusiasm for these actually skews younger with nearly half (48 per cent) of 18-to-24-year-olds citing them as important to their decision-making when shopping, compared to 37 per cent across all ages. No wonder that Bottega Veneta ended its long social media pause by uploading its Winter 2022 show to YouTube. Chanel’s success has been attained through a clever set-piece approach to its AW22 show. The show itself drove 7.3 million views, with a number of other videos such as specific-style spotlights and reaction clips of brand ambassadors like Margot Robbie, Vanessa Paradis, Pharrell Williams and Abd Al Malik also driving significant interest. Meanwhile, leaning into the brand story when making video content has been the key to success for Supreme, which has the highest average views per Instagram video (70,961) after Chanel (74,391). The big drivers of interest here have been classic low-angle skateboarding films shot in European capital cities such as Paris and Milan. Luxury being part of the Italian cultural landscape has also been clear in brands demonstrating their links at both mainstream and grassroots level. [Gucci has been outfitting 2021 Eurovision winners and crossover stars Måneskin](https://www.gucci.com/us/en/st/stories/advertising-campaign/article/gucci-aria-campaign-maneskin) for some time, while Bottega Veneta was recently announced as lead partner of [Milanese electronic music festival Terraforma](https://www.terraformafestival.com/terraforma-partners/). These campaigns exemplify the intersection between the luxury world and popular culture and the importance of aligning to cultural material to achieve relevance. ## **The metaverse enters brand marketing** With all their extensive efforts to enter the metaverse, brands are becoming much more ready to push this on their main communication channels. One of Ralph Lauren’s best-performing videos on YouTube was the announcement of its launch on digital world Roblox, which was viewed over 900,000 times. It got similarly high interest for an announced launch on Zepeto last year. The most notable metaverse announcement was Gucci, which released a 14-second video for the launch of Gucci Vault’s participation in the Sandbox universe, delivering over a million views. CEO Marco Bizzarri recently said the [metaverse was already a “very real place” for the brand](https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/gucci-ceo-bizzarri-talks-metaverse-strategy-and-why-its-already-a-very-real-place-for-us). [Gucci recently advertised for a community coordinator for its Discord server](https://www.kering.com/en/talent/job-offers/europe/gucci-discord-community-coordinator), which demonstrates the new digital frontiers that cutting-edge brands are navigating in their search for a wider consumer base. Prada became the most recent major luxury addition to Discord with the [launch of its Prada Crypted server](https://www.prada.com/prada-crypted/). Kenzo is also on the platform, having recently launched a [competition for its server users to win a Tiger Tail NFT](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbe3aouolie/?hl=en-gb). Interestingly, most NFT and metaverse efforts have required some collaborations with external design or technology studios. These projects could sow the seeds of some long-term replicable marketing formats that outsource some of the resources brands require. Luxury brands should work hard to find the right partnerships in this space in search of low-lift, high-impact content. ## **Hugo Boss: The impact of a relaunch** **Key learning:** Going big on brand refreshes can drive a lot of interest when done right. Fashion businesses should evaluate perception of their brand closely to decide whether it might help them better define their identity. The relaunch of German luxury fashion house Hugo Boss earlier this year drove a surge in interest. The main thrust was making a clearer division between the higher-end Boss brand and its more affordable youth collection Hugo. A \#BeYourOwnBoss marketing campaign recruited mega-celebrities including Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Joan Smalls, Lee Minho and former boxing world champion Anthony Joshua. Hugo Boss, meanwhile, utilised Gen Z stars such as model Adut Akech, dancer Maddie Ziegler and Korean-American rapper Big Matthew [for its TikTok-focused campaign](https://group.hugoboss.com/en/newsroom/news/news-detail/record-breaking-campaign-launch-for-boss-and-hugo). [Both campaigns drove 1.9 billion impressions and 75 million engagements on day one](https://group.hugoboss.com/en/newsroom/news/news-detail/record-breaking-campaign-launch-for-boss-and-hugo), Hugo Boss figures show. There has been a 1564 per cent rise in average views per video on Instagram and a 176 per cent rise in average engagements per post since winter 2021, with searches for the brand also spiking on Wechat during the month of the relaunch. This underlines the importance of celebrity-driven mega campaigns hyper-targeted at relevant social media channels. It was not confined to social media either, with Google traffic to Hugo Boss’ site increasing by a fifth across the six-month period from October 2021 versus the same period the year before. The necessity of this drastic overhaul of brand identity is clear when the views of luxury consumers on Hugo Boss are considered. The only two areas tracked where Hugo Boss performs better than the average *Vogue Business* Index fashion house are in its status as a “classic and timeless” brand and its “strong cuts and fittings”, but even so it is nowhere near the leading brands on these two metrics. Other strong fashion brands that have little that seems unique about them will be watching closely over the next year to see if the Hugo Boss refresh pays off. ## Table of contents [#article: /articles/62b993a0f898a36609e36346] [#article: /articles/62b9a053d3a7ba787352074a] [#article: /articles/62b9a6e0f898a36609e3634d] [#article: /articles/62b9b23a1ee1abf48e4d8a83] [#article: /articles/62b9b988f898a36609e36361] [#article: /articles/62b9cc39d3a7ba787352076a] [#article: /articles/62b9e4ffd3a7ba7873520777] *Correction: This article was updated to reflect that Canada Goose is a Canadian brand, not a US brand. (19/7/2022)* *To receive the Vogue Business newsletter,* [*sign up here*](https://signup.voguebusiness.com/vb)*.* *Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at* [*feedback@voguebusiness.com*](mailto:feedback@voguebusiness.com)*.*

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