VERSACE

2017 / 18

IDEA: Remind the world how cool Versace used to be, by doing it again.

A select few brands in existence truly deserve to be thought of as iconic. Those that do can sometimes lose their way, constantly searching for a new idea rather than refreshing the best idea they already had - the one that made them iconic in the first place.

To remind the world how cool Versace was, all we needed to do was remind the world how cool it used to be.

And do it again. And again.

Involvement: I proposed the overal idea to Donatella in my interview, securing the job as Chief Marketing Officer. I then restructured the marketing, creative and digital departments to deliver it. As a result of my immediate impact, Donatella handed me responsibility for all creative content & marketing decisions on her behalf, and soon after I took on Chief Digital Officer responsibities alongside my marketing and creative role.

Steal the show

Only Versace could ever have first brought the notion of Supermodels to the world, and only Versace could ever bring it back. In this instant, we ensured that Donatella and her Supers could show the world how it’s really done, again. My favourite quote was from Anna Wintour, who on leaving Milan for New York told us we’d ruined the whole of the upcoming NY Fashion Week for her…

Then steal the next show again

Two months later, when we’d successfully campaigned for Donatella to be named Fashion Icon at the British Fashion Awards, we carefully choreographed the opportunity for a collection of the same Supers to continue their comeback.

This time it was to present her with the award, and then join a surprise performance of George Michael’s “Freedom”, the song for which they had all starred in the original video back at the time when Versace originally brought them to fame. The memory ensured the entire gathered fashion industry were singing the roof off of London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Update Versace’s links with music culture of the day

The next carefully planned surprise was again to feature more of the world’s favourite models, this time mixing women of the 90’s with their modern counterparts. Ahead of the release of the advertising campaign, we released a short social video of the campaign cast all reinterpreting a well known rap song’s lyrics “Versace Versace Versace”.

Enjoy it

Sticking to the idea, there was really only one way to go with the brand campaign. Get the old gang back together and have fun. We reunited original, superstar photographer Steven Meisel with as many iconic models from then and now, in a pure celebration of Versace’s original approach to fashion photography.

MORE WORK…