“You had me at Net-a-Porter,” Marisa Abela’s Yasmin Kara-Hanani told Kit Harington’s Henry Muck in the season three finale of Industry. Earlier in the episode, Muck told Kara-Hanani that he could buy her clothes via his contact at Net-a-Porter, which would arrive in London the same day. It’s a level of access to ultra-luxury a select few can boast.
The in-show plug also had an off-screen spin-off: earlier this month, Abela and Industry co-star Harry Lawtey starred in the campaign for Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter’s winter capsule collections with Brunello Cucinelli.
“Working with talent has always been a huge part of our editorial content,” says Alice Casely-Hayford, content director at Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter. The goal of the campaign was to celebrate an “authentic relationship” and unite the two men’s and womenswear collections, she says. “[Abela and Lawtey] felt like the perfect choice — not only because of the well-dressed characters they play, but also thanks to their own shared appreciation for refined and understated, luxury fashion, which Brunello Cucinelli excels at.”
Last week, Succession’s Jeremy Strong released a co-designed sunglasses collection with designer Jerome Mage of Jacques Marie Mage, whose sunnies sell for $800 and up. Strong and Mage met when the actor asked Mage to design his character, media empire heir-apparent Kendall Roy, a pair of shades for the season four finale (and a pair for himself).
As we know from Emily in Paris, brands that capitalise on TV shows with high viewership numbers can generate high numbers of their own — in clicks and, to a lesser extent, purchases. Some brands are finding it most fitting to partner with only prestige television, often centring around the lives of the upper class, to grab the attention of wealthy, often young shoppers. Per HBO Max’s viewership stats, its largest user groups are in the 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 range. It’s these young audiences (Gen Zs and millennials) that, of all consumers, resonate with brands that engage via entertainment, storytelling and memes over traditional status symbols, says Jordan Mulvaney, creative digital strategist at marketing agency The Digital Fairy.
“By attaching yourself to a character, or being leveraged as a plot device that speaks directly to the lifestyle that you’d hope consumers aspire to, a brand can create a singular universe across culture,” says content creator and brand strategist Tariro Makoni. “The types of people watching shows like Succession and Industry have a visual language to attach to a very specific type of aspiration.”
For fashion, film is well trodded. Jonathan Anderson has teamed up with Luca Guadagnino, first on Challengers and now on Queer. Khaite loaned outfits for Sean Baker’s Anora. Saint Laurent co-produced three films at Cannes this year.
But television offers a different kind of opportunity. It’s longer running, retaining audiences for weeks at a time versus a couple of hours. And, with prestige television, though the viewership is large, it’s still niche enough to be a safe bet for brands. Succession’s season four finale, for instance, drew 2.9 million viewers on HBO and Max (not including delayed viewing) — a series high, up 68 per cent on the season three finale. Industry’s season three premiere drew 300,000 viewers across HBO and Max — up 60 per cent on season two’s. These fall below many of HBO’s more mainstream shows, from Game of Thrones to The Last of Us. The latter group may have the viewership, but their content doesn’t align with the high luxury brand world — nobody in Westeros or a post-apocalyptic US is walking around in a Khaite coat.
The crossover between luxury customers — existing and aspirational — is often baked into the audiences of prestige shows. “Because one might categorise these shows as ‘high brow’, there’s almost a self-selection that occurs for viewership. Prestige brands choosing to integrate with a show like Industry could never feel mass because the viewership is so niche,” Makoni says.
The cultural moment is right for this tie-up, says Michael Scanlon, chief creative officer of creative studio Chandelier, who references the “dynamic merging” between high culture and pop culture. “Fashion is entertainment, runway shows are a spectator sport and fashion business news is mainstream,” he says. “Luxury brands have permission to play in mainstream pop culture in a whole new way, but at the same time, they’ve got to maintain mystique. And that comes down to aligning with the right characters in the right way, at the right time.”
The aspiration-awareness cycle
Ultra-luxury brands are relatively low-key in their ties to prestige TV. Nobody mentions Kendall’s consistent Loro Piana baseball caps or Yasmin’s Saint Laurent dress in Industry. But if you know, you know.
Makoni characterises this as a chicken and egg scenario, especially given the shows’ younger consumer demographics. If the viewer already knew about Brunello Cucinelli and watched Industry, they’re excited to see their interests cross over in the real-world ad. “It makes them excited to interact with Cucinelli, because it feels like there’s a deeper resonance between this inside track of fashion and culture,” she says. And if they didn’t know about Cucinelli, but watched Industry, the ad heightens curiosity around what makes it special for the characters; and how it fits within the show’s universe. “And [the brand] knows that [viewers] know it’s readily consumable and accessible, [so barring cost] they’re inclined to want to participate,” Makoni adds.
The hunt for a product can add to the hype, Scanlon says, pointing to the audience discovering Merz B Schwanen’s $105 white tee that Jeremy Allen White wears in The Bear. “Any brand who thinks they make the perfect white T-shirt should be kicking themselves for not being on Jeremy Allen White,” he adds.
Television’s impact ought not be overstated, says The Digital Fairy’s Mulvaney. “At the end of the day, it’s still entertainment for everyone, while the show may be perpetuating ideas of the ultra-wealthy and what they may wear, the audience watching these shows isn’t necessarily watching it to see themselves reflected on-screen,” he says. Though the show may well drive desirability via ‘emulating your favourite character’ through fashion, television’s ability to influence buying trends will not match that of social media, where users follow creators and celebrities oftentimes for their style influence, he flags.
Selling prestige
The prestige TV strategy works because we as viewers often over-identify with characters in shows, experts agree. Audiences want to see their tastes reflected on-screen; and look to emulate what they see aspirational characters wearing in the show’s universe.
“I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve spoken to (friends, readers of my substack, followers on social media) who are waiting with bated breath to see Industry’s Kara-Hanani in Khaite so that they can share something niche, cool and in common with her,” Makoni says.
This can translate to purchases, too. Makoni points to the Kendall Roy Loro Piana baseball hat. “I’m sure that lots of older men were buying, but in real life, I tended to observe the hat being worn most by men who appeared to be earlier in their careers,” she says.
That said, brands need to be careful not to stray too far into the entertainment world, Mulvaney flags. “Not all audiences want ‘blended’ culture,” he says. “Merging fashion with entertainment reduces the sense of ultra-luxury to a product as some appreciate purist, traditional approaches.”
But in the context of 2024, in which the lines between fashion and entertainment are more blurred than ever, the luxury brands that recognise audiences’ affinities for — and investments in — the content they consume are the ones that will win. “This all reflects an expert understanding of consumer psychology as it relates to aspiration, and in-group/out-group identity formation,” says Makoni.
“Prestige consumption is always about signalling,” she adds. “Doing so within the context of high-brow television creates the perfect activation channels for these dynamics to occur.”
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