NOWNESS: A New Age in Digital Innovation

NEW YORK — Ten years ago, back in spring 2000, Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) launched eLuxury.com. The site became the pioneer in luxury “e-tailing” and a portal for its stable of brands, selling everything from Louis Vuitton bags to fine jewelry from Christian Dior.

Back then, online retailing was a concept unheard of. The Internet was a big, strange world that could potentially damage a luxury brand’s cache.

Knowing what we know now, it turned out to be a brilliant move for the conglomerate. Not only did LVMH build a strong web presence ahead of the pack, they made it easy for customers to experience luxury online — the merits of which have only been recently grasped by other brands and designers, who are now scrambling to make their presence felt via websites, e-commerce features and social mediums like Facebook and Twitter.

To stay on top, one needs to be steps ahead. In June 2009, despite achieving commercial success, LVMH closed eLuxury down.

Company statements hinted at a shift from commerce to content. And then just like that, eLuxury was gone. Fast forward to now and eLuxury is reincarnated as Nowness.com, a site where one can “view daily premieres of the most inspiring stories influencing fashion, contemporary arts and global lifestyle today.”

Intrigued by all these changes, On The Radar spoke with Kamel Ouadi, Digital EVP of Nowness.

ON THE RADAR: I used to shop at eLuxury and saw its transition from an e-commerce site to a content site. Why the shift to Nowness?

KAMEL OUADI: Eluxury.com was the first to get into luxury retailing, but it was time to move to another dimension, and that is Nowness.com

Your site says that Nowness is an exciting new way to experience luxury lifestyle online, featuring daily content from the most respected and innovative creatives working today. How does it tie in with the LVMH brands?

Nowness is a brand of the luxury group LVMH, but the content is editorially independent. First of all, will be open to luxury brands, high-end brands beyond LVMH. Each day, we are going to have one theme. For each theme, we are going to have one to three stories and these stories are entrenching the art and global lifestyle. It will have a kind of interactive format that will be a place for fashion and lifestyle lovers.

If you see the digital world today, you’ve got many sites actually talking about luxury. But we have many stories of what is important right now. You are going to learn something from us. We are going to produce exclusive original content. It will be fresh and pure. Also, it is a place to dream. It is also full of digital functions, the system and the platform is smart. Each experience is exclusive for the user.

You mentioned that the site features exclusive content, are all these works fully funded or sponsored by LVMH?

The content and production is totally covered by Nowness. When it comes to custom publishing with (other) brands, it will probably be a partnership type of relationship. In a way it is a promotion of the brands. But for the moment, advertising is not the primary focus. Probably one day, as soon as the traffic is high, and the brands are interested in custom publishing, then we will be able to craft digital marketing programs for the site and do advertising, possibly in a chic and elegant way.

Nowness intends to work with luxury brands outside the LVMH family, would you think that would be possible given that other luxury brands would probably want their own content site up and running?

Nowness is an independent site, so we are willing to connect with other brands beyond LVMH. We are going to cover travel, fashion, art, culture, sports, music, so we will have the possibility to connect with all luxury brands. As soon as the traffic grows, they will probably be interested. We are going to approach the brands based on the content, we will also be able to provide custom publishing. We are a producer of content, so we can produce stories for all brands.

Who decides on the content that goes on in the site? Is there an editorial team working on this initiative?

Nowness is working with several international teams. But we are open and generous and willing to connect. We are open to submissions. So content will be generated through the international network and from outside contributors. For instance, somebody from Japan wants to present their art, then, yes, they can submit their work for consideration. Nowness is open to featuring and collaborating with any creative individuals and brands.

In your interview with WWD.com, you said Nowness provides an online voice to represent the values of luxury. What are the values of luxury you are referring to?

Let me talk about luxury and digital luxury. Luxury is an emotion. For me, that’s how I see it. Luxury is based on the values and great stories of luxury brands. This is why content is important. I strongly believe that through Nowness, we can connect to luxury brands, produce content that will trigger emotions and engage emotionally with stories, that is one key point. As for digital luxury, we will be the standard. We will have the ability to connect different worlds in a way. So you’ve got the art of luxury — the product, the story, craftsmanship, the passion for excellence, and the notion of the time. And then you’ve got the art of speed of the digital world. We are trying to connect the two different things and create something new.

How can one feel digital luxury?

Luxury brands should produce content that triggers emotion. Each experience is unique, that is the art of luxury.

When you click through the site, you will receive tailored recommendations based on what you “LOVE / DON’T LOVE.” When you view a page, you can click “LOVE.” Through the functionality of love, you can explore again similar content, but if you “DON’T LOVE,” NOWNESS will serve something you are going to “LOVE” with content loved by other users who did not love the original piece. It’s really a way to navigate the content, the stories, and explore the new possibilities offered by digital innovation.

So Nowness can mean one thing for me, but can be a different thing for another person?

Right. Nowness will craft a luxury experience, for each user.

Designers and labels have just now discovered the benefits of online retailing. Proenza Schouler recently launched their own site, J.Crew and Isabel Marant are partnering with Net-a-porter. Are you completely ruling out the possibility of selling the works featured in the site?

Content will be broadcasted live. When it comes to distribution, which is probably your question, it will be part of the relationship to be built with advertisers. The site will be full of surprises in the coming months. But I would say the digital world is full of possibilities.

So let’s say I want something from the site, an artwork, would you link me up to a site that sells it?

We will, definitely. For the moment, e-commerce is not in the plan. Nowness is a medium, we will be happy to draw traffic to the site where users will be able to buy.

So is Nowness a work in progress? Will it evolve based on how people react to it?

It is the new generation of digital luxury and lifestyle media. Understanding your user with ongoing digital surprises. At Nowness, users will navigate content through “Explorer” in a very charming way based on the popularity of content. We are also going to partner with digital artists on an ongoing basis to design and provide new interfaces to the site to explore content.

So it is ever-evolving, learning from you as you engage with the site, tailoring content to your specific interests. With its intuitive user interface, the site offers dynamic ways of exploring the world of luxury.

Nowness.com officially launched on Feb. 25, 2010 with a slow-motion session with hairstylist Sam McKnight, photographer Matthew Donaldson and daughter/model Lily Donaldson. Since then, it has featured the techno-thriller Aanteni, with model Guinevere van Seenus in Rodarte as shot by Todd Coles and a clip from filmmaker Tim Meara who managed to capture the reclusive painter Lucian Freud on film.

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For your daily dose of luxury and the arts, visit http://www.Nowness.com/