Press Release

Luxury Interactive – What a difference a year makes…

London, March 24, 2008 – The Luxury Interactive conference held March 10-12, 2008 in London illustrated the swiftness with which luxury brands are now embracing e-commerce. At the same event last June in New York the main topic of discussion was ‘if’ luxury brands can seize real opportunities for relationship building with their best customers online, whereas in London it was no longer a matter of ‘if’ but ‘how’ and ‘where to begin’.

During the conference, over 150 luxury brand representatives contemplated online scent trails to determine the level of engagement of their luxury web customers to determine follow up, internal organizational structures needed to support online content, e-commerce and on/offline integration and taking more ownership of web 2.0 brand activities whilst avoiding the risks attached to doing so.

Eva Jeanbart Lorenzotti, CEO of Vivre, set the stage by stating ‘if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more’ and then relayed Vivre’s interactive journey. Milton Pedraza from the Luxury Institute unveiled the implications of their latest report on ‘The Wealthy and Web 2.0’ and stated that in the last year alone, wealthy consumers' use of social networks such as Facebook and MySpace has rocketed from 27% to 60%, a growth rate of more than 120%.

Eleonore Baudry from Gucci Group and Kate Klemmer Terry from Coach offered tangible examples on how to engage in social mediums in the web 2.0 space, and to drive conversion rates online (Coach conversion rates have increased between 18 – 37% annually since 2002). Chris Poad from Otto and Gareth Gaston from Ramada Jarvis Hotels were invited as cross-industry expert. Both offered very concrete examples of online brand innovations. Chris expects a swift move into peer-to-peer recommendation through invitation-only online communities, set up by individual brands. Gareth pointed out that approaching wealthy consumers online better be permission-based and relevant.

Mary Senin from Ritz-Carlton explained how to organize a centralized SEO strategy within a global, de-centralized organization and Cecilia Pagkalinawan focused on the challenges in cross-channel (on & offline) integration. During one of the industry panel discussion the power of limited edition luxury was acknowledges as the way of the future.

Industry experts from Luxury Briefing, the Walpole Group offered their industry insights and Catherine Jubin of The International Luxury Business Association presented her highly relevant research findings on the state of luxury e-business in Europe.

All in all, Luxury Interactive was very well received; this is how the attendees put it…

• Sidonie Degove, Brand Manager, Berluti, LVMH UK; “I enjoy discussing issues with other luxury brands such as Ritz-Carlton and Bulgari who face similar challenges. It can offer both solutions and a confirmation. Monday I am meeting with my CEO to discuss the new ideas I gathered at Luxury Interactive.”


• Stephanie Ogden, Marketing Strategy, Richemont: ‘This event has been excellent. Especially since we are about to move into e-commerce ourselves. Lots to learn’


• Tamarah Black, CEO, J. Rake: ‘Flow, Speakers, On-time throughout event (timekeeping) all very impressive’


• Rachel Payne, Online Sales Co-ordinator, Jimmy Choo: ‘Overall I found the conference interesting and for the most part thought provoking and in addition it enabled me to meet some interesting people.’


• Massimiliano Benedetti, Global Marketing Director, Yoox Group: ‘I found Luxury Interactive to be extremely interesting in terms of content, networking, ideas sharing to create knowledge and the quality of the attendees. Some very smart questions were posed and answered.’


• Milton Pedraza, CEO, Luxury Institute: “I enjoyed working with you in London and your team did a super-fantastic job. I look forward to official feedback, but the feedback I have received about the London event was all positive. I heard zero negatives. People told me they liked the speakers, it was relevant, timely and substantive, insightful and ran beautifully. The hotel was great too. I have to say it was the best conference I have participated in over several years, with companies sharing actual information on luxury e-commerce.”