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On January 6, the famous Italian luxury house, Bottega Veneta, has turned off its Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts to launch in parallel Issue, a digital magazine through which it will now communicate with its community. With each collection launch, a new issue will be published so that readers can discover the brand’s new products and universe. However, the decision of the famous brand to leave social networks has caused a great surprise, as the reasons remain unclear. A communication stunt or a thoughtful withdrawal?
The brand’s decision to leave social networks
While social networks occupy an important and growing place in our society, it is difficult to think that a luxury house can go against the current and do without these social networks, especially since the world of fashion and luxury is strongly present on Instagram. With the help of ambassadors or muses, fashion houses know the influence or exposure they can have on social networks. Influential celebrity Chiara Ferragni, walking in a Dior dress, generated a media impact value of $5.2 million and an engagement of 5.6 million worldwide, according to LaunchMetrics, demonstrating the importance of a brand’s visibility on the networks.
If the decision of the Italian label Bottega Veneta has initially surprised the web, giving rise to several rumors but no real explanation, the reasons for this departure now seem to be clearer.
When the brand had not made any statement about this choice, many assumptions have emerged on social networks. At first, people thought it was logical, saying that people buying Bottega Veneta products did not pay much attention to the brand’s publications on social networks or even to screens in general. In a concern of digital strategy, in order to better speak to its target, the luxury brand would have preferred to privilege a worked content to present to its community rather than feeding its social networks with posts promoting the new collections of the brand.
If this remains only a hypothesis, it seems rather logical, as several luxury brands have adopted this line of conduct. Just to name a few, the very famous Italian luxury car brands Lamborghini and Ferrari have never advertised on TV, because their customers would simply not need to watch these brands’ ads to buy a luxury car, or because they simply would not watch TV.
Removing its presence from any social platform to develop a digital magazine is an ambitious communication strategy as it goes against the current trend. Many luxury brands have understood the importance of digital during the release of their new collections at the Paris Fashion Week last September, such as Burberry, which achieved a world first in the luxury world by holding its show on the streaming platform Twitch, or Balenciaga, which made a show in the form of a video game.
A significant social popularity
The assumptions previously stated could seem true at first, but are however at odds with the figures achieved by the brand through social networks and the media ascension it has experienced. According to the latest Index Lyst (a quarterly ranking of the most popular fashion brands and items on the Internet), Bottega Veneta almost tripled its sales in the first half of 2020 and was the ninth most popular brand in the third quarter of the same year.
Also, the same brand’s cross-channel marketing analysis published by Launchmetrics in early January 2020 revealed that the brand’s third highest MIV (Media Impact Value) percentage came from Instagram (after online media and print magazines). The popularity of the Italian house on social networks has only increased, thanks to the presentation of the brand’s fall-winter 2020 collection in February and the posts of influencers promoting the brand’s products. The latter accumulated more than 2.5 million followers on Instagram.
Does an overexposure related to the success of the designs of Daniel Lee, Bottega Veneta’s creative director since June 2018, seem compatible and consistent with the brand’s identity and marketing strategy? The firm aspires to a rather minimalist, discreet identity and a communication more in line with its own luxury codes and not those imposed by the market. Exposing itself on social networks contrasts with the image it wants to send back to its customers and the current strategy it wants to use.
The decision to turn off its social networks is therefore not as counter-current as it seems. Daniel Lee has never had an Instagram profile, stating in interviews that he doesn’t see social media as a goal. In 2019, the latter told British Vogue, “It was great growing up in the pre-Instagram days: we had a lot of fun. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future. I think there will be a return to privacy. I really hope so.
Rumors about the reasons for this choice persisted until François-Henri Pinault, the CEO of the Kering group, which includes the Italian luxury brand, reacted publicly for the first time to this decision. He said at the presentation of the group’s quarterly results in February: “About their digital communication strategy, it’s not about disappearing from the networks – it’s about using them differently. Bottega has decided, in line with its positioning, to rely more on its ambassadors and fans by giving them the content they need to talk about the brand on social networks, and by letting them talk about the brand rather than doing it themselves.
In turn, the brand’s creative director Daniel Lee further explained this choice made earlier this year in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian last March, because according to him, social media would represent the homogenization of culture. He goes on to explain that “everyone sees the same stream of content. I put a lot of thought into what I do and social media simplifies it to the extreme.
These two successive statements were the final word on the mystery surrounding the decision by luxury brand Bottega Veneta to deactivate all its social networks, and instead publish a digital magazine with each new collection released.
However, even if the brand has decided to say goodbye to social networks for now, it is not for that reason that social networks have decided to say goodbye to Bottega Veneta. In fact, many fan accounts on Instagram of the brand have emerged following this decision, showing a constant interest in the evolution of the brand and informing Instagram users of new collections. One Instagram profile in particular stands out, @newbottega, which now has 576K followers, featuring the brand’s iconic accessories (Pouch bag, Tire boots, Lido mules…) and making it notably the first fan account of a luxury fashion brand on Instagram.
A new mode of communication: the release of Issue, the digital magazine
As François-Henri Pinault said at the presentation of the half-yearly results, Bottega Veneta was determined to make a different use of social networks by providing ambassadors and fans with the material they need to talk about the brand. So they didn’t actually leave the digital sphere altogether since the magazine Daniel Lee created is a quarterly digital journal called “Issue“. The first issue of this journal is called Issue 01 and features Bottega Veneta’s latest spring-summer 2021 collection through videos, close-ups, sketches and photo shoots.
Each issue will showcase the latest collections as well as the new look book, the latest accessories or even exclusive and creative collaborations spread over 133 “pages”, all in a fluid slideshow.
By creating this digital newspaper, Daniel Lee wanted to develop a brand content “more progressive and more thoughtful”. A rather successful bet since for this first issue, the brand combined fantasy, luxury and visual symphony by presenting balloons as jewels, handbags transformed into hedges or even pumps made of Jell-O or sculpted in marble. Also, the brand called upon thirty artists such as Missy Eliott, the American photographer Tyler Mitchell and even the fashion designer Barbara Hulanicki, to highlight the pieces of the new collection. With the help of sound and visual effects, and excerpts from Salon 01, where the last collection was unveiled, the Italian brand was able to give its readers the same warm feeling of flipping through a glossy magazine.
An innovative and creative way to present a brand’s new collection to its clientele; a first in the world of luxury and one that has won over many.
Read also > What can luxury do without social networks?
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This Saturday, May 1st, Nicolas Hieronimus, who is passionate about sports and rock ‘n’ roll, becomes the new managing director of the cosmetics empire, L’Oréal. After spending 34 years of his life with the group, he is moving up the ranks of the empire, having previously been the group’s deputy director in charge of four divisions.
Nicolas Hieronimus is a pure “L’Oréalien”. Having just graduated from the ESSEC Business School, he joined L’Oréal at the age of 23. Within the group, he began by selling shampoos at Garnier. But in 1996, he made his mark with the launch of one of the company’s emblematic products: “Fructis shampoo” with its bright green packaging.
As an international company, L’Oréal gave Mr. Hieronimus the opportunity to experience life abroad. He started by experimenting in the United Kingdom and then in Mexico in positions of high responsibility.
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This Saturday, May 1st, Nicolas Hieronimus, who is passionate about sports and rock ‘n’ roll, becomes the new managing director of the cosmetics empire, L’Oréal. After spending 34 years of his life with the group, he is moving up the ranks of the empire, having previously been the group’s deputy director in charge of four divisions.
Nicolas Hieronimus is a pure “L’Oréalien”. Having just graduated from the ESSEC Business School, he joined L’Oréal at the age of 23. Within the group, he began by selling shampoos at Garnier. But in 1996, he made his mark with the launch of one of the company’s emblematic products: “Fructis shampoo” with its bright green packaging.
As an international company, L’Oréal gave Mr. Hieronimus the opportunity to experience life abroad. He started by experimenting in the United Kingdom and then in Mexico in positions of high responsibility.
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