Dive Brief:

• In the last year, luxury fashion brands have boosted their digital ad spending, according to a study by ad sales intelligence company MediaRadar. The report found there were 53% more luxury fashion brands advertising online during September 2015 than the same time the year before.
• Print ad spending, however, has largely held steady for luxury retailers, with MediaRadar reporting that high-end fashion print ads decreased by 2% over the last year.
• “Fashion ads have a better insulation from the print decline than most other industries,” MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman explained to Digiday. “In Vogue’s 700-page September issue, the customer perceives ads as a value rather than a distraction.”

Dive Insight:

High-end retailers have been notoriously averse to the Internet, with many only recently entering into e-commerce and digital advertising.

Though print ad spending saw a slight drop, MediaRadar reports that there was a 15% increase in ad spend across the top nine print publications. Krizelman partly attributes the slip to two unnamed low-performing titles. The increase in digital ad spend — and dip in print ad spend — comes at a time when magazine print revenues are expected to fall 1.8% this year to a new low of $17.4 billion, according to ZenithOptimedia.

The glacial pace at which luxury brands have shifted to digital comes down to several reasons, such as having more room to showcase their creative in print. 

“A high-end brand like Chanel loves print, because it gives them a large palette to market,” he said.

Another big factor is that high-end brands are concerned that e-commerce and digital ads can dilute the exclusive nature of their appeal, Sophie Doran, managing director of Digital Luxury Group’s content site Luxury Society, told Digiday.  

“The constant criticism with the Internet is that it is difficult to know who is actually on the receiving end of your message, a critical issue for luxury brands,” Doran said, adding that these retailers struggle with “understanding which platform and technology preserves the image that luxury brands spend so much time and budget cultivating.”

But not all couture labels are digitally shy: Valentino launched ads and videos on several fashion sites this year, including Who What Wear, Vogue.com and The Cut. And with more than 480,000 subscribers on its YouTube page, Chanel has set the standard for luxury brands on the video platform.  

Some fashion and beauty brands have found increased success on social photo-sharing app Instagram, which has visual ad products, like carousel ads, that offer retail marketers an artistic space to show off their products.