The communications team’s note, quite remarkably, lists some statistics in an attempt to paint the launch in a positive light, in contrast to the retail bin-fire it appears to be: “We’ve received millions of clicks to our website. This new collaboration is literally blowing up on social media, with over 6 billion views within a week; as of now, it’s already at 11 billion. Overall, the Royal Pop collection is wowing the whole world, not least because Royal Pop, amazing. Apparently, no. A wristwatch.”
Audemars Piguet is unhappy with how Swatch has handled the launch of its collaboration on Royal Pop. The AP told WIRED that “We understand the questions surrounding the Royal Pop launch experience. Since retail operations are handled by Swatch and their local teams, Swatch is in the best position to comment on the operational conduct of the launch. From the AP’s perspective, safety and a positive experience for customers and teams remain a priority.” When the brand was asked if it considered Swatch’s handling of the Royal Pop launch to be a “safe and positive experience”, it did not respond.
The madness of the Royal Pop launch is that, considering what could be learned from a Moonswatch release in 2022, Swatch decided to repeat the playbook that went so horribly wrong four years ago. According to experts, this is a step which could have been completely avoided and was completely unnecessary.
propaganda without any control
“Luxury Drops can’t rely on surprise, scarcity, and social hysteria as strategies, then be surprised when human behavior follows,” says Kate Hardcastle, author of “Luxury Drops.” science of shopping and advisor to brands including Disney, Mastercard, Klarna and American Express. “Retailers are already dealing with increased stress around theft, aggression and crowd management on a global scale. Add highly restricted products, long queues, resale economics, social media amplification and the emotional intensity associated with luxury access, and the environment could escalate very quickly if not expertly managed.”
What makes it particularly difficult for Swatch here is that the Moonswatch launch has already provided a live blueprint of the risks, Hardcastle confirmed. She says, “Once a brand experiences scenes involving crowding, frustration and policing, the onus shifts from proactively reacting to engineering a safe customer experience. Successful luxury houses control the experience with increasingly greater precision.”
Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at Global Data, is even more candid. “Chaos does not reflect well on swatches, and it probably makes Audemars Piguet wonder what on earth it has gotten itself into,” he says. “It is understandable to want to generate some publicity, but not being able to control it becomes detrimental to both business and brand image. Swatch should understand this better than others as this has happened before with Moonswatch.”
Not only Saunders and Hardcastle, but many commenters on Swatch’s Instagram post pointed to well-known and obvious solutions that could have mitigated or completely avoided the Royal Pop’s poor release.
“We’ve seen other premium or limited launches use staggered collection windows, verified appointment systems, geo-ticketing, VIP allocation levels, timed QR access, private customer previews, and controlled queuing technology to reduce volatility,” says Hardcastle.
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