The New Age of Luxury: Designing Desire

Media Minute is WPP Media's series, specifically crafted to empower our clients and marketers for their intelligence era.

Luxury no longer must be purchased to be consumed.  

Luxury has it been more seen, more shared, more coveted from a distance. It is now a cultural experience where millions engage through content, conversation, and participation long before – and sometimes in lieu of ownership. As luxury shows up everywhere, the old scarcity that once made it feel extraordinary quietly starts to fade, and that’s exactly why the moment is ripe with opportunity. The most urgent question facing luxury brands today: when everyone has a front-row seat, how do you design and capture desire? 

WPP Media and Snap set out to answer it. We surveyed nearly 10,000 luxury consumers across nine markets and six luxury categories and three core themes emerged:  

Anticipation Matters But Not All Anticipation is Equal 

Anticipation remains one of luxury's most powerful drivers of desire. Almost three in four American luxury consumers say anticipation enhances the value of a luxury purchase. However, the value is not in the wait itself, it is in what the wait creates: the thrill of discovery, the satisfaction of achievement, the feeling of belonging to something not everyone can access. Logistical friction like waiting lists and inaccessible boutiques fuels resentment, not reward, so the opportunity is to design anticipation that feels earned, not endured. 

Enjoyment is No Longer Confined to Ownership  

Nearly two in five U.S. luxury purchasers encounter a product four or more times before buying: seeing it, hearing about it, trying it, sharing it. For a growing number of consumers, these moments are not a prelude to the luxury experience. They are the luxury experience. The path to ownership has never been less linear, or more intentional, which means your brand has more opportunities than ever to create meaning well before the purchase.  

Desire is Becoming More Private 

Seventy-one percent of American luxury consumers believe the category is shifting from a symbol of status to a source of personal meaning and identity. Gen Z isn’t  waiting to be inspired by a luxury house:  traditional brand touchpoints are 23% less influential with this generation than across all luxury consumers overall. Desire is now being built through trusted circles, peer communities, and private conversations, so the opportunity lies in earning a seat in those conversations, even if you can’t fully control them. What this New Age of Luxury demands is not merely a new media strategy. It is a new understanding of where desire begins – and who holds the power to design it.  

WPP Media Chief Strategy Officer David Rusli explored these themes alongside Karine Fournier of Parfums Christian Dior, Jay Altschuler of Mastercard, Grace Kao, Chief Marketing Officer of Snap, and Angela Ahrendts, former CEO of Burberry. The conversation made one thing clear: the luxury brands that will define the next decade are not those with the greatest visibility, but those with the most considered and deliberate approach to designing desire.  

The full global report is expected to be released this fall. 

Ready to design desire for your brand? Reach out to your WPP Media team for an early look.