Italian luxury conglomerate Kering provided fourth-quarter earnings for its house of brands this week, a report that was mainly noteworthy because of disappointing results for Gucci, the company’s largest brand.
During the call, Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault addressed social media strategy for its brands, specifically the Daniel Lee led Bottega Veneta that caused a stir last month when its Instagram account with a 2.5 million following mysteriously disappeared.
Implying Bottega had chosen to pull its feed and instead work with influencers, Pinault, who was quoted in an WWD article, explained, “Regarding its digital communication strategy, it’s not disappearing from social networks, it’s merely using them differently.
“Bottega has decided, in line with its positioning, to lean much more on its ambassadors and fans by giving them the material they need to talk about the brand through various social networks, by letting them speak for the brand rather than doing it itself,”
Pinault added that each of Kering’s brand had chosen to take a unique social media approach specific to each brand. He added, “In order to be very complementary, we don’t want to replicate the same thing at every brand. Bottega has had a very specific positioning for years, which is now being reinforced.”
Underscoring the brand’s wish to take a less accessible approach, Pinault pointed at Bottega Veneta’s secret spring 2021 show held in October. Limited to a select group of invitees, the presentation was shown to the public in December through a film and a book by German conceptual artist Rosemarie Trockel.
While Bottega Veneta is no longer present on the increasingly shopping-focused Instagram, according to Pinault, the brand is doing just fine without it. Pinault explained, “I have to say that after a month and a half, it’s pretty convincing in terms of Bottega Veneta’s visibility, and we are monitoring it quite precisely.”
Check out Bottega Veneta’s spring 2021 show below.
