Luxury brands are continually pushing the boundaries of advertising, aiming to stay at the top of the game in a market that is spoilt for choice. Brands such as Chanel, Tag Hauer, and Marc Jacobs are renowned for using actors to sell their products. These days, in order to entice consumers, the names and faces need to be known from Singapore to Shanghai and from New York to Nairobi. The super-duper luxury brands are looking toward new and innovative advertising in order compete in a laden-down market where everything is widely available to everyone. Thinking outside the creative 'box' means prestige brands are creating some of the most exciting ad campaigns we have seen.

Take for example the new Ritz Fine Jewellery campaign. Or rather short film. Instead of taking the usual route of pretty model wearing beautiful diamonds, the campaign features none other than A-list actress Chloe Sevigny in an hommage to the French Nouvelle Vague. Shot in the The Ritz, London , the brand has pulled out all stops to raise its image and visibility amongst the jewellery cognoscenti.

But Ritz Fine Jewellery isn't alone. At renowned champagne house Dom Perignon, Karl Lagerfeld was brought on board to do their latest campaign. Lagerfeld, who's creative talent knows no end, envisaged the idea for the campaign immediately, working with the seven key qualities of the esteemed champagne: creamy, voluptuous, seamless, captivating, plump, sensuous and radiant, shooting seven different scenarios. No wonder Karl insisted on working with model Helena Christensen to be the face of Dom Perignon. She has that quality of mystery that remains in tact has much more than a supermodel. And Lagerfeld, of course, has the eye of an 18 th century art's master, and has created anything but an ordinary campaign.

Consumers know that markets are saturated; that there is too much supply, too little demand and that too many retailers are suffering. The luxury goods sector, being at the top, may remain modestly unscathed (it's usually the middle markets that suffer in economic downturn) however it isn't immune to economic malaise. And at the luxury end, there is enough product around with hefty price tags to have to differentiate itself from other brands.

So if you are truly a special company, like Chanel or Dom Perignon, you may do well to position your brand completely differently in the marketplace. Enter, as FT's Lucia van der Post states, the artistic venture. Art and the luxury goods industry have long been mutually attracted - the one (art) lends an air of gravitas and the kudos of creative endeavour to what could otherwise be perceived as a frivolous affair, while the other has always been surrounded by an enviable oomph and sexiness that the world of art would like to borrow from. Let's hope these collaborations are able to keep consumers desires alive.