The Situation: Louis Vuitton has continuously revolutionized travel over the centuries, from creating ingenious closing systems in the 1800s, to turning travel trunks into treasure chests. With China’s borders closed in 2022, Louis Vuitton took its historical connection to travel to the next level, riding on Chinese travelers’ newfound love for domestic destinations like the seaside town of Aranya, and making their on-ground experiences even more memorable for its SS23 show.

The Brief: As one of the few brands daring enough to hold a live show within the uncertainty and instability of China in 2022, Louis Vuitton wanted to not only make the show happen with physical guests, but also go bigger than ever by creating more attention and buzz than ever before for its show online.

The Objective: Build mass awareness and buzz for Aranya’s Spring Summer 2023 men’s fashion show ahead of the day and on the day.

With Aranya as a location, there was an unparalleled opportunity to blend Louis Vuitton’s DNA which is intrinsically linked to travel, imagination and creativity with the town’s unique aesthetic, lifestyle, and community.

Riding on this opportunity, the idea was to create experiences and activations that would synergize Louis Vuitton’s DNA with Aranya’s local hotspots in every way imaginable, whilst extending the experience nationwide through content and livestreams.

Target audience: The activation was focused around three audiences: VIP show attendees who are critical business drivers for the brand, attending the runway show to identify, reserve and purchase items on display, followed by affluent tourists in Aranya and viewers nationwide.

Approach: Synergize with Voyage in Aranya.

With borders closed, and sporadic lockdowns an imminent threat, consumers were hungrier than ever for hyper-local experiences and cultural currency. In this context, there was a unique opportunity to not only feed their hunger with one of China’s few live physical runway shows, but to go beyond the show, with hyperlocal experiences infused with Louis Vuitton’s travel DNA.

In September 2022, Louis Vuitton’s dynamic brand experiences immersed Aranya in every way imaginable. Creating installations and a runway show on the beach-sand, enhancing the transportation experience with creative out-of-home on cross-roads, buses and even golf-carts, and elevating exploration of the city through activations in the town’s cultural hotspots and communities.

The activations didn’t stop on the outside, with the brand hosting 24-hour Chinese independent artist screenings inside Aranya’s cinema, contemporary dance shows and guided art tours in other major cultural locations, and even making a cup of coffee unforgettable.

Every activation was designed to create lasting memories of Louis Vuitton in Aranya, memorializing late creative director Virgil Abloh’s imagination and legacy. Through a livestream broadcast partnership with the leading street culture community platform Dewu, Louis Vuitton extended the entire experience to young fashion forward audiences across China & scaled its activations and show across all social channels.

This complete brand experience made Louis Vuitton the singular conversation in Aranya that mattered to VIP attendees and affluent tourists, as well as the center of attention in China’s digital fashion communities.

The Aranya show drove a 77% conversion from show attendees within 24 hours, with total sales up 65% and total orders up 129% compared to the previous show.

With more than 290 million views, the show’s livestream dominated the attention of China’s affluent, driving a 34% increase in viewership compared to previous shows.

The experience led to a strong impact on business, with search spiking 900% across top digital channels.

This campaign was a perfect demonstration of the impact a powerful brand experience has across the engagement funnel.