Art Market Hamptons returns to the East End for its 12th edition, beginning with a VIP preview on Thursday, August 11th and running through Sunday, August 14th The fair is the Hamptons’ premier showcase of the best in modern and contemporary art and design, and this year will be no exception, with 90 presenting galleries.
Also of note this year: the fair finds its new home at Nova's Ark Project & Sculpture Garden, complete with an expanded museum-quality pavilion. Expect to see art and sculptures from US-based galleries in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Texas and more to international works from galleries based in the UK, Paris, Canada, Japan and beyond.
The fair is graciously offering The PR Net members complimentary access all weekend long, so if you haven’t redeemed your ticket, contact us at events[at]theprnet.com for yours. For more information about the fair, visit artmarkethamptons.com.
Luxury brands aren’t exactly known for coloring outside the lines when it comes to their marketing strategies. While it makes sense that brands steeped in tradition don’t subscribe to trend-driven techniques, the metaverse presents a unique opportunity for these global names to reach new and existing audiences alike. We spoke with three experts in this arena to learn the key ways that luxury brands are successfully leveraging the metaverse today. Read on for insights from Neda Whitney, SVP and head of marketing, Americas at Christie's; Sarah Gargano, president and CEO of Sarah Gargano Communications; and Akbar Hamid, founder of 5th Column and 5CRYPTO.
1. Diversify efforts across different virtual spaces
Neda Whitney: After speaking with Gregory Boutte, Chief Client and Digital Officer at Kering during our recent Christie’s Art + Tech Summit, I must say I am consistently impressed by Kering and view them as best in class when it comes to luxury brands entering the metaverse. They have successfully experimented with everything from creating temporary worlds in Roblox with its Gucci Garden space, to its more recent opening of a permanent Gucci Town in the Roblox environment, to the Balenciaga collaboration with Fortnite on a capsule collection of digital apparel for players, which was later accompanied by physical versions.
Christie's
2. Embrace experimentation
Sarah Gargano: Luxury brands are usually the last to the party whenever there is change. However, with the explosion of the metaverse, some luxury brands are leading the way. Gucci believes the immersive digital world signals a shift for luxury brands and expects it to drive a significant new revenue stream in the years ahead. If brands are going to experiment, now is arguably the time to test and learn, but nobody wants to look bad – least of all carefully cultivated fashion brands. Brands that don’t get involved now risk missing out on opportunities to develop strategies in this rapidly changing and developing space.
Akbar Hamid: Please continue to test and learn. Nothing you will try is wrong, it’s just a step in the right direction. This is all so new. It is important to encourage brands and creators to continue to explore – it is only through testing and learning that we will understand what resonates for certain consumers in certain sectors. Brands can take use cases to understand how much and how quickly they want to invest in these new technologies, as well as how much education and learning is still needed for mass adoption – both internally for their own brand teams and externally for their consumer base.
3. Bring digital to life with unique experiences
Sarah Gargano: By experimenting with NFTs, gaming and virtual fashion, brands will unlock value streams in the metaverse that engage young consumers and will ultimately find new routes to creativity, communities and sales. British luxury supercar maker McLaren Automotive just announced its first NFT drop, Genesis Collection, for the recently launched McLaren Special Operations (MSO) LAB digital community. Inspired by McLaren’s iconic Ultimate Series P1 and track P1 GTR, the world’s first hybrid hypercar, the Genesis Collection will be limited to 2,012 to mark the year the P1 was revealed to the world. The Genesis Collection will comprise five tiers with eight unique traits. Holders of Genesis Collection NFTs will each gain membership to an MSO LAB digital community that will push the boundaries of access and experience.
McLaren
4. Reimagine what your brand looks like for Web3
Akbar Hamid: Do not get fixated on bringing IRL mirror image experiences into the metaverse. The idea behind virtual worlds, especially decentralized metaverse platforms like The Sandbox, is to be imaginative and creative. It would be a disservice to this creative vision to think about the metaverse as a mirror image of IRL consumer goods, beauty products, brands or even our own image. We must get imaginative and showcase the essence of a brand – the emotions, feelings and experiences it may evoke – as a gamified virtual experience so consumers can go on a journey, rather than just replicating a product in the metaverse.
What NYX cosmetics did with the People of Crypto Lab and The Sandbox for the first-ever metaverse pride is a great example of a brand playing with different art forms that they may never have thought of IRL. Makeup is such an intricate artistry, but NYX challenged themselves to play with a voxelized art form to create makeup looks on voxel based non-binary avatars to prove and showcase that makeup truly has no gender.
NYX Cosmetics, People of Crypto Lab, The Sandbox
5. Commit to ongoing education and developing internal teams’ expertise
Neda Whitney: Kering is investing in divisions and departments at a brand and holding company level dedicated to finding ways to continue to innovate in the space, rather than one-off PR stunts, which will ultimately be the key differentiator between success and failure in this next chapter of digital transformation. For luxury brands, I think it is important to embrace not only an innovation-mindset, but also to be comfortable with the constant evolution of this space as it grows at an astonishing pace. [They must have] the willingness to adapt and abandon ideas at the rapidity which will be necessary to keep up with user demands.
