Local Voices, Global Impact: How In-Market Social Media Is Defining the Future of Global Relevance
Feature by LEAP Luxe.
For much of the twentieth century, luxury spoke with one voice: polished, poised, exquisitely controlled. Brands led with a language of perfection rather than participation.
But in the digital age, that singular tone feels distant. Today’s luxury consumer no longer responds to being spoken to — they want to be spoken with. Across cultures and continents, consumer desires have been (and continue to be) redefined. The new luxury isn’t abandoning aspiration; it’s layering in new elements of affinity, empathy, inclusion, and realness - the minutia of which differ greatly geographically, as well as demographically.
Social media is a powerful tool for modern brands to embrace this new movement, but the opportunity to connect more closely with consumers is often underutilised by the legacy luxe leaders. Bain & Company’s 2024 Luxury Report found that over 70% of luxury purchases are now digitally influenced, and McKinsey notes that Gen Z expect brands to reflect their local values and context. For brands to capitalise on this change in behaviour, producing content for social media can no longer be done from headquarters. The need to understand your audience on a local level is undeniable. Values, content and cultural nuance all need to be understood to truly tap into the new age of luxury consumer.
Heritage houses, understandably protective of their image, often maintain a centralised global social media presence. The aim is consistency, or perhaps control, but the effect can be homogeneity. Genericness. A costly way to miss the mark entirely in this new world.
A beautifully curated grid may please headquarters, yet feel hollow to those scrolling in Tokyo, Dubai, or São Paulo. What reads as sophistication in Paris may seem sterile in the UK — and engagement rates quietly erode, even as luxury’s digital presence grows.
(“Lady Dior Around the World,” by Brigitte Niedermair for Dior)
According to Emplifi, global engagement with luxury brands on Instagram dropped by 23% in the past year — a symptom of content that is immaculate, but impersonal.
Despite iconic luxury brands having an abundance of local marketing talent, most in-market activity falls disappointingly short. Some have noted that, with little freedom to create something new and minimal platforms to speak to their local audience, overqualified marketers have become liaisons — passing on global content, preparing internal presentations, and rarely given permission to truly connect with their local target audiences.
A monologue from headquarters cannot build a community across cultures and continents. If luxury brands hope to survive the rise of disruptor and celebrity-owned brands, they must start forging loyalty through local connection. The most successful disruptors understand that relevance is built locally, not globally. They structure their social presence accordingly — reactive, agile, and able to spark global fame through local intimacy.
Augustinus Bader, the cult skincare brand, operates multiple social media accounts across different markets, tailoring content to local tastes, climates, and consumer behaviours.
La Mer demonstrates similar sophistication. While its global account maintains the brand’s signature elegance, the UK-specific Instagram engages with local consumers through culturally attuned campaigns, events, and storytelling — proof that even heritage labels can adopt the agility of modern disruptors.
Medik8 has embraced the multi-account strategy, maintaining regional Instagram presences that allow it to adapt content to each market’s priorities, regulations, and digital habits. What feels aspirational and authoritative in one country doesn’t have to feel alien in another.
Even in fashion, Max Mara is in the early stages of embracing this evolution. By operating market-specific Instagram accounts, the brand can speak to local audiences with tailored visuals, curated collaborations, and regionally relevant storytelling — bridging the gap between global prestige and local engagement.
These brands prove that modern luxury is no longer defined by a single, centralised voice, but those with the most long-standing fame, and arguably with the biggest available budgets, are not taking advantage of this opportunity to futureproof their position in the global market.
(@clarinsuk, produced by LEAP Luxe)
LEAP Luxe have been working closely with Clarins, the French heritage beauty brand, to create unique social media content for the UK market with huge local growth and fame being driven as a result. With this tailored approach, the Clarins UK team have also been able to consistently solve wider brand concerns about relevance across multi-generational consumers. It is about agility, attentiveness, and cultural fluency. They listen and respond to the moods, values, and desires of the communities they serve — not from a distance, but through dedicated, in-market channels.
Global brands often fear that in-market content creation means losing control. The high-volume demands of social media combined with production costs can feel like a risk — a slip in standards, an off-brand tangent, an investment too complex to micromanage. Yet the greater risk lies in alienating audiences, disconnecting from consumers, and fading into irrelevance within an increasingly saturated luxury landscape.
The most forward-thinking houses are shifting from centralised control to centralised guidance, with support from trusted and experienced in-market partners like LEAP Luxe. Headquarters can set the vision, and local teams bring it to life with cultural intelligence and creative freedom.
At LEAP Luxe, we’ve spent nearly forty years helping luxury brands walk this line — staying true to their identity while appealing to a modern audience for maximum commercial success. Our local content creation in the UK complements global goals and has driven significant digital growth for brands whose locally crafted pieces are now shared across multiple markets to amplify their investment. That success has led to deeper partnerships, greater investment, and a recognition that localisation is not a dilution of brand — it’s an elevation of it.
The rewards for getting localisation right are both measurable and profound. TikTok reports that users are 1.6x more likely to purchase from brands that “feel part of their culture.” Balenciaga’s use of local memes tripled engagement in select markets, precisely because audiences saw themselves reflected in the brand’s personality.
(Credit: Balenciaga)
Engagement metrics aside, the deeper ROI is emotional: trust, belonging, advocacy. In a world saturated with content, attention is transactional — but connection is compounding.
Luxury has always celebrated craftsmanship, but in the digital era that craftsmanship must extend to communication. Captions, edits, and cultural references are now layers of identity. The future of luxury belongs to those who embrace the paradox that being local can make you more global; that relevance can be as prestigious as exclusivity; and that humanity — not perfection — is the new hallmark of desirability.
LEAP Luxe is the luxury arm of the well respected, independent creative production agency LEAP (loveurope & partners), supporting global brand content execution for nearly 40 years from their London headquarters. Partners with leading luxury brands such as Dior, Moët Hennessy, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and Givenchy, LEAP support with versioning, adaptation and digital-first content creation for multi-media, multi-market campaign execution. To learn more about the wide capabilities and service offering of the LEAP Luxe team, please contact MJ Neill (nee Evely) at mj@leap.london.