Ahead of the Mobile Marketing Fashion & Luxury Summit, taking place in London on 22 October, we spoke to Tammy Smulders, managing partner of LuxHub, Havas Media’s luxury business, who will be presenting at the event.

Can you tell us a bit more about LuxHub?

Havas LuxHub is the luxury practice within Havas, the 5th largest global communications company.  Our purpose is to deliver the deepest understanding of the luxury, fashion and retail industries to clients of these fields, and apply this knowledge to every aspect of their marketing, from brand strategy to media planning and buying to creative services.  We were launched about 9 months ago, and bring together the existing Havas clients including the likes of Hermes, the Net-A-Porter Group, LVMH and Hugo Boss, along with great new clients we have won under the LuxHub banner including Paul Smith, Michael Kors, Smythson, DeBeers and Whistles to name a few.

What prompted Havas Media’s decision to create this specialist department serving the luxury community?

Havas had already had an impressive client list in the luxury sector, and also, LuxHub was launched in Italy by Isabelle Harvie-Watt, our global CEO,  several years ago.  The decision was taken to develop LuxHub as a global centre of excellence in luxury for Havas, joining my expertise working with luxury clients such as Chanel, Burberry and Christie’s at SCB Partners with that of Isabelle’s.  We’ve also launched offices in the USA with an impressive team let by Rachel Conlan, as well as Spain, China, Dubai, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Paris and others coming soon.

Based on your experience, what have you found to be the biggest challenges facing fashion & luxury brands in developing their mobile offering?

There is so much conversation around mobile in respect to fashion and luxury brands, and it can often be challenging to make sense of it all and to develop a strategy.  Furthermore, the mobile landscape is changing so rapidly, it can be hard to keep pace with it all.  The exciting thing is that mobile is truly becoming a transformational media channel for fashion and luxury brands.  The luxury customer is constantly on the go.  They are getting ideas about luxury and fashion on Instagram, FT How To Spend it, the Economist or Vogue.co.uk.  They are putting items in their shopping baskets on Net-A-Porter or Mr. Porter.  Mobile purchase figures are increasing year-on-year.

Can you give us a sneak peak of some of the trends you will be taking a more detailed look at on your presentation?

I’ll be presenting the 10 trends you need to know about in luxury, fashion and mobile!  There are so many – it was tough to get down to just 10… I’m very excited about the role of mobile in London Fashion Week right now – we’re expecting to see an explosion of usage of Periscope and Meerkat as key bloggers present their take on the show real time.  Of course, there are breakthrough technologies in shopping, and instant recognition – or a sort of ‘shazaming’ of fashion and other luxury product will make it possible to photograph anyone on the street, identify what they are wearing and the customer will be sent to a mobile retailer to buy.  UK and Irish start-ups like Snap Fashion and Style Eyes are at the forefront of this.  Needless to say, social shopping will be one of the big things we can look forward to.  In addition to retailers like Net-A-Porter (with the Net Set) launching social retail, Instagram is rapidly becoming a new storefront, with style leaders creating links from their Instagram to retail sites and taking commissions of 3% to 20% depending on their profile and arrangements.

What do you think the future of mobile holds for the luxury industry in the UK, and is it set become a global leader when it comes to deploying mobile technology?

The UK is already the global leader in luxury e-commerce.  We have leading companies such as the Net-A-Porter group, ASOS, and Farfetch based right here in the UK, as well as brand leaders in the digital space including Burberry and Topshop.  Equally, the UK shopper is the most advanced in the world – PWC research shows that 27% of consumers are now shopping online on a weekly basis; furthermore, tablets and smart phones will account for 25% of online retail sales by 2017.  Both as innovators in and as consumers of mobile technology, I truly believe we are at the global forefront here in the UK.

The Mobile Marketing Fashion & Luxury Summit will take place in London on 22 October. You can apply to attend here and stay up to date with all developments on the event via #MMSummits.