Baby Boomer marketing campaign on steroids

Marketers have long identified that Baby Boomers are attracted to products endorsed by celebrities. Louis Vuitton the French fashion design house has outdone itself with their current “where will life take you” marketing campaign. The list of celebrities is impressive with no less than Stefi Graf & Andre Agasi, Mikhail Gorbechev, Catherine Denevue and Rolling Stone’s guitarist Keith Richards all fronting the face of the campaign! “Countless Emotions…countless journeys” Louis Vuitton also tugs on the emotional heart strings of Boomers living life to the fullest and there is even a hint of nostalgia as all the celebrities are of yesteryear. Great campaign…if you are a boomer! Not sure how many Generation Xers this ad campaign will appeal to but I can’t imagine many and yet I’m sure that as Generation X approaches the heights of their careers (the oldest of the Gen Xers are nearly forty) they would form a large proportion of LV’s target audience.

Have a look at the campaigns micro site by following this link to the Louis Vuitton
site and then click on the LV core values film.

You get a narrated video tour of the celeb’s favourite city, you can also enter an interactive wardrobe to see what they would take with them on their journey and there is a video of the photo shoots for the campaign. As a Gen Xer this is all too naff for me and a bit old school web marketing. The micro site will not capture Gen X’s attention for long enough to keep them there and Boomers, well they are unlikely to even find the micro campaign site! LV have spent millions on this campaign and whilst the print campaign in magazines will work for Boomers as an integrated campaign it falls down. There are so many ways that this campaign could’ve worked for both Boomers and Gen Xers and yet it doesn’t because LV has not understood the underlying values of these two generations. For example LV could’ve created a online computer game where you could take the celeb on a gaming adventure, or even better LV should’ve created Keith Richard as an avatar in SecondLife, you could then have watch him on his journeys and “experienced” a “live” Stones concert… Instead you get an ad campaign with a very boring mirco website and some yesteryear celebrities…nice try LV, no cigar!

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