F6846 2 copy

Q&A: Daniel Ozel on Festina’s 2016 lifestyle ambitions

Daniel Ozel, of Festina’s UK distributor Unique Jewelry, answers our questions on the brand’s activity in 2016 and what it is looking for by exhibiting at International Jewellery London in September.

 

What are your brand’s goals in the UK in 2016?

We have a new marketing strategy for Festina and new brand ambassador with Gerard Butler the Hollywood actor. This will add a new dimension to the Festina marketing campaign and will go more into lifestyle and fashion, targeting a new and wider audience. The feedback from customers for this was very positive. But Festina will still continue sponsorship and association with cycling, and we will still sponsor the Tour of Britain and other cycling events. We will also try to target more end consumers with continuing advertising in fashion and lifestyle magazines, like GQ, Men’s Health and Esquire. But besides this we will also add online marketing and social media campaigns to raise the whole brand profile and brand awareness with end consumers directly.

We hope this increased marketing activity will help our existing retailers to profit from this and increase sales for them, but we also try to secure new stockists with these activities.

 

What progress have you made in the last 12 months?

Sales were up by 18% in 2015 compared to previous year and also this years numbers are positive so far with a good plus. This is due to a combination of a growth with existing stockist, but also new accounts. We had a very good show in Basel and in general things are going in the right direction. And we hope to continue this with the new marketing activity.

 

What are you looking to achieve by exhibiting at IJL?

We have already been exhibiting Festina watches for three years at IJL and feel that this long-term strategy now pays off and customers appreciate this and become more comfortable with the brand. We hope to see our existing stockist at IJL as well as winning new stockists.

 

What will you be showcasing?

We will try to showcase all-new designs from Basel, alongside bestsellers and brand new models. which will be released in September. There will be an exciting new retro/vintage collection and some models with moonphase functions or automatics. Also a smartwatch is in preparation and we hope to showcase this at IJL.

 

What do you like about the IJL formula?

IJL is perfect timing-wise, because customers buy for Christmas business. So we tend to get bigger orders. The quality of buyers is good with good independent retailers as well as some key players.

James Buttery

Editor of WatchPro, the WatchPro Hot 100 and The Luxury Report.

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