The development and application of NFTs has gained great attentions. Especially, with the eyes on the potential of Metaverse and Web 3.0, NFTs are regarded as one of the foundational parts of the future internet. The main contribution of NFTs is the innovative solution for creating digital uniqueness through its property of non-fungibility. With this property, the ubiquity caused by replicable data on the current internet can be advanced with NFT-backed uniqueness, which can assist in certifying authenticity, authorship, and possessions of contents, products, and assets online. This has tremendous meaning for the luxury brand industry, which has been struggling with the ubiquity of the internet for years. The emergence of NFTs, however, represents hope and a potential mean to represent scarcity in a digital context. By the use of NFTs, luxury brands’ conservative digital marketing strategies and their ways of production design, marketing, consumer management could be fundamentally changed. This study aims to discuss the NFT marketing strategy from the perspective of luxury brands. Particularly, the study will investigate the desirability strategies in these luxury NFT cases. To do so, the study uses a socio-technical perspective to understand how luxury brands embody the desirability strategy through NFTs, by considering the technical factors of NFTs (i.e., design, issuance, and ecosystem functioning) and social factors of desirability (i.e., exclusivity, rarity, prestige, and creative leadership). The study explores applicable strategy of how to realize luxury desirability through NFT technics. As a result, this study investigates 39 luxury NFT cases from 2021 to 2022, including the NFTs launched by famous luxury brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, and KARL LAGERFELD. The study showcases three within-case analyses to exhibit vivid examples of NFT innovations. Besides, the study generates a common framework by a complete cross-case analysis. The framework contains three domains and seven dimensions to guide further luxury NFT innovations and contributes to theory development in the field of NFT marketing and branding.

The current paper examines how parasocial interaction (PSI), imaginary and illusory relationships with fashion designers, enhances luxury consumers’ social media contributions. SEM results (Mplus 7.4) from an online survey with visual stimuli (n = 555) show that PSI with fashion designers increases opinion leadership and content production. Specifically, opinion leadership mediates the impact of PSI on user-generated content (UGC) creation, but not electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Luxury consumers only produce UGC when their leadership abilities are emboldened through PSI with fashion designers. Overall, these findings contribute to a growing body of digital luxury studies while helping luxury firms to counterbalance their legacies and brand awareness through social media.

Small, independent and privately owned luxury companies face a number of challenges in today’s globalized and increasingly digitalized luxury market dominated by big luxury groups. However, the Internet and Social Media also create new opportunities. They enable luxury brands with limited resources to reach out to an international clientele and build brand awareness. Moreover, new channels and platforms allow for multifaceted storytelling, interactive communication with customers and data analysis for quick and continuous learning and improvement of strategies. While many luxury brands have long struggled in the digital sphere, which in many cases represents the exact opposite (e.g. openness, accessibility, dynamic change, etc.) of what luxury stands (or stood) for, a growing number of young and daring luxury brands with no legacy and heritage, embraces digital technology as an important, if not vital part of their business model from day one. Given the often high investment needed to start and sustain a company in the luxury segment, “born digital” luxury start-ups need to show a great deal of creativity, pragmatism, flexibility and a good sense for the actual tastes and preferences of their globally dispersed target group in order to be successful and cut out their share of the market in due time and despite fierce competition. By analyzing the case of VAULT, a Swiss luxury watch brand founded in 2014, the present study explores the main challenges of the young luxury brand with regards to positioning, communication, distribution and business development and the role of the Internet and Social Media for the company’s success. By deriving recommendations for similar brands, the study aims at a practical, but also a theoretical contribution.