Creating Experiences is What We Do.

We work in the world of luxury and ultra-luxury often, and in the past 12-months I have seen more and more “experiences” in this space that are just straight gimmicks.

It feels like so many luxury brands have lost their way and are trying to create “innovative experiences” that just come off as silly and look desperate to try to be “on-trend”.

I watch luxury brand leaders celebrating these spectacles as “visionary” and “immersive storytelling” and “relevant to younger, experience-driven audiences” and “gamified fun”.

Are we assuming that younger audiences want to play games and that equals an experience? Yikes. Or any brand can go blend Luxury with Mainstreet experience models and the dissonance will be “fun” for all? Is it just a PR stunt designed for media coverage? If yes, does that alone come off tone-def to the modern consumer?

This escape-room from Hermes is one such experience. Trying to look fun and approachable with a Mainstreet activity makes me CRINGE for such a storied, expensive, and elegant historic house. This isn’t “playful”, in my view, it's out of sync.

To be fair to Hermes, this just happens to be one of many examples I’ve seen in the last few months as luxury houses and luxury hospitality struggle for what they can deliver that is fresh and new in the world of experiences. More and more, it feels like the emperor has no clothes!

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