LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s dominant luxury group, is getting into the Hollywood entertainment business in a bigger way, creating a new division to explore possibilities for its 70 brands, which include Louis Vuitton men’s helmed by singer Pharrell Williams, Dior, Tiffany & Co., and Moet & Chandon.
The new venture was created in partnership with Superconnector Studios and its co-founders Jae Goodman and John Kaplan, who come from marketing backgrounds, and is named 22 Montaigne after the luxury group’s Paris address.
It will be overseen by a committee of LVMH executives led by Antoine Arnault, who is the LVMH head of image and environment, among other roles, and Anish Melwani, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH North America.
The division will be in charge of finding opportunities for LVMH brands to collaborate with entertainment creators, producers and distributors to co-develop, co-produce and co-finance entertainment properties in film, TV and audio. The moves come at a time when fashion and entertainment are growing ever closer and LVMH rival Kering‘s holding company Artemis recently took a majority investment in Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
The purpose of 22 Montaigne will be to create content showcasing the personalities and craftsmanship behind storied LVMH brands, building on projects like the LVMH-produced “Inside the Dream” documentaries. But no doubt LVMH also has an eye toward producing bigger, more mass entertainment offerings, such as “The House of Gucci,” which made $166 million worldwide at the box office, and starred among others, Lady Gaga, Jared Leto and Kering CEO Francois Henri Pinault’s wife, Salma Hayek, who is a CAA client.
“We are excited to formalize our approach to the promotion of our brands across entertainment formats with the creation of 22 Montaigne Entertainment, complementing our maisons’ direct engagement activity,” said Melwani in a statement. “At LVMH we view each maison as a house of stories, a distinct creator of culture,” he said, echoing what LVMH chair Bernard Arnault said of his flagship brand Louis Vuitton in 2022, “it’s much more than a fashion brand, it’s a cultural brand with a global audience.”
LVMH has a number of brands and creatives that could be ripe for entertainment projects including Dior, currently being featured in the Apple TV+ limited series “The New Look” starring Ben Mendelsohn; Tiffany & Co, the iconic namesake of the 1961 film “Breakfast & Tiffany’s” which is long overdue a remake; Marc Jacobs, who could easily be the subject of a biopic, and Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson, who has already delved into costume design on Luca Guadagnino’s film “Challengers.”
The group already works with a universe of celebrities in many capacities, from creative director roles to collaborators to ambassadors, including Williams and Tyler, the Creator, who it was announced this week will collaborate with Louis Vuitton on a men’s capsule; Rihanna at Fenty Beauty; Beyonce and Jay-Z, who appeared in a film for Tiffany and many more. No doubt, 22 Montaigne will be looking to leverage those relationships more.
Superconnector Studios, based between New York, L.A. and Nashville, is a management consultancy, brand entertainment producer and talent-led consumer product accelerator. The co-founders have more than two decades of experience creating entertainment partnerships with Cadillac, Coca Cola, Chipotle, Diageo and more. Goodman and Kaplan were partners for ten years during Goodman’s leadership of CAA Marketing. He also served as founder and CEO of Observatory, where he led the creation of Nike’s Waffle Iron Entertainment, which produced several films about sports.