Dior tops global luxury media charts in Q4

By

Robin Driver

Published
Feb 5, 2021

Following a year heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, a new report from Launchmetrics has measured the success of the luxury industry’s marketing investments in leading global markets, crowning Dior as the undisputed media king.
 

The report monitored luxury companies’ global marketing activities in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2020, assigning a monetary value to each post, interaction and article in order to calculate a total media impact value (MIV) for each brand.
 
Dior boasted the strongest global MIV in Q4, with a total of $618.4 million, a 3.6% increase compared to the third quarter of the year. Chanel took second place with an MIV of $498.5 million, up 12.6% quarter over quarter, while Gucci came in third with an MIV of $454.7 million, representing a 22.9% increase.

Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent rounded out the top five, achieving MIVs of $405.8 million and $246.1 million, respectively.
 
Other big winners included Moncler, which saw a 58.4% quarter-over-quarter increase, achieving an MIV of $52.2 million, which placed the brand in 20th place. Miu Miu also managed an impressive 49.3% rise, placing 17th with an MIV of $89.8 million.
 
Dior maintained its leading position across the different regions monitored by Launchmetrics, including China, Europe and the United States. Chanel, however, took second place in Europe, third place in the U.S., and fourth place in China. Gucci remained in third place in both Europe and China, but rose to second place in the United States.
 
In the United States, Marc Jacobs rose into the top five, knocking Saint Laurent into sixth place, while in China, it was Hermès that took fifth place, with Saint Laurent dropping into eighth position.
 
Noting that China was the only global luxury market to see growth in 2020 – leading many brands to up their marketing investments in the country – Launchmetrics also broke down the relative weights of different marketing channels in each region, highlighting the importance of adapting strategies to local trends.
 
Across China, Europe and the U.S., media was the strongest voice, accounting for 63%, 57% and 60% of total MIV, respectively, in these regions. However, while influencers were the second strongest voice in China (31%) and the U.S. (25%), in Europe (13%) they came in behind owned media, which represented 23% of total MIV. Owned media accounted for only 1% of total MIV in China and 4% in the United States.
 
The social media platforms used by influencers also varied from market to market. While Instagram was the overwhelming favorite for influencers in Europe and the U.S., in China the social media landscape is much more diversified, with platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu and Douyin jostling for the top spot.
 
As for the most valuable kind of influencer, in both the U.S. and China, “all-star influencers” with more than 2 million followers accounted for the highest share of MIV, followed by “mega influencers” with between 500,000 and 2 million influencers.
 
In Europe, however, mid-tier influencers, with between 100,000 and 500,000 followers, represented the highest share of MIV.