Kamal Ouadi, director of digital strategy at Louis Vuitton since 2008, has stepped down from the position according to trade magazine Stratégies. He was one of the brains behind the launch of Nowness, the online platform from the world’s number one luxury fashion house. Former vice president of E-Business and CRM for L’Oréal China, Ouadi was for three years Louis Vuitton’s spokesman at a number of conferences on digital technology for the luxury market – ubiquitous for today’s brands. Louis Vuitton’s digital department declined to comment on the news when contacted by FashionMag.

Kamel Ouadi has apparently stepped down as Global Head of Digital at Louis Vuitton

Launched in February 2010 and the recipient of a number of awards, a Mandarin version of Nowness, which bridges the luxury market, social media and digital content, is today available, designed to “educate” its Chinese users in the “good taste” of the Western luxury group. Nowness is often today cited as an example when talking about online editorial content and the “emotional” ties between a brand and its public. With its functional design and content which can be shared and personalized with the “love/don’t love” function, the site has set itself up as a subtle “storytelling” tool, bringing together the “in-crowd”.

In the wake of Nowness and LVMH, others projects have popped up at Net-a-Porter, TheCorner.com and even Swatch (with its Satellite Voices platform), which now produce their own original, branded content, often by recruiting media professionals from within the industry, such as Jeremy Langhead, poached from GQ in 2010 to head up Mr Porter’s editorial section.