LE GRAND MAG Interview
Tom Claeren, a fresh vision of the luxury world
Tom Claeren is a bold artistic director who founded his eponymous company in Monaco two years ago. His passion for aesthetics and his unique taste for chic push him to always surpass himself to produce unique creative digital campaigns for luxury brands. Tom Claeren masters the visual codes of luxury aesthetics and perfectly knows how to translate them for every niche such as the supercar industry, travel, fashion, lifestyle, watches and jewellery, yachting...
With a true understanding of the requests from prestigious houses, his vision and personal touch give rise to campaigns that are highly noticed both locally and internationally in the luxury field. Numerous luxury brands have already recognised and experienced the talent of Tom Claeren and his team, with regular requests for tailor-made digital campaigns. A few of these brands include Aston Martin, Bentley, Brooks Brothers, Château d’Yquem, Chopard, Dom Pérignon, La Réserve, Louis Vuitton, Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer, Panerai, The Ritz-Carlton and more.
What does “luxury” mean to you?
According to me, luxury is becoming more of a set of experiences and emotions conveyed by products and brands rather than the physical product itself. Clients are looking to live something special and unique in the luxury field and keep exceptional memories.
What do you want to communicate through your creative campaigns?
I am passionate about cinema and photography, and I want to inspire people with beauty. Creating amazing stories and visuals for heritage brands to engage with an international audience, make people dream, motivate them to become better, and surpass themselves.That is also my own goal in life.
I also hope that the campaigns I produce will make a difference for the brands I am working with by building a strong brand identity and helping them to go to the next level.
What do your followers expect from you?
We have positioned ourselves on the very high-end luxury market. We mainly focus on goods, luxury lifestyle, and unique experiences. All of that communicated with sleek and very qualitative visual materials as regards of photos and videos as we produce creative concepts and digital campaigns for various players of the luxury industry. Our audience is 80% masculine. They come to our media to enjoy beautiful and well- done content and be aware of the latest news in the luxury field linked to supercars, superyachts, destinations, and luxury hospitality, watches, fashion for men, and so on.
Do you think that every luxury sector has a different language when speaking to its influencers?
Well, each luxury sector will adapt its relationships with the influencers depending on the product and experiences they want to promote and depending on their strategies. Of course, you cannot approach hospitality the same way as the watches sector, for instance. Each segment has its dedicated codes, and it is essential to perfectly master them all to be able to speak the same language as the brand you’re dealing with. Then you have to translate all of this in pure emotion to reach the final consumer. Influencers are playing an important role for the brands they are representing, and it can be very beneficial for big names to use them to build their brand image, give a lifestyle dimension, or a new vision to the brand and help them to create awareness. However, it can also destroy the brand image influencers are not well chosen. This is a crucial step to not miss for every brand in general.
With the pandemic, how has your way of communicating changed?
With the pandemic, we focus on projects which are now in a close geographic area that we can reach by car most of the time. We are still focusing on creating magic and supporting our clients and partners within the luxury industry. Our way of communicating hasn’t changed: we just needed to adapt ourselves to this unprecedented crisis.
With a growing community on social media gathering more than 600K followers, Tom shares his most beautiful content through unique experiences as an influencer and brand ambassador. Indeed, mastering the art of communicating through various media channels, what is important to him is to inspire an international community with beauty.