For the last 18 months, Stuart Weitzman has been heavily focused on taking its nearly 30-year-old brand into the digital age with intention and bravado. Executives like Susan Duffy, CMO, and
Salima Popatia, Senior Vice President, Global Ecommerce and Digital Strategy, have been helping to lead the charge.

Susan Duffy and Salima Popatia

At Luxury Interactive, the two of them gave a presentation about how the iconic shoe brand has begun to tell its story through digital content in a way that truly marries all of the most popular and well-trafficked digital channels. Over the last 18 months during this process, the marketing team has learned some key lessons. Popatia and Duffy shared five of them:

1. Brands with values, not a manual – Values are more compatible with the digital age than rules; values guide a brand through a world of constant change; values invite engagement that keeps it fresh and relevant.
2. Use complex tools to make the brand simpler – Ease and simplicity are among the greatest luxuries of all.
3. Don’t simply grow, scale up your entrepreneurship – Our brand is big and growing, but our culture feels like a start up.
4. Digital means saying no more often – The digital world is one that requires you to say no when something isn’t working or isn’t for your brand.
5. Leverage the paradoxes in your DNA – Every brand has them – many brands hide or try to fix them – but they open doors and create opportunities in a time of connection; they make brands more human in ways that are special.

Duffy and Popatia also talked about a new campaign the company has this year with icon, Kate Moss, and how instead of simply shooting a visual ad program with her, they capitalized on the amount of content they could create around this big opportunity (Moss is arguably the most sought after fashion icon in the world, and the ability to capture some of her true self and share that with the brand was a unique opportunity.) So, from the effort, Stuart Weitzman created:

– 8 global ads
– 2 behind the scenes films from the ad campaign
– behind the scenes stills
– 6 product videos
– 2 min video Made for Walking
– Made for Walking behind the scenes
– and, the pièce de résistance, an interview with the ever-illusive Moss

Duffy and Popatia talked about how one of the ways the brand continually is inspired to create innovative content is by looking at the paradoxes inherent in their brand: Weitzman himself, for example, is a paradox as he’s an artist and designer with a business degree and a keen eye for growth and numbers in the business world. Every day the marketing team is embracing those kinds of paradoxes which make the brand both aspirational and accessible.