You both work in something different ways with collectors. Can you talk about that?
Friedman We have opened a dedicated agency that brought us in the area with some brands. But something was missing. Delivering things for brands, it is good, it pays the bills, makes you happy for things, but the human contact was missing. I started to think about, how can we spend time with collectors of different ages, different proven, different geographical locations?
That is how the idea for CollectorSphere came up. How can we connect all collectors around the world? We are not a club, but we are a kind of collective. The goal is to make content generated by community with the help of these collectors. We try to extract their knowledge, their experiences, for the benefit of the community. So every article we do is in collaboration with them – what they think about the watches, what they think of the industry.
Last year we did an intelligence piece for the Watch Fair watches and miracles. We worked with 50 collectors and we wanted to understand their expectations for the stock exchange. Believe me, 80 percent of the answers we could not publish, because some boys sent us a burning page, call names. We could extract a few ideas. But that shows that there is a frustration. I think the industry has reached a peak where they were too many watches, too expensive, not enough for your money.
BENJAMIN I am curious about the feedback you have. Is there anything coming?
Friedman Nothing shocking. You have people who will say: “Ok, this is interesting. We will take it into account. “It’s the same if you do an event. How do you manage the expectation of a brand that invites you to the event? Of course they want to sell. And how do you select the right people to be at these events? What is your recipe, Georgia?
BENJAMIN My solution for compiling these events is quite selective about who has been invited. Because it’s all about connection. I like to put together the guest list if, for example, we do a dinner of 25 people or a panel, whatever it is, to ensure that these people have a similar picture of collecting and in an environment where they have herself Feeling safe because everyone comes with these beautiful watches.
