Havas Media Group, the media division of the Havas group, has launched LuxHub, a consulting label that aims to deliver marketing and communication support for fashion and luxury brands.
The firm is taking its Italy-based LuxHub worldwide, with plans to roll out hubs in India, Shanghai, Tokyo, Germany, Hong Kong, etc. .
The Havas Media Group had billings of $17.7 billion in 2013. The new division will be led by Isabelle Harvie-Watt, who has earlier held marketing and communication roles at Giorgio Armani, Versace and the Tods Group.
Speaking to
LuxHub was first launched in Italy in 2012 by Harvie-Watt, to leverage her expertise in the fashion luxury sector, and share her insights and understanding of luxury audiences.
Luxury brands across the globe are realising that they need to change the way they communicate with their consumers. LuxHub established centres of excellence in Dubai in 2013, and later in the UK. Harvie-Watt added that the main idea was to “bridge the traditional gap in ‘language’ between fashion luxury brands and big agencies, as these brands began increasingly to look for help, particularly with their digital transformation.”
Bridging gapsThe LuxHub will be a consulting division within the network. “We don’t want to create an agency within the agency, but to pull together and build on our expertise to deliver better value to our clients,” said Harvie-Watt, adding that the agency would differ from the pack because of the people leading the project.
“They are insiders; they have deep knowledge of the industry from the client point of view, and are organically connected to the sector and to the luxury audience. They can provide and drive insights that no other big competitor has,” she added.
The CEO said the company is targeting all brands that want to reach a luxury audience, and would include fashion luxury and aspirational brands.