Tag Heuer: Famous faces for watches

What could you do with a star line-up that included Brad Pitt, Uma Thurman, Maria Sharapova and Tiger Woods? Sell an awful lot of Tag Heuer timepieces all over the world. Dan Davies finds out how it's done

Earlier this year, the firm unveiled its new communication concept, "Sport and Glamour", designed to raise global profile by fusing Tag Heuer's sport heritage, spanning the first three Olympic Games of the 20th century, using new "signings" Uma Thurman and Brad Pitt.

"When I joined the company I decided we should go back to ambassadors," Babin explains from a suite in the Soho Hotel. "Tag Heuer had been one of the first to use them when Jack Heuer launched the Monaco watch by putting together Jo Siffert, the racing driver, with Steve McQueen. I knew it was part of our equity and it had worked very well in the past. Gradually, we started to eye our new ambassadors and it took three or four years to complete our dream."

Pitt and Thurman line up alongside the number ones in the world's most prestigious sports - golf's Tiger Woods, Formula One drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya, and tennis champion Maria Sharapova, as well as regional stars from sport and film in key markets such as the US, China and India.

"Our ambassadors must overlap and complement each other," says Babin. "The trick is to put together a complementary portfolio. We always use our talent in combinations, to speak to different target groups, so while Maria and Kimi will talk to our strong younger market, Brad Pitt will speak to a slightly different market."

Tiger Woods was Babin's first target and securing the signature of the world's best golfer in 2003 was the first step towards assembling today's stellar roster. "I prefer to spend more on leveraging them than paying them," smiles Babin when asked how much of the marketing spend goes on star acquisition. "Six or seven per cent of our marketing budget is still some money, but we prefer to put 60 per cent behind the 6 per cent."

The deals Tag strikes with its names will alter from territory to territory, even if the execution of the company's "What Are You Made Of?" advertising campaign remains consistent throughout the world - bold portraits by French fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier, coupled with the overproportioned watch shots.

"It's the same as the bosses at the company, part of it is fixed terms and part variable," Babin says of how ambassador deals are structured. "For the sports people, the deal is based more on performance. For the artists, it's more about development in some markets where we agree they can be particularly relevant. As a rule, we hope the total compensation of an ambassador will be similar to the compensation of a manager."

Babin denies he can apply the same "sky's the limit" philosophy to his "team" as Abramovich affords José Mourinho at Chelsea. "We want to be the fastest grower but we maintain the marketing spend. Every year the marketing budget grows in accordance with the sales. So even though we might have added a Brad Pitt or an Uma Thurman or a Maria Sharapova, we have also moved from Formula One timekeeping into IndyCar timekeeping, which is a smaller investment. We have been shifting our investments from one area to another to maximise the return on our overall marketing investment."

Under Babin's leadership dynamic growth has seen Tag Heuer's global market share rise from about 10 to 14 per cent. He believes it can be nearer the 20 per cent enjoyed in mature markets such as the UK and America, once the company hits its stride in China and India. Tag Heuer waited until 2003 to make a concerted effort in these new markets and though a three- to five-point annual growth is cause for optimism, Babin says local ambassadors can act as necessary "boosters".

Tag Heuer has enjoyed success through creating bespoke products for local markets, endorsed by local ambassadors such as Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. Babin confidently states Khan will be responsible for a third of the total growth of Tag Heuer sales in India this year. "Yao Ming (the US-based Chinese basketball player) is helping us to grow the brand culturally in China," he says, "and enable us to catch up with the competitors who have been in this market much longer than ourselves."

The female market is another area Babin identifies for potential growth. "We used to sell 20 per cent to ladies, but now we are at 30 per cent and on our way to 40 per cent. Ladies buy more watches for themselves than men, so it's a good market for us. If we want to double our female buyers, we need strong female communication and lady ambassadors, so you can understand our choice of Maria Sharapova and Uma Thurman. They both fit our brand values of determination, talent, success and a strong character, and are going to get a lot of market share for us in a segment where we were under-represented."

For all the glossy ads and giant billboards in Tokyo or Paris, Babin is adamant there is more to a contract with Tag Heuer than image rights, advertising and PR. "Our ambassadors are obliged to participate in product development. We would not sign a contract with anyone who was not interested in going into product development with us. That is what makes Tag Heuer ambassadors different from those of any other brand."