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Working the net: Raymond Weil

Swiss luxury watchmaker Raymond Weil has been flexing its social networking muscle in 2013, demonstrating its grasp of the importance of engaging with consumers and investing in creative marketing initiatives online.

“Raymond Weil was one of the first luxury Swiss watch brands to embrace social networking through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquared, Pinterest and so on,” says Marcus Braybrook, head of marketing and communications at Raymond Weil. “The main use is to communicate messages that show the consumer just how multi-faceted the brand is. This is achieved by releasing unique content and competitions that allow consumer engagement with the brand through curated experiences, as well as asking the consumers for their opinion on what the brand is doing.”

In February, Raymond Weil celebrated the ninth birthday of Facebook by re-routing all of its online website traffic to the brand’s Facebook page. The brand re-directed visitors from its .com site to its Facebook page in acknowledgement of “the shift in consumer behaviour and consumption of social media”. Visitors landing on the Raymond Weil Facebook page on February 4 viewed a message wishing Facebook a happy birthday, alongside a parallel history of the social media site and Raymond Weil since 2004.

“Social networking is an absolutely key element to Raymond Weil’s consumer messaging campaign,” says Braybrook. He adds: “Social networking allows us to share brand news directly with the consumer. It also allows us to show multiple brand personalities that we wouldn’t communicate in the traditional way.”

BOOSTING SPONSORSHIPS
More recently, Raymond Weil has ramped up its social networking influence to help with sponsorship arrangements. In June, the brand announced that it is now the title sponsor of live music platform Wired and is applying its marketing reach, including an extensive social media footprint and PR power, to help support performers by launching a multi-channel media campaign. It is also financing the creation of high-quality assets, such as professional performance videos that artists will be able to use across their own media platforms.

The Royal Albert Hall is also due to benefit from Raymond Weil’s marketing prowess using social media. From July, the brand became its official timing partner. Raymond Weil has plans in the pipeline to celebrate its status as official timing partner by using its music marketing experience to launch a multichannel media campaign. The campaign, which will maximise on Raymond Weil’s global marketing reach and extensive social and media footprint, advertising and PR, will communicate what the Royal Albert Hall has to offer to its global customer base.

As well as promoting brand awareness, Raymond Weil’s social networking approach is consciously used to support its retailers. “More and more we are using social networking to grow awareness of our brand,” says Braybrook. “We have also seen a significant spike in our retailers wanting to cross-promote with the brand using unique content and collateral. We now also have a store locator function on our Facebook page that directs traffic from Facebook to our retail partners’ sites.”

Looking ahead, Braybrook expects that social networking will be used for more than communications and marketing, and Raymond Weil has big plans. “All I can say is watch this space,” Braybrook teases. “In my eyes, social networking will become a direct selling tool where customers can purchase through their personal social media platforms.” No doubt Raymond Weil will be at the forefront of any exciting developments.

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