Dive Brief:
- Luxury watch maker TAG Heuer launched a year-long cinema and TV campaign celebrating the 60th anniversary of its Carrera watch, according to details shared with Marketing Dive.
- Key to the effort is a partnership with actor Ryan Gosling, who stars in a five minute campaign film, “The Chase for Carrera,” alongside actor Vanessa Bayer and filmmaker David Leitch (“Dead Pool 2,” “John Wick,”), whose production company, 87 North, produced the spot.
- The film is joined by efforts including teasers, posters, trailers and short capsules meant to encompass the spirit of a blockbuster movie. Additional activations of the campaign, made with DDB Paris, will span social media, out-of-home and print.
Dive Insight:
In the age of smartwatches, TAG Heuer is pushing past the conventions typically seen in the luxury watch market with an entertainment-driven campaign celebrating the 60th anniversary of its Carrera chronograph, a device that for a long time has been associated with racing.
“The Chase for Carrera” is fashioned after an action movie and stars Gosling, who is seen filming a commercial promoting the Carrera before Bayer, who plays a prop master, asks Gosling to return the watch that he wore during filming. Gosling at first pretends not to have the watch, before taking off and sending Bayer on a high-speed chase after him while driving a Porsche Carrera.
Additional Easter eggs are sprinkled throughout the film, including cameos from a young Jack Heuer, the great grandson of the founder of the now LVMH-owned watch company, and famous driver Jacqueline Evans De Lopez. The spot was directed in collaboration with Nash Edgerton.
The Carrera has a long connection to both racing and film making. Launched in 1963, the Carrera was designed to outfit motorsports enthusiasts with a capable wrist timer. In the 1970s, the movement inside the watch was updated from the original Valjoux movements to the Calibre 11, one of the first ever automatic Swiss chronograph movements. The Carrera over time maintained its high regard among racing drivers and is still worn today.
Like many luxury watches, the icon has also made its way to the big screen. While Omega has become synonymous with the James Bond series, Carreras can often be seen on the wrist of actors in racing and action movies. Matt Damon wore one in “Ford v. Ferrari” and Gosling himself wore a Carrera in “The Gray Man.”
While smartwatches are becoming increasingly common, the demand for luxury watches hasn’t gone away. Despite being plagued by shortages and inflated prices, the secondhand watch market is expected to reach $85 billion in the next 10 years. Watch collectors have also gotten younger. According to CEO of the haute watchmaker Audemars Piguet, Francois-Henry Bennahmias, the customers interested in the brand’s $20,000-and-up products are 10 to 12 years younger now than in recent history.
