Content and commerce: 5 luxury brands to watch

The line between content and commerce continues to blur, especially among luxury brands. With 82% of marketers placing a high value on content written for people rather than search engines, the mix of commerce and content is here to stay. The combination allows people to easily become brand advocates through small social gestures, recommendations and personal endorsements. Furthermore, brand advocates begin to trust and develop loyalty for companies they frequently interact with—prompting them to become full-fledged customers. To engage consumers, bespoke brands publish high quality design, travel, fashion and culture news. Here are five standouts that illustrate this trend: 1. Tablet Hotels (@TabletHotels) Tablet Hotels produces its own high-quality online travel magazine complete with "top-ten" lists,  helpful travel tips, and lust-worthy photo essays.  The magazine features images  and editorial content that cover cities all over the world and incorporates regions with Tablet properties. Tablet seamlessly integrates the editorial feel of the magazine into the hotel booking section of the site. One feature of Sonoma County in California highlights the region’s charms in addition to showcasing one of Tablet’s luxurious hotels. 2.  City Unlisted (@CityUnlisted) In May Gilt City launched an experimental  project in pairing content and commerce. The result was City Unlisted, a blog about life in New York City that  features beauty tips, leisure, and lifestyle stories, with an NYC twist. One great post highlights 76 great fictional New Yorkers including Don Draper, Jay Gatsby, and Eloise. 3. Tory Burch (@toryburch) Tory Burch’s website hosts its own editorial section, which integrates her products into the luxury lifestyle of her target demographic. In a recent post Burch advises her bespoke customers on how to enjoy London during the Olympics and directs them to her curated guide to the city. In addition to directing consumers to her flagship London store, in the guide Burch reccomends hotels, restaurants, shopping and sightseeing. The blog also offers curated posts and video on style, culture, entertaining, music and philanthropy from a host of contributing editors. 4. The Standard (@standardny) The Standard runs a culture blog aimed at high-class jetsetters, with travel news spanning from Istanbul to New York City, in addition to fashion and culture content. Stan D’Arde  serves as the Standard’s cultural ambassador. He tweets about the glamorous Standard lifestyle that the blog espouses. 5.12Society (@12Society) 12Society, a men’s lifestyle company that sends weekly boxes of goods curated by male celebrities, also hosts a blog with posts by those celebrities. A recent post gives Michael Strahan’s  pre-season football preview, offering high-class male consumers the chance to hear from their favorite player while also developing loyalty towards 12Society. While only 3-10% of visitors currently interact with content portions of websites, user engagement  is  increasing. Those that do, visit the site more frequently and convert at a higher rate. As more luxury brands shift towards content marketing, retailers will have to get creative with editorial content in order to remain competitive.