Op-ed by Marina Coelho
I often find myself thinking about how much the luxury PR industry has changed over the years.
Not necessarily in terms of tools or technology, evolution is natural, but in the way we relate to one another.
When I first started working in watchmaking PR, relationships were at the center of everything. Of course, the watches mattered. The launches mattered. The presentations mattered. But what I remember most is the time we spent with people.
Back during the SIHH years, what is now Watches and Wonders, meetings with journalists looked very different from today. We would sit down for lunch together, sometimes for over an hour, speaking about everything before even discussing the watches themselves. The pieces almost came last. First came the conversation, the coffee, the connection, the relationship.
There was time.
Time to exchange ideas. Time to understand one another. Time to build trust naturally over years.
Today, the rhythm of the industry is entirely different.
Trade fairs have become highly accelerated. Meetings are scheduled back-to-back. Presentations are shorter. Everyone is working against tighter deadlines, faster publishing cycles, constant social media updates, and immediate content demands.
What used to be an hour-and-a-half lunch is now often a 30-minute touch-and-feel session shared between multiple journalists. Ten minutes for pleasantries. Twenty minutes for the presentation. A few minutes left for human conversation before rushing to the next appointment.
And the truth is: nobody is necessarily doing anything wrong.
This is simply the reality of how communication has evolved.
The industry became faster, more global, more connected, and in many ways, more efficient. As an agency based in Lisbon working daily with clients, journalists, and partners across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia, I see firsthand how incredible today’s digital tools can be.
WhatsApp allows immediate coordination. Virtual presentations make international communication seamless. Social media gives launches an instant global reach. Direct messaging has transformed accessibility and responsiveness in ways that would have seemed impossible years ago.
Digital communication is no longer an addition to PR. It is PR.
And yet, I sometimes wonder whether, in gaining speed, we lost a certain form of presence along the way.
Not because relationships disappeared, they did not, but because time itself became increasingly rare.
Today, time may actually be the greatest luxury in our industry.
Luxury PR used to allow space for ideas to mature. Launches were prepared months in advance. Outreach was slower, often more deliberate. There was more room for personalization, for thoughtful conversations, for instinct.
Today, everything moves immediately. Sometimes campaigns that once required four or five months of preparation now need to come together within weeks. Communication became highly reactive. Metrics became increasingly central. Visibility became measurable in real time.
And while metrics absolutely matter, anyone who works in PR knows that the real value of communication cannot always be quantified.
The quality of a relationship cannot be measured on a spreadsheet.
Neither can trust.
That is why I believe one of the biggest challenges facing luxury PR today is not choosing between traditional communication and digital communication.
It is learning how to make digital communication still feel personal.
Because personalization still works. In fact, it probably matters more today than ever before.
At Sparkling PR, we naturally combine large-scale communications with highly personalized outreach strategies depending on the journalist, the market, the publication, and the story itself. And consistently, the more thoughtful and tailored the communication is, the stronger the response tends to be.
Not because journalists expect perfection.
But because people still respond to genuine attention.
What reassured me most after sharing some of these reflections online recently was seeing how strongly they resonated across the industry, and how nuanced the conversation became.
Several people pointed out that the shift was not simply from “personal” to “digital,” but from controlled proximity to distributed visibility. In many ways, communication became broader, faster, and more accessible, but also less intimate.
Others spoke about a growing digital fatigue and a renewed desire for real human interaction. Not necessarily a rejection of technology, but perhaps a realization of what gets lost when speed becomes the dominant language of communication.
One comment in particular stayed with me: “Trust is rarely built through speed alone.”
And I believe that is especially true in luxury.
Some of the strongest long-term relationships in this industry, whether with journalists, clients, collectors, or partners, are still built through conversation, shared experiences, consistency, and time.
Perhaps that slower and more personal side of communication has itself become a form of luxury today.
At the same time, many people also made another important point: digital communication can absolutely still feel personal when approached thoughtfully. With the right intention, the right tools, and the willingness to prioritize human connection, it is possible to create visibility without losing intimacy entirely.
Personally, I still call journalists on the phone whenever I can. Sometimes it surprises people now. Sometimes I probably interrupt their day. But I still believe hearing someone’s voice creates a different kind of connection than a message notification ever will.
Maybe that makes me slightly traditional.
But I do not think the future lies in returning backward. Nor do I think younger generations entering the industry are “missing” something. In many ways, they are ahead. They understand digital communication intuitively and move through it effortlessly.
The real skill now is different.
It is knowing how to use digital tools while still creating a sense of closeness, attention, and human connection.
And maybe that is where the future of luxury PR is heading.
Not backward. Not away from digital. But toward a more thoughtful balance between efficiency and connection, technology and attention, speed and relationships.
Because ultimately, luxury has always been about emotion.
And relationships (real relationships) still remain at the heart of this industry, even if the way we build them continues to evolve.
Keep it sparkling,
Marina
