The Friday Underlines interviews the visionary team behind Made by Niki—the iconic luxury lingerie label that captivated the intimates world from 2005 to 2015 and was stocked in 250 elite global retailers including Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, and Fortnum & Mason—has officially announced the launch of Affluent Audiences. The new full-service marketing agency run by Niki McMorrough and Scott Parker, is designed exclusively to help luxury and premium brands acquire high-value customers, elevate brand authority, and scale global market visibility. The powerhouse duo brings a rare combination of grit, independent brand-building success, and corporate marketing pedigree.
Life Before Affluent Audiences?
Niki: First things first, we are from the world of marketing for luxury and premium brands, since the 1990’s. But many of your readers will know us as the lingerie entrepreneurs who founded and ran the cult lingerie label, Made by Niki, from 2005 to 2015.
Over the years, we have served in-house and agency side as marketing and creative directors, supporting brands like Jasper Conran, La Prairie, Bentley, Garrard, The Royal Mint, Bupa (Private) and The Olympics (VIP hospitality) with digital marketing, branding and advertising.
Post-Covid, I became the commercial director for a luxury marketing agency based in Monaco, and an advisor to agencies like Saatchi and Ogilvy. I am the secret strategist many agencies bring in to keep their luxury campaigns on track. And Scott is no newcomer to agency entrepreneurship – he formerly founded and ran a design agency, backed by Lord Palumbo, which supported music, apparel, fragrance, electronics, publishing, automotive, hospitality and B2B companies.
Why this direction and why a return to the world of lingerie brands?
Scott: Launching a marketing agency for luxury brands is a no-brainer for us because of our pedigree in digital marketing, branding and advertising, for lingerie, beauty, skincare, jewellery and apparel brands. Brand and marketing is our real expertise. You can keep the product development and the sourcing logistics!
Niki: 2026 is an incredibly exciting time to be in the world of design and marketing, new tools make it possible for original ideas to go-to-market faster, better and more affordably than ever. We are on the front lines in an era where the internet is being re-written, and there is so much opportunity for brands who adapt to this new era. We are supporting those brands.
Scott: Also, we work best when we work together. Over our thirty years of collaboration, the projects we’ve produced together are our most memorable and cherished. They are the projects which made the most impact on their respective industries. We want to make an impact by helping businesses grow within their markets.
When did Affluent Audiences launch?
Niki: The agency has evolved organically and through circumstance. I started independently freelancing for brands and agencies in 2022. In 2025 I named my personal practice, Affluent Audiences. And in 2026 it has evolved into a partnership plus a collective of luxury specialists – with 360º marketing strategy, creative and campaign rollout.
What is different about working in this luxury sector?
Niki: Luxury lingerie and swimwear brands look small from the outside – they have a tenth of apparel’s audience, a twentieth of the revenue, a fifteenth of the staff… and a better website.
However, advertisers pay half again more to reach lingerie’s customers than apparel’s, meaning organic search and AI citability is a top priority. Yet very few of the brands in the sector are well developed for SEO and AI discoverability. Shopping agents are not citing lingerie brands accurately to high intent lingerie and swimwear shoppers. This creates a mess, with luxury brands being mentioned alongside discount ones and AI agents assigning the wrong values to companies and products.
We find that luxury brands prefer to work with people who understand luxury dynamics. They don’t want to be explaining why an impractical, expensive product can outsell a practical one, or why half the revenue comes in Q4.
…every week, we discover something a brand can’t see from the inside…
A typical week?
Scott: When we are not solving clients’ problems we are meeting with our collective, clients and prospects, virtually or in Mayfair in London, and networking at luxury industry events and gatherings.
When we onboard a new client, Niki usually kicks it off with a smart, audience-centric strategy, then I craft the brand identity design, imagery, and assets like the website and campaign.
Niki: That’s the Head and Heart part. The third phase is the Hands. Technical SEO, digital PR, media buying, content going out week after week – slowly nudging a brand’s trust and visibility. We choose luxury marketing specialists who have fifteen or more years of experience, so it looks effortless from the outside, but it isn’t.
Scott: And every week, we discover something a brand can’t see from the inside. What surprised me the most about our recent audit of 121 lingerie, swimwear and apparel brands, was that the biggest brands, with the most to lose, had the slowest websites! That’s something I’d like to solve.
Whom do you admire in the industry?
Scott: The fitters. The people who still measure properly, in a stockroom, with a tape.
Niki: Yes! And fit is one of the most interesting creative briefs in this industry, and one of the least explored. It usually lives close to the point of purchase, which is the right place for it. But it could also be the campaign: interactive, immersive, the customers themselves. Not for every brand, and not for every season. But there’s a lot of unspent creative territory in this one thing she cares about most.
Screenshot
If you were not working in this industry, what would you be doing instead?
Niki: The truth is, we work across multiple luxury segments, but our deep knowledge of lingerie and our ability to observe the differences and transfer learnings from other luxury sectors, like beauty, skincare, fragrance and wearables is what makes us a good fit for an established (or ambitious) lingerie or swimwear brand.
Your greatest challenge?
Scott: Marketing the invisible. Swimwear gets the yacht; lingerie gets the strap, if you’re lucky. It’s easy to talk about ‘realness’ until you’re looking at your own product on a body you didn’t art-direct, and you realise the risks to the brand.
Niki: Scott’s work with the photography, the packaging, the brand and merchandising is what enabled Made by Niki to cut-through and sell-through 250 stores like Selfridges and Coco de Mer over 20 seasons. Our marketing and campaign design helped us to conquer the challenges of market entry and expansion.
Proudest moment to date?
Niki: In 1995, Scott and I were arch enemies. Head of Marketing (bossy), and Head of Design (cool), for Ministry of Sound. We were in the process of scaling the business from a scrappy South London startup, to a global entertainment brand, so it was relentless, and chaotic. He didn’t really like me telling him what to do all the time (typical designer). But one day, as we were chatting at the bar, we suddenly fell in love, kissed inside the massive speakers in The Box (famously loud), and have been together ever since. We now have two beautiful, and highly creative children, who make us very proud to be their parents.
What’s the biggest mistake you see luxury brands making?
Niki: Not knowing who they’re actually talking to. It shows up two ways. Some brands stick to what worked in 2010. Others panic and jump on a TikTok trend without checking whether their customer is there.
The audience is evolving, but slowly. Keeping tempo with that is careful work – segmentation, brand strategy, experience mapping, monitoring and migration. No sudden reactions!
Ambitions for Affluent Audiences going ahead?
Scott: I want to help lingerie brands get more traction among qualified audiences, and find new ways to ‘be seen’. One way to do this is by making the unboxing an integral part of the customer experience. The box can do so much work for a lingerie brand. The weight, the temperature, the sound and scent, it’s a sensory experience. Portraying audiences enjoying the unboxing enables customers to understand how it feels to receive a beautiful package, perfectly wrapped, in her hands. For lingerie brands, packaging is a media channel, not a cost line.
Niki: And I want luxury lingerie brands found by high intent audiences. Volume is the wrong ambition in this category. She buys, she comes back, she recommends. These signify true relevance, which matters more.
Where do you think you will be in 10 years’ time or where would like to be!
Niki: I would like to be able to say that we helped the best lingerie and swimwear brands get there (or stay there) both visually, and by getting to the top of search and AI engines.
In ten years the question isn’t whether your audience can find you, it’s whether a machine can suggest you to her at the right time. Yet, nearly 40% of the brands we audited score zero on whether an AI agent can read their site, and only one got top marks. I want to fix that.
From the archive – Made by Niki
Time out?
We are fortunate to live in a beautiful farmhouse in the Cheshire countryside, and spend all our spare time with our kids with not a spreadsheet in sight. We love catching up on all the classic shows and movies and making sure they are well educated with good taste. We are pretty clean living these days.
The one product you couldn’t live without?
My 6-minute diary which I use to plan my days and stay aligned with my values. It keeps me grounded and grateful for the little things that matter the most. I love it so much, I have bought it for my whole team in my last 3 leadership roles.
Pet Hate?
Agencies that geek out on platforms rather than brands and audiences. And ones that sell you an idea and then leave you to the interns. A creative agency should still be creative when the deal is signed. Anyone can master the algorithms. It takes years of knowing your customer and product to get the aesthetic and tone right.
How to get in touch: You can find their luxury marketing agency at www.affluentaudiences.co.uk or contact them on 07880 507508 or enquiries@affluentaudiences.co.uk.
