Overview
CES Tech Talk podcast, in its sixth season, features interviews with industry experts who bring you an insider’s look at what’s new and trending in the world of consumer electronics, and at CES. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe via your favorite podcast platform to get the latest. This week, discover how iconic auction house Christie’s is embracing digital media, recognizing some works as creative treasures. Neda Whitney, Christie’s marketing VP, discusses tech and NFTs as fine art.
Christie’s Auction House may be 256 years old but its practices, transactions and collections reflect a keen sense of the new in fine art’s digital potential. Its experts seek out, and can spot, superior talent in today’s digital artists. As the auction house’s Neda Whitney discusses in this episode of CES Tech Talk, Christie’s conducted the first NFT auction in 2021. It was a huge success. Find out how AR, VR and other technologies are changing the fine art landscape in episode 22, Christie’s: NFTs Are Fine Art for Sale, of the CES Tech Talk podcast series.
Takeaways
- Nearly half of Christie’s auctions are held online, and the auction house is rapidly advancing its digital transition
- Millennials reflect a growing audience for Christie’s -- that audience has grown by 127% as a category of wealth that the company seriously addresses
- Christie’s is seeing a groundswell in digital art and artists, made particularly evident with its NFT sales
- AI and ChatGPT technologies represent opportunities for Christie’s, and for the luxury and fine art sectors as a whole, with potential applications ranging from automated customer service to marketing and more
They Said It
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[W]e sell NFTs, we sell all manner of what you would quantify as luxury goods. And I think we are really the true definition of a luxury brand and that we are a one of one, something that has history and is truly unique, and not commoditized luxury.
Neda Whitney (01:09)
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[W]e already use AR technologies so that people can place huge sculptures in situ to see what they look like. We already use VR technology so that you can go into a room where a collection might have been housed and see what it looked like. We are very comfortable with those types of evolutions of technology.
Neda Whitney (03:06)
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Christie’s Auction House at CES 2023
Christie’s had meeting space at CES 2023.
Neda Whitney, Sr. VP of Marketing, Christie’s Auction House
As marketing lead for Christie’s, Neda develops marketing strategy for the Americas while directing creative, content and strategy teams. She oversees marketing campaigns for the art, artifact, luxury and design portfolios in the Americas, with particular attention to innovation, data and best-in-class creative execution. Prior to Christie’s, Neda spent 20 years at the top agencies in New York, London and Paris representing some of the largest brands in the world. Most recently she was senior vice president of client services at R/GA where her client portfolio included Tiffany & Co, L’Oreal, Unilever, Verizon, Uber, Amazon and ESPN. Neda earned a communications and political science degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
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