Five New Growth States for Luxury in 2025
Article By Havas Media Lux
2024 was a turbulent year for the luxury sector, marked by declining profits for leading brands, the collapse of key e-commerce platforms like Matches.com, and ongoing uncertainty regarding creative leadership.
Despite these challenges, the future of luxury appears promising. In November 2024, Havas Media Lux released a new piece of bespoke research titled “The New Codes of Luxury: The Second Chapter.” This study surveyed ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) as well as regular luxury consumers from the UK, China, and the Middle East, examining their spending habits and behaviours. Havas identified five transformative luxury states that highlight the key imperatives for today's luxury consumers. This research is crucial for brands and marketers in how they show up, as they navigate the upcoming year and the ever-evolving luxury landscape.
1. The Memory Makers are taking center stage
Luxury’s new audience, The Memory Makers
The Memory Makers, primarily aged 55 and older, seek significance in their purchasing decisions, engaging in a meaningful value exchange with each choice they make. They prioritise experiences and often focus on commemorating important milestones. This group tends to buy autobiographical items to create lasting memories that can be passed down through generations. Memory Makers take their time to thoughtfully evaluate their purchases, ensuring that each decision adds value and joy to their lives.
What does this mean for media in 2025? It's important to recognise that we’ve encountered this audience before. For many luxury brands, "The Memory Makers" are loyal fans who have potentially been overlooked in favour of attracting Gen Z consumers more recently. However, Memory Makers are the ones with the current spending power, and they play a crucial role in driving the immediate growth of the luxury sector. There is a significant opportunity to re-engage them by offering meaningful and memorable experiences that will resonate long after the moment has passed.
2. Accelerated tribes and niche communities are supercharging culture
Niche communities, whether centred around sustainability, tech innovation, or cultural heritage, are becoming the new epicentres of influence. Havas Media Lux’s research found that 25% of those surveyed want to be more unique and different. 59% consider their tastes to be more niche, and a huge 81% agree that communities formed around shared interests shape culture. Culture is playing a big role in the shaping of new luxury; it’s a way to talk to people’s passions rather than purely selling products, and this is backed up by the stats—a huge 79% like it when they recognise niche cultural references in branded content or entertainment. For this reason, successful brands are finding ways to authentically show up and connect with their consumers in culture, through these niche entry points. The brand excelling in this is undoubtedly Loewe. Loewe manages to use culture to elevate the overall brand; so, when you buy something from Loewe, you’re buying something that is of culture and cultured, rather than purchasing something that is simply of the moment.
What does this mean for media in 2025? Luxury brands should focus on targeting tribes rather than demographics by connecting with people at their passion points, regardless of their age, location, or wealth. Take it a step further—when pursuing a cultural moment as a brand, delve into the subculture and understand the motivations behind it to establish a meaningful connection with your audience.
3. The category has become more meaningful and self-expressive
Tiffany & Co. @ Selfridges
As consumers increasingly seek experiences and products that resonate with their personal values and identities, luxury brands are focusing on creating bespoke offerings that tell unique stories. Havas’ recent study found that 82% of brands could disappear without anyone noticing or caring. Additionally, 33% of consumers are looking for luxury brands that align with their values. Perhaps for this reason, 79% of people feel a connection to and prefer products from collaborations. In 2024, Tiffany & Co. enhanced their collaborations by partnering with Pharrell, Pokémon, and, most recently, taking over the windows at Selfridges & Co and in partnership with artists like Damien Hirst during the Frieze Art Fair. This strategy aims to make the brand more meaningful to consumers and better express its brand personality.
What does this mean for media in 2025? 26% of affluent consumers currently use adblockers but spend up to 2-3 hours daily exposed to OOH. OOH has rapidly become an integral channel for luxury brands, with 61% of Millennials trusting OOH v’s 51 social. Not only has it become one of the most trusted media channels, but DOOH increases emotional engagement and drives positive perceptions, making it a more meaningful choice. OOH takes on many forms, be that more traditional formats across the high street, to more innovative formats in airports and key retail locations – with shop fronts becoming owned experiential activations and beyond.
4. Entertainment is the now – creativity, innovation and storytelling are a prerequisite
Scarlett Johansson, Prada
In this new landscape, the most sought-after luxury brands will spark the imagination, evoke emotions, and offer a sense of wonder and discovery. As part of their research, Havas Media Lux found that 36% of people in the UK are bored by influencers, 84% agree that ads can be an art form, and 44% find luxury brands exceptionally creative and appealing. Prada has tapped into this by collaborating with actors like Scarlett Johansen for their most recent campaign and partnering with Red Bull to create long-form entertainment pieces. Other luxury brands like Dior have taken entertainment one step further, creating The New Look series on Apple TV.
What does this mean for media in 2025? In today's turbulent market, innovation is essential for engaging luxury consumers, especially those identified as "The Memory Makers." Luxury brands that focus on creating unique and memorable experiences rather than relying solely on traditional media will be able to reconnect with their loyal advocates and attract new, modern luxury consumers. Collaborating with the right brand ambassadors and forming strong brand partnerships are sure-fire ways to achieve this. Adopting a more curated approach to media that emphasises fewer, bigger, better activations - honing in on the most effective channels for your core and growth audiences - will always be the most meaningful, effective strategy.
5. Future growth is in luxury travel and hospitality
In this evolving landscape, luxury is not just about the opulence of a five-star hotel but the richness of the journey itself, offering unforgettable moments that resonate long after the trip ends. Luxury travel is expected to increase by 8% per year by 2030, and a growing rise in travel and hospitality collaborations shows that a preference for luxury travel is set to stay. Further fuelling this, full brand immersions and takeovers are also on the rise, with LVMH recently having teamed up with Accor to launch Orient Express luxury trains, ships and hotels. Havas Media Lux found that 29% of 55+ see luxury travel as the most innovative category, making it key for The Memory Makers, who state that travel is their second top luxury purchase.
What does this mean for media in 2025? New luxury customers are increasingly seeking unique and diverse experiences. To captivate this audience, brands must create immersive experiences that engage consumers in new and creative ways, putting the consumer first, ultimately leaving a lasting impression on their consciousness. We’ve seen brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Jacquemus, and Gucci embrace this approach through beach club collaborations and pop-up events. More recently, this trend has begun to emerge in airports—last October, Louis Vuitton launched Le Café Cyril Lignac, it’s dedicated Heathrow Terminal 2 café, brining a luxury world to emerging and existing luxury consumers.
To find out more about The New Codes of Luxury: The Second Chapter, get in touch with Havas Media Lux via Hmgukcomms@havasmg.com.