The BoF Podcast | Robert Triefus on Leading Gucci Into the Metaverse

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Background:

Last September, Gucci announced that its CMO, Robert Triefus, would be taking on a new role as CEO of Gucci Vault and Metaverse Ventures. Now, he works closely with president and CEO, Marco Bizzarri, to shape Gucci’s brand strategy while developing the house’s expansion into web3.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Triefus sits down with BoF’s Imran Amed to discuss how the luxury fashion house’s ambitions in virtual spaces fit with its wider business goals and brand repositioning.

“If we think about all that we’re doing in the metaverse, we always have an eye on creativity, creating the emotion,” says Triefus. “But underpinning that is the story of the brand and all that rich storytelling that has built up over 102 years.”

Key Insights:

• Triefus says it’s particularly important for a luxury brand like Gucci to experiment with new technologies, because it offers a testing ground. “Through [Gucci] Vault, we’re able to push ourselves into places where for the core brand, it might be considered to be too risky. But through Vault, we have that playground space so that if by chance we were to make a mistake, we’re not going to impact the core brand,” he says.
• Popping up in the metaverse plays a similar role for Gucci as running a billboard or other advertising activation. “It’s an opportunity to engage with the community that is going into Times Square in the real world,” says Triefus.
• Gucci Garden, which received 19 million visitors in two weeks and saw a digital version of its Dionysus bag retail for more than the cost of the physical bag, helped dictate steps Gucci will take in virtual worlds going forward. Learnings from Gucci Garden “[inform] us about where we can place our bets in the longer term and how we can be much more scientific in what we’re doing,” says Trefius.

Additional Resources:

To learn more about the metaverse and other critical topics discussed in the podcast click here. All BoF Professional members can watch the BoF Professional Summit: An Inflection Point in Fashion Tech on demand.