No more Mr Nice Guy

She is as trashy, as over-the-top as ever. In Tudor’s new Born to Dare campaign, Lady Gaga strikes a pose in skintight leather, giant bouffant sleeves and fishnets, looking defiantly into the camera. It’s classic Gaga. Stefani Germanotta (her real name) dropped out of art school at 17 to become a pop star. Famous for having sold in excess of 150 million singles worldwide, she is equally notorious for using shock tactics to draw attention. Provocation? Marketing ploy? Diva?

How seriously should we take her extravagant behaviour? Tudor looks beyond the question and has hired the pop sensation to promote its new automatic 41mm Black Bay. The singer’s style is certainly a match for the brand’s new communication. Established in 1926, Rolex’s sibling has grown up these past few years. First it had its own booth at Baselworld, in 2013. Then it launched a proprietary movement, in 2015. There have been changes at executive level. That the brand should seek out new partners is a logical follow-on. Lady Gaga’s male counterpart is a certain David Beckham. The former football superstar models the Tudor Heritage Black Bay S&G in steel and rose gold, again for the Born to Dare campaign. For the brand to have courted the soccer star makes perfect sense. Beckham is a style icon, a non-conformist who likes to push himself to the limit, and in this respect he epitomises the “born to dare” attitude. It’s a win-win situation, with both partners garnering attention in a saturated market.

Common practice

Back in the 1990s, fashion turned to a form of shockvertising known as porno chic. Luxury brands jumped on the bandwagon of using eroticised imagery to sell their products. Today, porno chic is old hat, and companies need to push further in order to sell. Including watch brands. Companies that built their image on the fantasy of the artisan bent over his workbench while snow falls on the surrounding valley need to move up a gear. This is especially true for brands targeting a younger generation of buyers, as TAG Heuer knows.

For its connected watch, the brand brought in new faces – David Guetta, Nervo and G.E.M. – that are more relevant to its audience. Another ambassador to fit the bill is graffiti artist Alec Monopoly, who hides his identity behind a bandana and a hat. At one time, his graffiti almost landed him in jail; now he’s a sought-after artist, best known for his Monopoly Man character, a derisive take on the world of finance. He’s put his stamp on the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 01. Over at Hublot, tattoo artist Maxime Büchi, a.k.a. Sang Bleu, used his trademark geometric forms to stylise the Big Bang Sang Bleu Titanium. All these ambassadors prove that luxury can experiment beyond traditional boundaries without appearing imperialistic or arrogant.

Against the grain

By breaking the ambassador mould, brands have discovered new growth drivers in record time – something medium-sized firms especially can appreciate. Hautlence put itself in the public eye when it teamed up with Eric Cantona. The former footballing genius and artist has set the Neuchâtel brand firmly in the spotlight. No-one has forgotten his short fuse on the pitch or his bons mots, including the enigmatic “when seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think someone’s going to throw them sardines,” uttered before 500 bemused journalists at a press conference. Such a singular personality is ideal for a company that likes to turn classical watchmaking on its head. The same goes for HYT. There’s no labelling this artisan-creator whose inventive, eccentric watches display time with fluids. It has an atypical partnership with Axl Rose (purportedly an anagram of oral sex), co-founder and singer of Guns N’ Roses. Act 1: the frontman falls for a Skull Maori. Act 2: HYT makes a friend of the volatile Rose. Act 3: HYT issues a 25-piece limited edition Skull. Act 4: the start of a beautiful relationship between an unrepentant brand and a singer known for all manner of excess and with a reputation to live up to.

A more dynamic, more competitive watch business has a lot to gain from its associations with the artiste maudit. While he or she might lack the athlete’s six-pack or the actor’s easy smile, they tap into the imagination of consumers who are glued to their sofa but still dream of a life less ordinary. And they answer the question every brand is asking: how to capture the zeitgeist in artistic creations?