Matt Ferebee is cofounder and chief creative officer of brand strategy and creative agency FerebeeLane By Matt Ferebee
In luxury branding, age is a powerful yet complicated currency.
Time can signal exceptional craft and legacy, or neglect and decline. From storied hotels and heritage automobiles to barrel-aged spirits and heirloom leather goods, the key lies in distinguishing between mere longevity and genuine significance.
Marketers who blur that line risk alienating the very consumers they hope to engage.
Longevity is luxurious
Calling any older resort “historic” or labeling every established brand “heirloom” reduces nuance to spin. Equally misguided are campaigns that bully buyers with grandiose claims about pedigree or rarity.
These approaches don’t leverage time’s value — they just label it. Adding a founding date to a resort’s new logo or boasting about being “first in the category” stops short of making age meaningful to modern audiences.
Today’s discerning consumers want to know how history creates something magical and relevant, not simply that it exists. Age must be more than a descriptor.
It should represent value that transcends the sum of its years. Few understand this better than master sommeliers.
When they present an older wine, they transform the moment into ritual — candle, decanter, corkscrew and story. In their hands, sediment and discoloration prove a journey.
Longevity here becomes a luxurious arc, where bold fruits relax into silky complexity. Sommeliers show that it’s not how you talk about age — it’s how you make it real.
In this respect, many luxury marketers falter, failing to intertwine history with present-day resonance. No true wine lover describes a 1980s Bordeaux solely by its age.
Instead, they focus on how terroir, craft and time have transformed it. This narrative approach turns age from a static fact into a dynamic, appealing story, and an opportunity for the audience to engage with the value of time.
Some brands excel at this.
Strong case studies
In watchmaking, Patek Philippe’s “Generations” campaign sets the benchmark for leveraging heritage by making it personal: “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.”
The campaign turns provenance into emotional resonance. Berluti, the leather footwear icon founded in 1895, also celebrates age dynamically.
Rather than passively leaning on its century-long history, it embraces patina and age-inspired hand-finishing as hallmarks. Italian artisans create tonal depth and texture that nod to heritage while inviting wearers to add their own story.
Time in luxury branding need not hinge solely on wear or historic dates. Consider The Newt in Somerset.
This lavish British country estate could have based its branding on its 300-year-old Georgian manor. Instead, it chose a playful name inspired by local amphibians and reimagined its heritage through period-inspired experiences: a Roman-era agricultural facility, a traditional creamery, a working orchard and cider operation.
Opened in 2019, The Newt wove history into immersive guest experiences without reducing it to a date on a plaque.
The power of age
In each of these examples, brands don't assume history alone will carry them. Instead, they actively integrate history into rituals, experiences and a deeper promise of value for modern travelers.
Like the sommelier with a rare vintage, the best luxury brands understand that the power of age lies in the story it tells and the transformation it represents.
Leather gains character through wear, hotels inspire stories over decades, techniques refine across generations – the luxury of age comes not from how long something has existed, but from how beautifully it has changed and how powerfully it can change those who encounter it.