When the world’s biggest luxury group LVMH acquired Tiffany and Co. in 2021 it had a clear vision for the iconic jewellery brand, and that is to make it ‘supremely’ desirable to a younger generation. Here’s how they rolled out off-beat plans to revitalise the brand’s image.
Founded originally in 1837, the American jewellery brand survived World Wars, economic crises and continued to sparkle as a luxury name to reckon with. In its nearly two centuries of family ownership, Tiffany and Co. only collaborated with a handful of artists and jewellery designers outside of its organisation.
After LVMH’s acquisition, the collaboration equation changed drastically. In the last 2 years Tiffany and Co. has launched a slew of unconventional collabs with Gen-Z forward brands, some being non-luxury brands, at the risk of having tricky consequences to the brand’s legacy image. So did the risky move work in LVMH’s favour? Did Tiffany and Co. get younger eyeballs rolling towards the blue box?
LVMH’s overall watches and jewellery business grew by 18% in 2022. According to a press statement, Tiffany & Co. in particular had a record year, driven by its increasing desirability. While Tiffany’s high jewellery revenue doubled in 2022, the new Lock bracelet collection, rolled out in North America, enjoyed great success alongside other collections. According to Euromonitor, Tiffany & Co. is now the group’s second largest brand.
Let’s look at the various chapters of Tiffany’s new era of collaborations targeted to fuel its desirability among younger audiences. Collabs that materialised under the guidance of 31-year-old Alexandre Arnault, Executive Vice President Of Product And Communications at Tiffany’s and also LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault’s son.
Tiffany’s first crossover collaboration announced in 2021 was with the streetwear brand Supreme. The limited-edition collection included silver necklaces with pearls, a bracelet, earrings, a standard key ring and white t-shirts with the Supreme logo in Tiffany blue instead of Supreme’s signature red. The collection paid homage to a 60’s campaign by Tiffany’s “Please Return to Tiffany & Co.”. The 2021 collection was priced between £50 to £1,100 and sold out seconds after the launch.
The Supreme collection was followed by the release of the Patek Philippe Nautilus watch that sported a stunning Tiffany blue dial. The watch was limited to 172 pieces, retailed at $52,635 and sold in no time. Soon after, one of these blue Nautilus reappeared in the market, at an auction. It sold for a whopping $3.2 million!
The most unexpected collaboration by Tiffany’s has been with Nike, a mass market sports brand. A limited-edition Air Force 1-1837 collection is crafted to look luxurious in black suede with a Tiffany Blue Swoosh and archival Tiffany logo on the tongue. The shoes went on sale starting March 2023 at $400 a pair. They feature co-branded, laser-etched silver plates above each heel.
Another notable collaboration by Tiffany was the NFT TFTiff project where 250 Cryptopunk NFT art owners could get a customised pendant made of their Punk by the jewellery brand, on the purchase of a Tiffany NFTs. Each Tiffany NFT cost about 30 ETH (ethereum cryptocurrency) at the time of sale, which amounts to about $54000 as on today.
Apart from off-beat collaborations, Tiffany has partnered with celebrities idolised by Gen-Z and millennials. Gal Gadot of Wonder Woman with over 104 million Instagram followers inaugurated the brand’s massive new store at 5th Avenue in New York, earlier this quarter. In 2021, popular Korean pop band Black Pink’s artist Rosé with over 72 million Insta followers was enrolled to promote its Lock campaign collection.
Currently, Tiffany is the official jeweller for Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour where Beyonce will sport bespoke jewellery made by Tiffany’s throughout her legendary 57-show tour that ends in September this year.
These celebrity partnerships most likely have cost Tiffany a lot of dollars but is the brand generating enough returns?
According to studies conducted by social media marketing agency Lefty, the earned media value (EMV) for Tiffany in 2020 was recorded at $64.2 million. In 2022, the EMV of Tiffany was recorded at $285.4 million. Lefty defines EMV as the equivalent ad spends of the impressions gained on social media.
Although increasing visibility on social media and digital media may or may not convert to sales, they are certainly gaining the attention and perhaps even the desirability among digital natives aka. Gen-Z for Tiffany and Co.