Geoffrey Perez, Head of Luxury at Snap, Shares His Daily Routine
As the global head of luxury at Snap, Geoffrey Perez spends his Paris workdays submerged in fashion, augmented reality and generational sensibilities.
08:00 I walk my daughters [aged seven and five] to school and get up to speed on all their news, learn some songs, then go back home for my motorbike. It’s a 25-minute ride to the office, listening to Vox Media’s Pivot podcast recap the latest tech industry news. Pivot is, of course, heavily US-focused but I work in an American company. In France, I talk with startups every week. I need to understand the politics and dynamics of every market region.
09:00 At the office, I read The Business of Fashion, Women’s Wear Daily and Vogue Business. I’m looking for opportunities. There wasn’t a global head of luxury at Snap when I joined seven years ago. When I opened the Paris office, Snap’s first non-English-speaking office, there were just three of us and we created our own roles and responsibilities. I’ve carved out that niche of luxury and pushed this role to be tailored for me. You have to make your own space wherever you go.
09:30 Monday morning meeting. We’ve moved from a fully remote model to teams being in the office 80 per cent of the time. We have so much [internal] research that’s proven the positive impact of working together, not just on productivity but on life balance, mental health. That sense of belonging – a fun, inclusive, creative culture – is what you’re losing by being somewhere else.
11:00 Client meeting. We work with Gucci, Dior, Prada. Tomorrow, I travel to Geneva to meet with watchmakers. A decade ago, luxury brands were looking at online as something incremental; 96 per cent of their sales were in stores. Then social media changed the way people discover and consume products. BCG research says 75 per cent of luxury buyers will be millennials and Gen Z by 2026. These are the core of Snapchat.
12:45 Lunch meeting with a client. If it’s spring or summer, I like to go to LouLou because it has a terrace looking out to the Louvre. Café Lapérouse at Hôtel de la Marine is beautiful as well. Then there’s the delicious Japanese restaurant, Orient Extrême, near Avenue Montaigne, where most of my clients are.
Seven years ago, luxury brands on the platform were focused on building brand equity over time. Today, they’re building augmented reality commerce. On average, more than 250 million Snapchat users engage with augmented reality every day. We started try-ons with make-up; the face was a pretty easy-use case. Then we moved to sneakers, watches, jewellery, bags. If you look at Deloitte research, by 2025, nearly 75 per cent of the global population will have frequent interaction with augmented reality, meaning daily or weekly.
15:00 Emails. Lots of informal chats because I know most of my team’s clients, their expectations. I feel I own that piece. Gen Z and Gen Alpha [those born from 2010] expect much more from brands: sustainability, recycling, reuse, repair. Gen Z also looks to co-create with brands; they like to be involved in campaigns and projects. For a luxury brand, it’s no longer just, “Like it or not, this is what we do and it’s very expensive.” They’re listening.
16:00 Every two weeks, my team has Council. We share what we have in our minds and souls, work-related or not. You don’t have to speak. You can skip the session. [But] when you can reflect on others’ frustrations, challenges and wins, it makes you more empathetic and it brings people closer. I feel this is making us much more human in our daily work.
17:00 Catch up with HQ in Los Angeles, engaging with people on the product and engineering side, to share feedback from clients. Luxury brands bring a different eye to quality, rendering and fitting. They help us bridge the gap between the real product and the digital. It’s an infinite loop.
19:00 Home. I try not to work again until my daughters are in bed and I’ve had dinner and a pleasant time with my wife [Ornella Perez, chief experience officer of luxury secondhand startup Monogram].
22:30 Something that keeps me up at night, in a good way, is ARES: AR Enterprise Services, the venture we announced in March that does Snapchat technology outside of Snapchat. More and more, you’re going to be able to directly try on something on X, Y and Z websites instead of having to go back to Snapchat.
If we want to democratise AR, we can’t only do it on Snapchat. You might have seen interactive AR mirrors in stores. We’ve been investing in augmented reality glasses, the Spectacles. The Spectacles will be used in education, training, gaming and entertainment but Snapchat is putting them to use in bricks-and-mortar retail stores first.
