The idea is to allow permanently to be unpredictable

Long, the famous "malletier", created in 1837, voluntarily limited its registry of communication to poetic and dreamlike campaigns on the theme of "the soul of the trip." But soon, the dress was too narrow. Louis Vuitton (subsidiary of LVMH, owner of the "voices") grew took an international dimension. Between 1977 and 1990, its turnover climbed a few million to 4 billion francs, while the number of stores increased from 2 to 125. And when, in 1998, the company decides to launch a ready-to-wear line, accompanied by a collection of accessories, change seems logical.

Communication on fashion

While continuing its traditional campaigns, focusing on its eternal values - travel, the discovery of self through other cultures...-, Louis Vuitton and its Director artistic Marc Jacobs then borrow a parallel creative track. From 1998 to 2008, they attach to the legitimacy of the mark in the field of fashion, with a theatrical staging of the product, which are integrated more sharp "mode" codes of the time. New York designer Stephen Sprouse (disappeared in 2004), to the origin of the bags graffiti Vuitton, or the painter and photographer Richard Prince will thus work approach.

That is why in 1999 the agency Euro RSCG Works staged the first Louis Vuitton shoes. From the start, the tone is given: Ivy luxury and careful art direction. Erotic, fetish, domineering women, the spirit of the campaign is part of the right line "porn chic" transgressive characterizing the end of the Millennium. However, the brand advertising expressions move without resemble, each reflecting the spirit of the collection of the year. Two years later, Euro RSCG Works unveils the new urban collection of Marc Jacobs. On the Visual, a woman, dressed of Vuitton, walking in the streets of a city, "shootée" by the photographer Patrick Demarchelier mode. In 2002, delighted visuals show a snow white and a Cinderella dress Cape footing by the mark. While soon, Marc Jacobs made appeal to singer Jennifer Lopez to embody the 2003-2004 collections in an BETC Luxe signed advertising campaign. She succeeds to Scarlett Johansson and Diane Kruger, before that, in 2004, Uma Thurman, the heroine of "kill Bill", take the installation in turn.

But after ten years of communication on fashion, Louis Vuitton returned to what was long the DNA of the brand: travel, unexpected places, the characters out of standards. "It is said that it was time put the flat and make the connection between the wealth of products of the brand and its heritage values", said Pietro Beccari, the Director General of Louis Vuitton. Ogilvy takes the competition "with the concept that personalities with an exceptional destiny need to be accompanied by exceptional objects." "The key is to capture the intimacy between man and object", says Natalie Rastoin, Executive Director of Ogilvy. Captured by the objective of the US, Annie Leibovitz, the first part of the saga incorporates pictures of Catherine Deneuve and the couple's Andre Agassi-Steffi Graff. But, in France, the general public include especially that of Mikhail Gorbachev, in the back of a car along the Berlin wall, a monogram alongside her bag. The impact is exceptional. It is the first time that a change in time as strong as the fall of the wall symbol in advertising communication. Campaign raises more than 8000 pages of news articles in the world in three months. Sales soaring reflects this trend. Other stars come take over in 2008: Keith Richards, guitarist of the Stones, photographed in his hotel room, his guitar on the bed, then Sofia and Francis Ford Coppola case. However, no signature is accompanied campaigns since "Vuitton is a brand of luxury in multiple dimensions, so impossible to summarize one sentence", says Natalie Rastoin.

The stars and people to "stories".

In fact, it is plunging into the archives of the malletier and discovering the range of commands for crowned heads, great of this world, stars or explorers as Savorgnan de Brazza, creative had the idea to recruit ambassadors of the same barrel. "We did evolve the concept of travel to the destination to the destiny, adds the Director General of Ogilvy, referring to the film corporate for a minute and a half aired on the Net, in television and film. It was therefore essential to invite in the campaign of the great witnesses who share this idea. People personal horizons and different, policies, professional athletes, actors... .

Thus, in the fall of 2008, a few days before the release of the last opus of "James Bond" on the screens, the new Vuitton campaign staged actor Sean Connery, having already embodied a mythical 007 on the screen. "The strength of this campaign, note Beccari, is it surprising. It is never where expected it. But this is not because there was one Visual event that others will be. "However, for the final part of his campaign corporate last July, Vuitton commemorates the 40th anniversary of a famous trip to space by bringing together in print and on the Net, Sally Ride, which was the first American in space, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell, who commanded the Apollo 13 mission. "It is never in followership, always to the gap, explains Laurent Janneau, responsible for budget Vuitton at Ogilvy." The idea is to allow permanently to be unpredictable. This Visual, in respect of the initial strategy, surprising because expanded significantly the type of Ambassador that can afford to take. "There is not that stars, but people"to history", and famous writers for example. At the same time, the brand continues to communicate in fashion, especially around Madonna, friend of the designer Marc Jacobs. And at Louis Vuitton, it became a daily sport to imagine who will be the next face.

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