Making Luxury Retail More Relevant Online

Ykone, a renowned digital and influencer marketing agency, adopts a new approach to targeting the Asian luxury customers.

Founded in 2008 in Paris, Ykone is a leading international digital and influencer marketing agency for travel, beauty, fashion and luxury brands. Ykone works with brands to create impactful stories and content for social media. They support their brand concepts and strategies with their proprietary real-time tracking solution and unique data-driven approach.
 
In parallel with the strong growth in luxury spending from the Millennials and Gen Z shoppers in Asia, luxury brands require greater visibility online, thus accelerating their investment in digital to capture these young affluent customers. And while Asian customers still like to shop in physical stores, especially during travel, it is still crucial for brands to build an online-to-offline (O2O) strategy. 

Ykone’s technology helps traditional luxury clients to transform the way they connect, interact and service new luxury customers in Asia. For instance, when supporting Cartier’s Hong Kong retail approach, Ykone noted that despite the brand being quite well known locally, a more innovative approach was needed to engage the younger customers. Similarly, when discussing with Hermès, their existing approach was to take a very hands on in-store approach to customer service, and it was realised that these elements were needed to be carried through to online channels as well. Taking advantage of their data and consulting knowledge, Ykone can help clients to choose the most relevant channels to target their audiences based on their real interests.

Hong Kong the Regional Headquarters to Deploy Innovative Ideas

Ykone chose Hong Kong as the regional headquarters of their Asia network because their business serves all of APAC, with a strong focus on the Mainland China market. The company is able to work with major stakeholders of the business including the regional teams of international luxury brands based in Hong Kong. It is also in a good position to assist Chinese luxury brands that are expanding overseas, with a strong demand seen to be expected from the Chinese industries. Hong Kong has always been able to reach the latest brands and innovations. The ability to take learnings from Mainland China and Japan around new digital and online trends have helped Ykone to deploy interesting campaigns for their clients. As a regional hub, Hong Kong allows Ykone to mildly localise, whilst rely on the support of international experts.

Julien Gaubert-Molina, Partner & CEO Asia of Ykone, said, “Being based out of Hong Kong allows us to legitimately serve Mainland China whilst at the same time staying connected to the Western world. It is the perfect meeting of both worlds. We can tap into the region, ensure the artistic vision of the West is relayed, and find multi-faceted talent who can adapt and cater to the specific needs of the region.”