Seeing Cara Delevingne front a watch ad blitz is like watching the Biebs in his tighty whiteys for an underwear campaign. Shocking? Quite. Annoying? So so. Brill? For sure.
The last time Tag Heuer raised such interest with women and watches was back in the ’70s. Then it involved an Aquaracer, the Utah desert and a woman by the name of Bo Derek. Fast forward to today and another model – with an affinity for funny faces and tomboyish ways – is filling up those size 10 shoes. While this is the 22-year-old’s first major watch deal, there is no better time for it to happen. Here’s why:
1. She’s a marketing juggernaut: 9.3 million Instagram followers; 2.1 million Twitter fans; a fledgling film career (check out Michael Winterbottom’s The Face of an Angel later this year; and best-selling design collaborations (Mulberry & DKNY). In short, her name sells.
2. She’s got street cred. Just ask Tag Heuer’s new boss Jean-Claude Biver: “We needed someone disruptive yet elegant like Cara to open our minds to the brashness and boldness of today’s youth.” After clean-cut campaign girls like Maria Sharapova and Cameron Diaz, this change in image will help the brand recruit younger women and build its women’s business, which currently makes up 35 per cent of sales.
3. Now Mr Biver knows a thing or two about marketing watches. He was the man who turned around an almost bankrupt brand in the mid-2000s to making it an A-list brand today. That brand was Hublot.
Bobby, the lion cub, and Cara, the Leo at the Paris press conference last week; and Tag Heuer’s Formula 1 ceramic and steel wih diamonds with matching bracelet. (Incidentally, her star sign is Leo.)
4. She’s the poster tomboy model. The bulk of Tag Heuer’s flagship models – the Formula 1 series and ladies Carrera – are textbook macho and sporty. Go figure.
5. And who can resist the photos of Delevigne and a lion cub at the press conference in Paris last week? #cannottakeit.
