The Year in Digital And The Brands Using It Most Wisely According to the L2 Think Tank.

A look at The Year In Digital (social media, online commerce, mobile, content sharing) as well as the 2011 luxury brand digital "geniuses" from a year's worth of L2's Digital IQ Index® research.

L2, a think tank for Digital Innovation, has selected what they are referring to as the Eight Most Innovative Digital Programs in Prestige/Luxury and 2011′s Geniuses. Brands that understand how Americans interact and engage with social media, spending more time on social sites than they do on portal sites (with 95% of that social networking time spent now spent on Facebook)



These brands have figured out how to make meaning in the fire hose of daily tweets and video uploads. They understand the implications of a world where e-commerce volume will reach $197 billion by year end (Amazon is 1/3 of that number), 85 percent of the population is blanketed with a commercial wireless signal, and Facebook hosts tens times more photos than the Library of Congress.

L2 states that "The taste for luxury goods will always endure, but the digital world moves quickly. Today’s giants have created tremendous opportunity for themselves in the marketplace, but on the web there’s always room for the rise of the unexpected, the meme, and the new, next, next thing."

And here are their picks for the The Eight Most Innovative Digital Programs in Prestige:

#1 Burberry

#2 Lancome

#3 Oscar de la Renta

#4 Estee Lauder

#5 Dior

#6 Sephora

#7 Benefit Cosmetics

#8 Kate Spade


Consumers are hungry and today digital represents the greatest opportunity for brands to punch above their weight class. As their benchmarking tracks into 2012 it looks like there are quite a few brands bulking up and throwing punches.

Here are their picks for the 2011 Digital Geniuses

Fashion: Burberry, Kate Spade, Coach, Gucci

Watches & Jewelry: Tiffany & Co.

Beauty: MAC, Clinique

China: Audi, BMW, Burberry

Specialty Retail: Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom, Macy’s

Magazines: Time

Facebook: BMW, Audi, Belvedere Vodka, Bare Escentuals, Infiniti, Clinique, Ferrari, Bobbi Brown, Lexus, Tory Burch, Lancome, Johnny Walker

Travel: Airlines – Southwest, Delta, Continental Airlines, American Airlines; Hotels – Westin, W Hotels, Hilton

L2 looks at the state of digital (social media, online commerce, mobile, content sharing) as well as luxury and prestige brand digital "geniuses" from a year's worth of our Digital IQ Index® research.

Be sure to check out their informative library of individual videos of the ways brands are using digital here on Vimeo.

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Visit them at L2 Think Tank