Business in the luxury sector has always been done physically.

For Swiss watchmaker, Hublot, their approach is more hands-on than most with strong emphasis in physical retail, trade shows and celebrity collaboration and endorsement.

So when lockdown arrived in 2020, the challenge was to reinvent the way Hublot does business in a world without physical contact.

With a history of breaking every convention in luxury watchmaking, Hublot are rightfully known as the rebels in their class. So, when the global pandemic arrived during their 40th anniversary, Hublot refused to put their celebrations on hold.

They instead hosted an event so exclusive, no one was invited.

“Exclusivity breeds desire” is a statement that’s inherent within the luxury sector, and particularly true for Hublot’s target demographic of the young rich. An inflation in interest correlates directly to products and experiences that are in short supply.

The strategic approach was to take exclusivity to the extreme. We turned the limitations of lockdown into our advantage by hosting a product event so exclusive, no-one was invited.

The Unattended 40th event celebrated the rich Hublot story through their watches and innovations, all within an interactive digital space before driving people through to purchase - and all done by elevating the idea of exclusivity.

On the day of Hublot’s 40th anniversary, we delivered the Unattended 40th.

We merged the digital and physical space, creating a seamless brand environment that acted as an event marketing space, an experiential platform, and retail shop floor. This was all housed on one centralized platform within Hublot.com.

We built a product event space featuring Hublot’s life’s work. After a live broadcast of the experience, it was recreated as an interactive digital space where people immersed themselves in the products and followed through to purchase.

The impact was a cultural one for Hublot, with the product event experience acting as a future blueprint for building relationships and doing business with the rich and famous.

The Unattended 40th became Hublot’s biggest ever event, yet not a single person was in attendance. Through the experience, Hublot would go on to sell more watches in the first 12 hours than a physical retailer would in an entire month.