Louis Vuitton flaunts Mini Icons collection via vibrant video

French fashion house Louis Vuitton is showing off its Mini Icons collection in an upbeat social video that depicts the handbags in use by stylish women during springtime in Paris.

The label is sharing the 90-second video across its social channels and Web site to stir up interest for the set of small, brightly-colored bags. Handbag marketers often use online videos to show the characters that might use their products and the lifestyle of the brand.

“Featuring several fashion ‘It’ girls wearing the brand’s handbags, this video is clearly meant to elevate the brand in the minds of fashion insiders,” said Jordan Phillips, founder and director of Lure of Luxe LLC, New York. “It is a very playful and youthful video, which will translate well for social media.

“This Louis Vuitton video is fantastic,” she said. “It is nostalgic in a modern, fun way, and the 1960s pop art vibe ties right in with Marc Jacobs’ recent runway creations for Louis Vuitton.”

Ms. Phillips is not affiliated with Louis Vuitton, but agreed to comment as an industry expert.

Louis Vuitton declined comment.

Spring is in the air

The “Small Is Beautiful” video quickly flashes between many scenes. Some scenes show women enjoying themselves during a spring afternoon in Paris, while others show animations, graphics and handbags arranged in deliberate shapes.

Video still 

One of the first scenes shows an animation of the word “mini” in bright pink hues.

Video still 

This is followed by a brightly-colored graphic of the Louis Vuitton clover insignia and the word “love.” The same types of graphics are shown throughout the video.

The models in the video are Elin Kling, Hanneli Mustaparta and Miroslava Duma.

One scene, for example, shows the women walking across a Paris road wearing their Icon Mini bags across their body.

Another scene shows the women enjoying each other’s company at lunch.

Lunch scene 

The colors of the video reflect the bring pink and orange hues of the bags in the Mini Icons collection whereas the Paris setting represents Louis Vuitton’s heritage.

The video is set to lively music. Once in a while words such as “ooh la la” are sung.

Meanwhile, Louis Vuitton is also hosting a special shopping experience on its Web site that is centered on the Mini Icons.

Visitors to its Web site can click from the homepage to a checkerboard-like grid that shows images similar to those in the video and links to shop the collection in its squares.

When users hold their cursor over each image square it becomes animated.

Shopping experience 

Additionally, users can click certain squares to view the social video on Louis Vuitton’s Web site, view the entire Mini Icons line on another checkerboard and view images from the video.

Give a them hand

Luxury marketers often use social videos to push handbag collections.

For instance, French fashion label Christian Dior flaunted its Lady Dior handbag line as well as its J’Adore Dior fragrance in a social video titled “As If By Magic” to get consumers excited about spring fashion.

In the video, viewers enter into the world of Dior where handbags, shoes and other products seem to take on a magical quality (see story).

In addition, Fendi romanticized its fall handbag line and Italian roots through an exclusive short film in which its 2Jours bag had a starring role.

The chic female lead in the label’s “Romance 2Jours” film used her 2Jours bags as props during a seemingly top-secret exchange with another woman (see story).

Clearly, video is a visual medium that can be translated across all languages and cultures. Therefore, luxury marketers probably use video often so that their efforts have a global reach.

“Louis Vuitton is now an unquestionably global brand, so videos that do not require translation are great for targeting an international audience,” Ms. Phillips said.

“Louis Vuitton now has an abundance of different marketing and distribution channels, so creating fresh video content is a good idea for the brand,” she said.

Final Take
Tricia Carr, editorial assistant on Luxury Daily, New York