High Net Worth Marketing + Luxury Advertising

Globally, half of all wealth is controlled by the top 1%. In the US, home to more millionaires than anywhere on the planet, this figure rises to 70% according to Boston Consulting Group [1]. And this distortion in economic value is only increasing. So it’s clear that high net worth marketing isn’t essential only to a few luxury brands. Criterion Global’s work in luxury marketing and media buying stems from fashion as much as financial services and luxury hospitality marketing. Why?

Because in the battle to reach high and ultra-high net-worth audiences (HNWIs + UHNWIs), paid media buying plays an outsized role. Brands that thrive and endure are those which create and sustain scarcity to enjoy a supply vs. demand imbalance and maintain relevance to the culture surrounding them. Done right, paid media buying creates that relevance and drives demand.

High net worth marketing can seem like a paradox. It’s about maintaining the scarcity of products and attracting an ever “scarcer” slice of society. Luxury marketing demands paid media buying tactics that “pull” prospects in – with the unique, special, and rare. This is a departure from standard “push” tactics common to mass consumer marketing. For a high net worth audience, you have to “know to know.” Ubiquitous awareness creates, as Scott Galloway aptly put it, “a generation of empty-calorie brands — Kylie Cosmetics, Dollar Shave Club, Andrew Tate — built on sand.”

The scarcity of products, and selective exposure creates value in the minds of discerning consumers. It’s not about blanket reach. Or likes. Or views. We create luxury marketing strategies that pique curiosity. Makes pulses rise. And makes the right eyebrows raise.

Worldwide, there are an estimated 578,625 ultra-high net worth individuals; those with $30MM+ USD in investable assets. Marketing to these privileged few requires a laser, not a cannon. Additionally, the ultra-wealthy are a nomadic group, which is why media buying in service of luxury and high net worth marketing demands digital and data fluency as well as a global mindset.

At its best, luxury marketing lends surprise and delight to brand discovery and customer acquisition. As the number of ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) grows along with their total wealth, and as consumers from emerging economies revel in refined appetites, both legacy brands and new entrants will continue to fight for share of mind and market.

Criterion Global successfully represents luxury brands as varied as timepieces with cross-generational appeal, international beauty brands releasing a new scent to a global customer, member-based home insurers tailor-made for a high net worth customer, to luxury footwear icons launching a digital-first shoe customization project. We bring the strategy and experience to move the grow share-of-mind and drive returns.

Whether you are looking to modernize or digitize your luxury marketing and media buying approach, expand to new markets, cultivate relevancy, or maintain loyal relationships that lead to enduring patronage, you need a luxury marketing buying partner who thinks beyond formula to innovate for your brand.

[1] High Net Worth Wealth: Top 1% Wealthiest Growing in Economic Power, Bloomberg [Paywall]