The time has passed for flashy, disconnected activations or the cash grabs that once earned fleeting attention. How can brands relate to the tastemakers, innovators, entrepreneurs and investors of tomorrow? Now is the time for brands to build their understanding of what motivates people in this space, and how their continued activities will reshape the brand-customer relationship for the better.

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In partnership with Vault, SuperRare and NiftyKit, we launched the Vault Art Space during NFT.NYC, thereby helping the luxury brand cement its Web3 credentials. It is a place where Gucci fans, art lovers and crypto-natives can bid on, mint and collect curated digital artworks that are available exclusively on this platform—making Gucci the first legacy brand in the world to own and manage its own digital art marketplace. In its first online exhibit and auction titled “The Next 100 Years of Gucci,” 29 carefully selected artists share their vision of the brand’s infinite horizons. Despite a crypto downturn just days before the launch, the Vault Art Space managed to attract Gucci connoisseurs and other Web3-savvy fashion fans far and wide, as the highest valued artworks were snapped up in a matter of days.

While Gucci was already one of the most active fashion brands in Web3, it has now truly demonstrated its literacy and legitimacy in this space, as well as its ability to move beyond the hype. When it comes to the next web, there’s an important chain of causation at play: culture, community and then commerce. Without your cultural credentials, consumers won’t take you seriously—and with the Vault Art Space, Gucci shows that it has understood the assignment. How so? Let’s lay out the evidence. 

Without strategic direction, one might get lost on the road to success. 

It’s safe to say that in terms of legacy brands, Gucci has been leading the charge for a while now. Having dabbled in NFTs and collectibles—and successfully so, as it was the first luxury brand to sell an NFT—it was high time to venture into new territory: the art space. What differentiates Gucci is that it’s truly alive to the real spirit of Web3. To Michele and his team of creatives, it’s not just a buzzword. Instead, they understand that this is the future of the internet, and so all their investments in this space are to future-proof their business. In other words, Gucci is in it for the long run.

To play the long-term game, you need an airtight strategy. This starts with why Gucci wanted to build their own digital art marketplace. In previous activations, the fashion brand leveraged existing communities and marketplaces, like Bored Ape Yacht Club through 10KTF and OpenSea, essentially Guccifying things that were already out there. However, the issue with this is that you lose control over the customer experience; product details may be stated on the webpage, but everything around it is typically commodified. Especially for a luxury brand, this is challenging. Therefore, Gucci made the conscious decision to leverage their own community and create their own marketplace, with the aim to regain control over their customer experience. This circles back to our point about the “culture, community and commerce” chain of causation—to all brands planning to follow suit, it’s absolutely critical to take this into account when treading into Web3. 

The next era of the internet is all about culture and community-building. From day one, this has been at the heart of Gucci’s digital gallery initiative. As such, it’s only natural that Vault—a vehicle for novel brand partnerships and spotlighting upcoming talent—is the context within which Gucci is experimenting in the Web3 space. Vault is not only about creating cool, cultural stuff, but it’s also about learning what latches onto people and what tends to lose value. “It’s about building and playing in public, which is very true to the spirit of Web3,” says Sophie Dean, Associate Account Director.

When talking about the strategic foundation of this project, another main pillar is the question of how. We’ve already mentioned our FLUX.Monks joining forces with Vault, SuperRare and NiftyKit to bring this marketplace to life, but what about the content? Next to building the platform, we helped Gucci curate the selection of artists, which includes both cryptoart natives and more traditional creatives looking to experiment with digital platforms. Given this interesting mix of crypto-focused and “real-world” artists, it’s important to highlight the casting process.

"That’s why we wanted to find a way to bring real-world artists into the crypto realm,” Dean says. Interestingly, this strategic decision reverberates another key element of Web3: its promise to facilitate mobility between URL and IRL. 

Web3 is not a one-time gig, it’s a long-term game. 

Moving beyond collectibles and one-off NFTs, Gucci’s Vault Art Space demonstrates that the brand is committed to Web3. In the end, the reality is that the digital art market in particular is a long-term play. You don’t enter this space if you want to make a quick buck, because the rules of the game in the NFT world are—unsurprisingly—very similar to the rules of the art market in the real-world; if there’s money to be made, it’s generally on the secondary market, not the initial sale. But what is beautiful about Web3 is that everyone gets remunerated for each subsequent sale on the secondary market, for eternity. In other words, if you truly want to make a difference in this space, it’s crucial to think about long-term strategies. 

And that’s exactly what we did in collaboration with Gucci’s Vault: the luxury brand not only wanted to innovate with the speed of digital, but especially be able to control the customer experience, ensuring their cultural touch is at the heart of everything they create, and learn what it takes to own and manage their own digital art marketplace. “With this digital exhibition platform, they’re literally two years ahead of everybody else. This can’t be thought of as a singular project,” says Liam Osbourne, Global Client Partner, FLUX.Monks. “This is now going to be a Web3 platform for a multitude of endeavors—and we’re excited to continue to partner with Gucci on this initiative.”

There’s been much ink spilled about emerging consumer behaviors of the new digital era, and of the spending mindset brought about by the proliferation of ecommerce. From the fear of missing out on in-demand products as they run out of stock to the popularity of retail therapy, consumers are changing why, how and when they buy—and online shopping has become an essential part of the equation. This shift spans a plethora of categories, from luxury items to grocery delivery, and will continue to expand as ecommerce expands to more industries.

These changes were accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic—which, for instance, came with a steep increase in mobile online shopping. Although the possibility to shop from anywhere is not necessarily new, the comfort level reached during lockdown surely is—and it has caused old habits to go the way of the horse and carriage for most consumers. With Cinderella Shopping growing strong and steady in Asia and beyond, it’s time to reassess our strategies and consider the new opportunities that are opening up.

The Rise of a New Trend 

Before Shopee’s Midnight Mega Sale, the brand had already noticed a not-so-subtle tendency toward late-night shopping. It was their curiosity about this pattern that prompted them to do a midnight sale in the first place—a bid to target those audiences with flash deals that were available only during the first two hours of the day. Surprisingly, the sale recorded six times more purchases than on any average occasion, which incentivized the ecommerce platform to keep on rewarding these late-night shoppers with more benefits. 

This trend is not limited to any region or industry. As Global Head of Innovation & Social, I’ve witnessed the phenomenon first hand with one of the world’s largest producers of electronics. Not long ago, we supported a live event in Italy to promote the brand’s new product offerings, and saw the highest conversion rates between 10 and 11 PM, seven hours after the livestream had ended. At first, I was surprised by the stats, but with consumers being able to access on-demand content anytime and anywhere, it’s only natural that they will do so when they see fit. Moreover, it’s fair to assume that consumers may want to take their time to research the product before buying.

This isn’t to say that your efforts should exclusively focus on the wee hours of the night. Peak timings in general stand between 8 and 9 PM, but if consumers are skewing towards new routines, looking into—and rewarding—these late-night shoppers can be worth it. After all, all uncharted territory is a good opportunity to stand out among your competitors.

You Can’t Put the Same Shoe on Every Foot

When we think about the reasons that may have led to this sudden rise in late-night shopping, many different factors come to mind. One thing, though, is key: where it would normally be impossible to go to a store after a certain hour, the proliferation of online shopping made it feasible for consumers to purchase at any time.

Although late-night shopping can be commonly associated with impulsive purchases that are cancelled the morning after, this is not always the case. For some, the frenzy of the work day prevents them from finding the time to sit down and fill the shopping cart, or research the products they’re interested in buying. At midnight, though, when the household is asleep and the phone has stopped ringing, it’s easier to focus. At the same time, checking something off the to-do list helps people sleep more soundly, which explains why some may feel the urge to click the ‘order’ button before hitting the sack. 

You can’t put the same shoe on every foot, but you can try and see where the footprints lead to. That is, take the time to get to know your audience. By following their patterns, you’ll be able to provide a customer experience that adapts and responds to their habits—whether with online shopping, virtual events or any kind of content.

How to Be the Belle of the Ball

Once you’ve gotten familiar with your consumers, their behaviors and nuances, it’s important to deliver experiences that will reward and incentivize them. One way to do this is by offering special flash deals for night owls—but you can move further up in the funnel, too. After witnessing how our livestream views scaled later in the day, my team and I decided to complement future day-time streams with additional content for our audiences to enjoy later if they had missed the action live. 

Seeking new partnerships can also expand your reach. This includes marketplaces that can add visibility and sales, but also celebrities and content creators that will allow you to tap into their fanbase. It’s not merely about capitalizing on their followers; with creators that consumers already love, you can make shopping a more innovative and social experience that connects the dots across the entire customer journey. For their Mega Midnight Sale, Shopee offered users a unique experience with K-pop girl group Mamamoo, who performed through Shopee Live. 

This serves as a great example of how you can draw new audiences into your existing deals and benefits. Even when consumers are not necessarily in shopping mode, the right content and the right time can set the mood. Think about it: if audiences are leveraging the last couple of hours before going to sleep to make purchases, they must be using the time to watch other types of content, too. We know revenge bedtime procrastination is real, so take the opportunity to interact with your consumers when it works for them. That is, when they actually have the time to engage.  

Cinderella Shopping is still an emerging trend, but just like with any new audience, it’s never too soon to build a relationship. To do so, start by making sure you’re familiar with your consumers’ behavior, and give yourself the opportunity to experiment with new ways to target, incentivize and reward those with new habits. You can’t just wave the magic wand to engage with late-night shoppers, but the more equipped you are, the higher the chances of delivering a successful strategy that supports emerging behaviors while rewarding your most loyal customers.

Contrary to the trappings of the traditional agency with siloed data and creative teams passing the baton, our teams work together from day one to come up with truly integrated and innovative solutions for clients. “The key,” says Liam Osbourne, Global Client Partner for FLUX, “is in maintaining the delicate balance between insight and instinct to preserve the aesthetics and signature style of a brand while exploring different channels, experiences and even audiences.” 

As the industry has transformed, the FLUX.Monks have been busy helping brands reimagine how they connect with customers across numerous channels and experiences by interlacing data-driven insight, purposeful creativity and world-class production capabilities to elicit elegant and meaningful campaigns, activations and experiences. And this past year has been nothing short of amazing, both in what we’ve been able to achieve for fashion and beauty brands during this remarkable time, and what we’ve learned. 

Stepping Off the Catwalk and Into an Interactive World

Over the past eighteen months, fashion shows around the world have enjoyed a period of digital experimentation. Stepping off the catwalk and onto immersive digital channels, fashion houses have had to reimagine the way they tell their stories and represent new collections. Digital experiences have enabled unparalleled access to the previously insider-only world of fashion shows. Now untethered from the catwalk, it’s likely that show formats will never return to the previous constraints of time and space. And with deep category expertise and world-class capabilities across new and emerging technologies, the FLUX.Monks are uniquely positioned to bring the fashion show of the future to life. The trick is in creating immersive, tactile experiences that engage new consumers without alienating, or inadvertently excluding, brand loyals.

Osbourne goes on to add: “They’re the most digitally sophisticated consumers to date and brands need to work with a team of experts that have deep understanding of platforms and emerging technologies while also being fluid in the nuances of fashion to succeed.”

As Italian fashion luxury brand Moncler’s official interactive broadstream partner, the FLUX.Monks helped bring the brand’s 2021 #MONCLERGENIUS Fashion Show to life with an experience that took attendees on an immersive, game-like journey—a fantastical trip around the world. Working closely with Moncler’s physical installation and design agency, Villa Eugenie, our team helped build interactive, virtual worlds inspired by installations spanning New York, Shanghai, Milan, Seoul and Tokyo to bring a new dimension to Moncler’s physical events that allowed the brand to reach a broader audience.

Central to the show itself—which was broadcast on YouTube Live—was interactivity. From animation to live event support, our teams worked alongside Moncler to give users unprecedented access to the show as they interacted with other viewers and contributors via the live-chat system. More than 4 million people visited the dedicated microsite—numbers that will only continue to rise as the platform lives on long after the live event—and 80% engaged with the livestream, with viewing times 4.5 x longer on the interactive (vs non-interactive) livestream. 

Catering to Geographically Diverse Audiences

For most brands, no two markets are exactly alike. And that goes double in fashion and beauty where consumer tastes can be highly nuanced within even a single market. Global brands working to grow adoption across a number of markets need a multicultural partner who can help them show up meaningfully and authentically. So when Amazon Fashion Europe wanted to raise brand awareness and their cred in the fashion space, they turned to our FLUX team. 

Challenged with penetrating five key but distinctly different markets within Europe—UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain—the team not only brought their fashion expertise, but worked very closely with our social influencer and data teams to become a relevant part of the fashion conversation and strengthen Amazon Fashion’s presence in the channels where fashion and lifestyle are the main drivers.

Spanning content and asset creation, social and influencer marketing, and community management, FLUX established the Amazon Fashion Council to ensure a humanized feel to the brand’s wide offering. Each member of the council—stylists, designers and fashion influencers—represents a key European market and shares their words of wisdom across the Amazon Fashion channel, engaging consumers in a targeted and personalized manner. Complete with language and translation support—all under one umbrella.

Bringing It All Together for an Iconic Brand

When Burberry wanted to expand their omnichannel presence and develop a 360-degree vision that includes digital, they selected our FLUX.Monks as lead social, creative, strategic and production partner. “Burberry is one of the most technologically innovative and digitally expressive brands in fashion,” says Osbourne, “and we have been equal parts awed and inspired to be partnering with them on numerous integrated campaigns and initiatives designed to reach millions of people globally.”

As part of the fifth installment of the “Burberry Generation” artist collaboration project, our team was tasked with creating bespoke storytelling and driving buzz on social platforms to promote the brand’s iconic handbag—the Olympia bag. We scouted and collaborated with installation and balance artists to build four breakthrough balancing art pieces that incorporated the bag, and delivered four hero short films and a pack of key visuals to showcase execution of the balancing installation. All launched across WeChat, Little Red Book, and social video platforms while the installations were covered in several media publications.

When asked to support Burberry on the launch of their smart retail store with Tencent in Shenzhen, we sought to create social buzz and to drive traffic, online and offline. Our strategy was to tap into media and various content creators, within both the fashion and tech worlds, to cater to Shenzhen as a high-tech hub, and to collaborate with celebrities and local influencers covering WeChat, RED, Weibo, Douyin and beyond usual platforms with Bilibili. Thanks to our launch strategy and local market insights the store was a destination—both online and bricks and mortar—generating massive social buzz and setting the benchmark for a flagship launch for the sector.

And to celebrate this year's monogram campaign for Burberry, our team worked with four land artists to reimagine Riccardo Tisci's contemporary monogram design on the Welsh shoreline, where it stood for hours before being swept back into the sea. Our second installation featured a series of 300 drones choreographed to create the iconic monogram pattern in the Colorado sky—a striking constellation above a remote mountain reserve. Together, both embody Burberry's celebration of exploration and the unexpected, and the inspiration of the great outdoors.