- Hyper
- Posts
- How premium brands should approach social media
How premium brands should approach social media
Learn how to leverage core themes of your brand and apply them to consumers online.
Hyper
November 01, 2024
We hope everyone survived workplace Halloween parties and the candy-rush actions of your spawn.
This week, Clayton waxed lyrical about 90s fall style and recapped his London pop-up shop, while Oren prepped for Black Friday with Squarespace and spoke at Make with Notion.
Full talk with Oren, Zaria from Duolingo and Nash from The Browser Company on “Building Bleeding Edge Brands” with Notion below.
Today, we cover:
How luxury brands should approach social media
Making great briefs
Learning to think like an art director in your day-to-day
Oren’s taking Valuable to ComplexCon
+ a reminder that the last Cut30 short form video bootcamp of the year kicks off 11/5
Let’s begin.
What does luxury social not living up to its potential look like?
For Celine, it’s an empty TikTok feed.
Fendi’s last 20 TikToks didn’t crack 10k. And Rove Concepts can’t hit 10k on Reels.
The Four Seasons’s IG is desperately chasing the 2017 Instagram photo aesthetic.
What do these examples tell us about the common theme here?
There’s no storytelling. They telling without showing. There’s no personality or value; it’s just asking people to look at them without understanding what makes people want to.
For larger brands, this is operating off of ego.
The good news is that this can be changed in ONE video. Here’s a breakdown of how to make luxury content compelling.
1. The archives
Create content that gives a glimpse into the history of a brand, and its objects, curiosities, and moments. Many brands are afraid of TikTok in particular, and I encourage them to realize that for a younger generation, many don’t know the brand, or if they’ve heard the name, they don’t know why or how it became what it is.
That journey, and the countless sums invested in product development, photos, or videos from the past, is the perfect source of content — to give people perspective on how a brand became what it was.
It is even better when presented by a fun personality, like Ira from Amex or the staff of the Ritz London, as we show below.
The perfect opportunity to hire a creator for a series.
Here’s an example 👇️
@americanexpress Ira the Archivist celebrates 40 years of Platinum history #withAmex 🥳
2. The creation
This might be easier conceptually, but it requires investment in excellent videography, using high-quality shots and documentation to show the craft of the process. For a luxury brand, properly executing this one is key because the end product informs the perception of the brand.
Here’s an example 👇️
3. The experience (from the product)
Showcasing luxury products—whether a location, dinner plate, couch, or dress—in their real environments, with a documentary-style focus on the choices behind them, creates a blend of artful documentation and aspirational viewing.
Think of every moment in your purchase or use process. Serving a salad on a plate, picking where a couch goes in a room, fitting a suit or dress.
These are the moments an audience will follow along with.
Here’s an example 👇️
@theritzcarlton Afternoon tea crafted in Tokyo #rcmemories
4. The experience (told by its people)
Similar to our previous point, document the characters in your brand’s world in their natural environment. The people who have obsessively built and worked on a brand over time are often its best ambassadors, getting an opportunity to show their passions.
Here’s an example 👇️
@theritzlondon A final taste of summer before we embrace the warm flavours of autumn in The Palm Court. 🍰 The Ritz Tea Master, Giando, presents our take ... See more
5. Luxury as art
If you execute it properly, you can also use social as purely as a “views and branding” play. Using branded items, motifs, or just pure artistic enjoyment, embracing the brand association with something masterfully beautiful.
Here’s an example 👇️
@burberry Burberry at Harrods. 1 – 29 February 2024 #Burberry
6. Guide to a lifestyle
One we rarely see but would encourage more brands to consider is a complete guide to a lifestyle - from yachting, to fine suiting, to fishing, what is the luxury version of the most comprehensive, detailed tutorial and historical series known to man?
7. Create a personality
Don’t want to do this on a brand account? Develop a personality with opinions on the founding team.
Contrary to popular opinion, this content isn’t always a creator-founders game. The Kreiss CEO talks to his audience all about taste from his personal platform.
Here’s an example 👇️
“But what if we don’t have a budget like this?”
A few things here.
These examples are for luxury brands; they assume you’re spending money on videography, and this will be money well spent.
Smart teams are batch-creating these 20 documented videos in a one-day shoot rather than continued approaches.
But most important: if you are not a luxury brand, all these same angles apply and do NOT need the same level of presentation to gain momentum — an iPhone will do.
It’s about real ideas with value and interest, and acting on them.
If you want to strategize and make content for you or your brand with an accountable group, the next CUT30 kicks off next week!
This is the last one of the year if you’ve been waiting to up your content… join now.
How to make Ads people stop scrolling for 💡
Look, we’re all tired.
Making eye-catching paid ads has never been more challenging.
And if what Meta says is true—that 56% of auction outcomes are driven by creativity—then the problem isn’t the user; it’s how you execute those creative ads.
Talk to any brand that uses paid successfully, and they’ll tell you they are testing paid creative 24/7.
But how do they keep all those ideas fresh and know which ads actually work?
That’s where MagicBrief enters the chat.
Their platform helps you bridge the gap between your creative and performance teams. They’ve built a platform that combines a library of ad inspiration, options to track competitors, and even tools to analyze your own creative—all in one place.
Learn why 3,000+ performance teams trust MagicBrief to fuel their growth.
Hyper readers get their first two months free 👇
Art Direction 101 (with homework)
The realization will kick in at some point that we’ll all be shooting photos forever. Of our friends, our family, for our brands. In this video Oren goes through a base level of art direction that anyone can use to easily upgrade the photos they take. First in a series where we’ll tackle more complicated topics in the art direction world after we’ve build the foundation. Reference moodboards on Cosmos are in the description for all the photos included!
Exercise: Create your personal reference board
Something new we’re trying at HYPER is adding in exercises you can do to take action from the newsletter. This week, our challenge is for you to build a personal photo reference board.
Use Cosmos, Pinterest, Are.na whatever you prefer, and put together a board of 10+ images of composition you want to try, and actions to consider when shooting versus someone standing still. Next time you go to grab a shot, refer back to the references and give something new a shot!
Valuable goes to ComplexCon
A brand update: Oren is taking his brand, Valuable Studios, to ComplexCon in Vegas this year!
This year's event is CactusCon, creatively directed by Travis Scott. A massive lineup of brands will exhibit, and Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, and Metro Booming will headline the audio portion.
If you’re looking to see how the youth respond to your brand or what they receive in general, no better place to see it. We’ll be documenting the journey as well!
If you come to the event, come by for a free tech pack journal courtesy of us and Crease Group.
Flyer design by our friends Darkroom and their Dark Arts program.
Hyper reports
Check out our market reports. We spend many hours researching markets, categories, and brands & products within the consumer space so you don’t have to.
Inquiries? Shoot us a note here: [email protected]
We’d love to chat!