Audemars Piguet and IC-Agency rewarded in Paris

Famous watchmaker Audemars Piguet was rewarded in Paris during the “Grand Prix Stratégies Firstluxe.com du luxe 2010” for the “Royal Oak Offshore Grand Prix” digital campaign carried out in partnership with Swiss company IC-Agency, specialized in Luxury Digital-Marketing.

Created in 2005, the Grand Prix Stratégies du Luxe has been rewarding campaigns from the biggest French and international brands based on their relevance, creativity and integration within the corporate strategy for 5 years.

Audemars Piguet has been rewarded with a mention for the Luxury Social Media and Online Advertising international campaign carried out with IC-Agency for the launch of the “Royal Oak Offshore Grand Prix” model produced as a limited edition for the Formula 1 Bahrain GP in March 2010.

A true commercial success – the whole collection had been sold at the end of the campaign, this operation has been an online achievement as well. Within 6 weeks, 250 million impressions were delivered to the target audience. With more than 26’000 new qualified Fans on Facebook, increased brand awareness in search engines and controlled acquisition costs despite the use of premium websites, this international multiplatform campaign managed with the support of IC-Agency was able to leverage the best of digital opportunities to address Audemars Piguet’s ambitions.

For David Sadigh, CEO of IC-Agency, « Audemars Piguet is a very high-end, iconic watchmaking brand particularly active in the field of digital. We are proud that our 100% Swiss partnership, uniting the teams of Audemars Piguet in Le Brassus and IC-Agency in Geneva, was rewarded during this event.”

This 2010 edition of the “Grand Prix Stratégies Firstluxe.com du luxe” was won by Hermès for the event, participative website dedicated to the “Voyage d’Hermès” perfume.

Is Luxury compatible with E-commerce?

The daily newspaper Le Temps has asked IC-Agency’s Marc-Olivier Peyer to shed some light on the new European regulations affecting luxury product e-commerce on June 1st.

Read the article originally published in Le Temps.

Press Coverage: Bloomberg, Il Sole 24 Ore, TSR…

Overview of recent articles for which IC-Agency was solicited during the last three months:

Comment les marques de luxe reprennent le contrôle de leurs ventes sur Internet ? – Le Temps, 17 juin
Le secteur a longtemps été confronté à une distribution en ligne bas de gamme mettant en péril son image. Appuyé par une directive européenne plus favorable, le luxe tente maintenant de gérer ses propres circuits d’«e-commerce».

L’art de raconter des histoires pour convaincre – Swissquote Magazine, 9 juin
Pour séduire investisseurs et consommateurs, les entreprises ont de plus en plus recours aux techniques du storytelling. Exemples, entre auto-mythologie et vérité.

IC-Agency relie le luxe à son client final – CB Web, 31 mai
IC-Agency, une agence de 30 personnes (3 millions d’euros de CA en 2009, en croissance de 30 % /08) réparties entre Genève et Barthurst au Canada. Créée en 2000, elle est spécialisée dans le digital marketing du luxe.

Swatch Surges After CEO Says Watchmaker’s Sales Rose – Bloomberg / Business week, 26 mai
Swatch Group AG, Switzerland’s biggest watchmaker, rose the most in more than seven months in Zurich trading after Chief Executive Officer Nick Hayek Jr. said sales climbed in the first quarter.

Travaux pratiques – Le Temps, 25 mai
La toile regorge de vidéos didactiques pour apprendre à jouer de la guitare, se maquiller à la façon de Lady Gaga, renforcer ses abdos ou survivre à une attaque de zombies. Un phénomène à la hausse qui intéresse les marques, ravies de pouvoir parler de leurs produits différemment.

La réalité augmentée pourrait faciliter les ventes sur Internet – TSR, 10 mai
Les innovations se multiplient en ce qui concerne les commandes de produits sur Internet. Des simulations en trois dimensions toujours plus poussées permettent à l'internaute de se représenter l'objet comme s'il était devant lui.

VENTES EN LIGNE - Le luxe affûte encore son commerce digital – Worldtempus, 4 mai
Récemment, Richemont annonçait le rachat du site de vente de produits de luxe Net-a-porter.com tandis que Longines inaugurait son magasin virtuel focalisé uniquement sur les Etats-Unis.

China Swatch Partner Hengdeli’s Sales May Grow 30% – Bloomberg / BusinessWeek, 3 mai
Hengdeli Holdings Ltd., the retail partner of Swatch Group AG in China, said 2010 sales growth may be the fastest in three years as it expands market share and Chinese consumers splash out on luxury watches and jewelry.

Cresce il falso d’autore dichiarato – Il Sole 24 Ore, 26 avril
Il business viaggia prevalentemente sul web e riguarda soprattutto orologi di lusso, profumi e design.

Les gagnants de l’internet suisse – Bilan, 6 avril
Sur la centaine de sites qui se lancent en Suisse chaque mois, 5% seulement rentabilisent leur activité. Le secret? Être le premier dans son domaine et fidéliser la clientèle avant que des concurrents ne fassent leur apparition.

International Media Coverage for IC-Agency

Prestigious international newspapers and press agencies publish today their first stories about the watchmaking industry, to coincide with the opening day of BaselWorld.

IC-Agency is featured in today’s New York Times, Bloomberg and BusinessWeek :

"In China, a quarter of all Internet searches for watch brands last year were for Omega, compared with Rolex’s 18 percent, according to IC Agency, which analyzed 500 million search queries in a study of 10 countries."

Read the article  "Rolex’s Swiss Watch Hegemony Threatened by ‘Trendier’ Omega"

"Mr. Pedraza’s conviction rests on the notion that luxury shoppers fall into one of two broad categories, the status-driven and the pragmatists, and that brick-and-mortar retailers will always appeal to the former. David Sadigh, managing partner of the IC-Agency, a digital marketing firm based in Geneva, said, “Most haute horlogerie consumers would prefer to buy offline — that is the current pattern. But there is a segment more open to buy online. They would like to put their American Express card down and get their product as soon as possible.”

As Internet retailing continues to outperform other retail channels, both Mr. Pedraza and Mr. Sadigh are confident that more Swiss brands will embrace e-commerce, though, by the latter’s reckoning, they will primarily come from the mid-range segment."

Read the article "Watch Brands Signing on, Uneasily, for E-Tailing"

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

• 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.

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

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.

iPhone Apps & Luxury Brands

Since the arrival of smartphones, mobile phones have become nothing less than micro-computers whose features go far beyond what a standard phone is able to deliver. The strength of this new generation of devices mainly comes from their applications, the number of which is constantly growing at the instigation of thousands of consumers-developers around the world.

Brands also have their own developers whose mission is to create new apps specifically designed to promote their products. The iPhone standing as the unchallenged leader of smartphones, IC-Agency decided to analyze the market of iPhone apps in its privileged sector: the luxury industry.

Recent Update (October, 22)
For a better understanding of the phenomenon, we asked several luxury and watchmaking professionals, analysts, bloggers and journalists to answer the following questions :

- What should brands take into account before launching an application?
- According to you, what are the best practices in that field?
- What can brands concretely expect from it?
- What is your futurology? Which evolutions do you see in the near future?

We were delighted with the quality of the in-depth editorial analysis we received, namely from the following influencers who wrote articles for this occasion:

Helene Le Blanc, The Luxe Chronicles:
"Luxury Brands' Passionate Embrace of the iPhone"

Ariel Adams, aBlogtoRead :
"How Watch Makers Can Best Utilize iPhone And Other Mobile Apps"

Robert-Jan Broer, FratelloWatches :
"World Watch Report’s Research on iPhone Applications"

Diana Leszczynski, Web & Luxe :
"De l’avenue Montaigne à l’Itune Store: la conquête de l’iPhone par les Grandes Maisons de luxe"

Not to forget the insights shared with Meehna Goldsmith, U.S. correspondant for HH Magazine and Louis Nardin, Worldtempus.

To view the entire updated study including the Luxury Insiders' View, please click here.

IC-Agency continues to grow by welcoming its latest additions

With new contracts under our belt, and the arrival of TAG Heuer international SEO strategy, IC-Agency is proudly announcing the addition of new reinforcements.

1) Additional resource for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) / SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Stephen Noton, internationally recognized SEO expert, joins IC-Agency in Geneva as resident SEO Guru / SEO Project Manager with the objective of reinforcing our clients’ ongoing international visibility and traffic strategies.

Stephen has 11 years of international experience in SEO/SEM and worked on mandates in the USA, Canada, China, Thailand and Singapore.

For his last work experience, Stephen had the responsibility of defining and implementing Alibaba’s global SEO strategy, China’s most important e-commerce site. Regarding SEM, Stephen is one of the few experts to have been triple-certified by Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adExcellence Member and has managed campaigns with a monthly ad spend of over $15 millions.

2) Additional resource to the Marketing Team / WorldWatchReport Project

Salohi Andriamananaivo joined the agency’s marketing team to actively participate in the production of our  watch industry market study WorldWatchReport 2009. Only 24 years old, Salohi has already held many  internships with agencies such as Kilroy James in London and Media Contacts International in Paris, not to mention her recent internships in Marketing and Communication with Michael Page and Canonica Management in Geneva.

We offer them a warm welcome and lots of success with IC-Agency.

Why TAG Heuer selects IC-Agency ?

Buyers of luxury goods are increasingly using the Internet to evaluate their purchases, a growing trend that is confirmed year after year by the WorldWatchReport, a market study published by IC-Agency that analyzes dozens of millions of client searches for luxury watch brands on the Internet.

TAG Heuer, a company at the cutting edge of innovation, is fully aware of this trend and has decided to reinforce its visibility in the international search engines so as to make its products more widely available and to increase brand awareness.

"Our objective is to escort our customers throughout their online experience - an experience that generally starts with a search using a search engine such as, for example, Google. This is a strategic means of access for a brand such as TAG Heuer and we want to take advantage of it in the best way possible," says Frédéric Layani, International Internet & CRM Manager for TAG Heuer.

The strategic search engine optimization assignment taken on by IC-Agency covers more than 10 markets and is not restricted to the Google, Yahoo! and MSN trio. As Marc-Olivier Peyer, Senior Innovation Specialist at IC-Agency says, "Our objective is also to achieve strategic positioning in China and Russia through Baidu and Yandex, two search engines that generate more traffic than Google in those high-growth, and increasingly online, watch markets."

According to the search engines market shares in China and Russia, the optimization of a website visibility on Google only is not enough :

 

The implemented strategy is based on an in-depth analysis of search intentions associated with the TAG Heuer brand. This approach enables the evolution of interest in the flagship models and TAG Heuer brand ambassadors-Leonardo DiCaprio, Lewis Hamilton and Maria Sharapova-to be measured.

IC-Agency has exceptional proficiency in understanding the online behaviors of "high-net-worth individuals" and is once again strengthening its position as a key player in luxury digital marketing.

"IC-Agency's strong international expertise in emerging markets, as well as their understanding of the complex world of luxury professions, particularly watchmaking, reinforced our decision to work with them," concludes Frédéric Layani.

For more information on our international search engine optimization (SEO) services, contact us.

Read the full press release.

They wrote about it : Europa Star, Worldtempus, Montres-de-luxe, LaRevueDesMontres, The Time TV, Interactive Luxury, TrustedWatch, Romandie.com, Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, etc.

Google Staves Off Crisis

On January 22, Google released its financial results for the last quarter of 2008. In one of the most difficult economic environments ever, this financial statement from the Web’s undisputed leader was highly anticipated, especially after Google was forced to layoff many employees, close several offices around the world and separate itself from some its less profitable ventures (Google Notebook, Catalog, Dodgeball and Jaiku).

According to American GAAP accounting guidelines, Google’s revenues increased 18% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, and increased 3% compared to the third quarter of 2008. Even in the midst of the current financial crisis (which began in September), Google has still managed to increase its revenues!

The breakdown in net income (-70%) is due to a revaluation following a decrease in certain assets tied to Google’s investment in AOL and Clearwire, with a value of over one billion dollars.

What really stands out when reading these financial statements is the contrast between the Mountain View giant’s stock trends and its recorded performance. Indeed, if the stock has increased by 6% at the time of the announcement (to 324.8 dollars), it is already back to a surprising state of stagnation, and very far from its historic peak attained not long ago of more than $ 600.

Yet, Google ended the year with over 8 billion in cash and cash equivalents, the net income recorded by its operational activities having increased 35% compared to 2007. In other words, while the economy endures what has already been called its worst crisis in history, Google was able to maintain its growth and increase the income related primarily to its advertising activities.

Though this crisis could be devastating on many levels, it could reinforce the importance of the internet. In an era where budgets will be hard to come by and where every cent invested will need to be justified, the ability to reach a colossal audience while having precise measurements on your return on investment could become the deciding argument in favor of a migration of budgets towards online activities, versus offline.

In this regard, Google’s financial health will serve as an indicator throughout this period where instability renders all predictions quite random.