Return to Facebook
In November 2008, as the Facebook phenomenon was reaching an international audience, IC-Agency and Europa Star had already predicted the potential of viral marketing, described in the article “Watch Brands & Social Networks: A Focus on Facebook.”
At that time, Facebook’s social network included ‘only’ 120 million members, bringing together the world’s largest variety of social and demographic profiles. Six months later, more than 250 million people had signed up, of which 100 million visit the site at least once a day and 30 million connect via their cell phones.
Not long ago, Facebook became the Number One social networking site in Europe in terms of the total number of users and Number One in the United States in terms of time spent on the site. And, contrary to all expectations, the demographic segment ‘35 years and older’ has seen the greatest increase in users from all parts of the population.
We recently discovered that 80 percent of the people who visited the official site of several highly respected brands in the Haute Horlogerie sector also visited Facebook. Of course, we can wonder about the quality of the visitors attracted to the official sites of the brands, but we can also assume, in all likelihood, that the high visitor rate to Facebook allows it to also reach the targeted audience of the Haute Horlogerie brands.
Six months ago, we closely examined the presence of 12 watch brands on Facebook, thus giving an initial look at the then still new phenomenon. But seeing the major changes that have taken place on this site over the last few months, it was apparent that another look at Facebook was indispensable.


The 25 brands in the WorldWatchReport 2009
are categorized as follows:







Haute Horlogerie:
Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Breguet, Franck Muller, Girard-Perregaux, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Zenith.

Women’s/Jewellery:
Bulgari, Cartier, Chopard, Piaget.

Prestige:
Breitling, Hublot, Omega, Rolex, TAG Heuer.

High-end:
Baume & Mercier, Ebel, Longines, Montblanc, Raymond Weil, Rado.


A three-fold increase in popularity
In only a few months, the total number of people registered on the Fan Pages of these 12 watch brands had increased by a factor of three, accounting for more than 120,000 declared Fans just on the Haute Horlogerie segment alone. This viral propagation represents only the visible part of the iceberg. In fact, each person who becomes a Fan of a watch brand also automatically informs his network of friends at the same time.
Since we know that an active member of Facebook has on average 100 friends, we can get a good idea of the marketing potential represented by this platform. In this case, 120,000 new fans represent 12 million potential Internet users who are exposed to the brands. Among the Fan Pages with the highest growth rates are those for Rolex and Bulgari, with 17,800 members (3,000 percent growth) and 15,600 members (1,500 percent growth), respectively.
On the other hand, six months ago, the most popular Fan Pages were Cartier, TAG Heuer and Breitling, which saw weaker growth rates with 20,500 members (210 percent growth), 11,400 members (135 percent growth) and 10,100 members (215 percent growth), respectively.
“Once a certain critical mass is reached thanks to organic growth, it is essential to integrate Facebook into a brand’s online marketing plan. The first step might be, for example, to place the Facebook Fan Page on the brand’s official website. As a second step, it may very well be pertinent and profitable to launch initiatives specifically intended for the Facebook community,” explains Yves-Alain Schwaar, Director of Communications at IC-Agency, who concluded that “Facebook is a powerful tool for relational marketing.”

Classification of 25 brands
In order to provide a global benchmark for the watch industry, 25 brands were added to the category of Fan Pages on Facebook. The graphs shown here are extracts from the WorldWatchReport 2009, the exclusive study of the market realized by IC-Agency in partnership avec Europa Star, which focused on 25 luxury watch brands in seven export markets. Among the new items in the fifth edition of this report was an analysis of the impact of social media platforms such as Facebook or YouTube on the 25 brands. The percentage increase in the number of Fans between January and April 2009 is given for each brand.
The multi-product brands Cartier and TAG Heuer confirm their leading positions on Facebook, while Breitling, in third position six months ago, has now been overtaken by Rolex and Bulgari. The Italian brand has undoubtedly seen the highest growth rate with 169 per cent increase in the number of Fans during the first quarter of 2009. Patek Philippe shows the strongest positioning for brands in the Haute Horlogerie category on Facebook with 7,200 Fans, closely followed by IWC and Montblanc.
Despite having seen its Fan numbers double, Omega only makes it to ninth position while, according to the WorldWatchReport 2009, it represented the second most searched brand on the Internet in 2008 after Rolex. How is it that Omega, with such strong positioning on an international level, with an image that is enhanced by such ambassadors as Michael Phelps, Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, is not better rep-resented on Facebook? If we take a closer look, it seems that the brand’s Fan Page is not the result of a controlled initiative by the brand itself but rather it was created by the brand’s fans themselves. The ‘Info’ section, intended to introduce the brand to its Fans, is reduced to three links pointing to http://www.omegawatches.com,; which illustrates the potential for optimisation that brands can take advantage of by making their entire universe accessible via Facebook.
Below the 3,000 Fan mark are mainly the Haute Horlogerie brands—besides Baume & Mercier, which is an exception in the ‘High-end’ category of brands. It is also interesting to note that Hublot, a technologically avant-garde brand, has ‘only’ 2,000 Fans on Facebook, while its popularity online is greatly increasing according to the WorldWatchReport 2009.

Observations and recommendations
Before launching into social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter, it is necessary to formulate a strategic plan. What networks already exist for the brand? Why are some brands more successful than others? How can a brand start and take part in online conversations? What business goals can be achieved online? These are only some of the many questions that need to be addressed in order to optimize a brand’s presence online and its chances for success.
For luxury brands in particular, understanding how to balance the need for exclusive communication and the risk of a certain standardization of its supports can only strengthen the brand promise and the relationship with its clients, both current and future. A word of advice to the creative marketing people: the greater is a Fan’s perception of an online experience, the greater will be his potential as a customer.

For more information click on www.worldwatchreport.com

Source: Europa Star June-July 2009 Magazine Issue