ANATOMY OF A CAMPAIGN

Virtue in the virtual

When lockdown led to the quick cancellation of brand events and experiences, one agency took the party to the people.

Of the many motivational quotes to have been thrown around during 2020, there can be few as pertinent to the PR industry, indeed to any industry, as this from Benjamin Franklin: ‘out of adversity comes opportunity’.

A global pandemic is unlikely to have been at the front of Franklin’s mind when those words were uttered, but the point behind them could hardly be more reflective of the innovative ways that businesses of all shapes and sizes have set about pivoting and adapting to the enormous challenges thrown up by the spread of coronavirus.

For Perfect Cartel, a brand experience and event production agency specialising in the fashion, beauty and lifestyle industries, that opportunity came in the form of an unexpected brief from luxury Italian fashion brand, La Perla.

“When lockdown hit and events were forbidden we lost the majority of the projects we were working on at the time,” reflects Perfect Cartel Founder and Managing Director, Claire Berry. “So we knew we had to adapt very quickly.”

One of the first things Berry and her team did was to create a digital experience of thought leadership for clients and other agencies that needed to innovate and amplify their messaging during lockdown.

“It was a cathartic experience as anything and good for our team morale,” says Berry. “But we wanted to reach out to the PR industry and give something back, stimulate conversation and spread a positive message that there was still lots of great opportunities for brands to engage with their audiences.”

PROACTIVE PAY OFF

Perfect Cartel’s proactivity paid dividends when they were contacted by La Perla’s PR representatives, Purple PR.

A global press trip to Bologna was planned around the 25th anniversary of La Perla’s best-selling Maison line and the launch of a new capsule collection – Maison Rainbow and Maison Metallic – but the onset of COVID-19 meant that any such events were a no-go. As a result, Perfect Cartel were invited to pitch ideas for a digital version of the event aimed at engaging influential industry press in an exciting and innovative way. “That’s when we came up with the concept of Villa La Perla.”

Charged with creating a digital storytelling device that could pull together a variety of engaging content formats, Villa La Perla provides the visitor with a journey through a virtual space and ‘rooms’ to explore.

To virtually recreate the same ‘real life’ experience that attendees would have had in Bologna, press contacts were gifted an accompanying marketing pack that comprised not only the key La Perla products to see and feel, but a negroni making kit and a luxury antipasti hamper. Access to a SoundCloud DJ set from New York-based Blu De Tiger brought the party vibes to recipients’ homes.

Says Berry: “This was about us recreating the event online and making the digital space an at-home experience, merging a sensual encounter with a branded virtual platform.

“The Villa itself was inspired by the traditional buildings found in the Bologna region where La Perla’s ateliers are based, but the production process and sensual touchpoints were the same as a physical event – only living digitally and sent to guest’s homes instead of them being in Italy.”

VIRTUAL VILLA

In essence, Villa La Perla becomes a digital venue and, much like any good party, visitors are welcomed as they arrive by a video with La Perla’s Creative Director, Alessandra Bertuzzi.

As they explore (or scroll through) the venue’s different floors, a range of experiences, interaction points and content assets are made available as the rooms build around a creative journey that involved almost 250 hours of storyboarding from an illustrator handpicked by Perfect Cartel.

“Everything about the experience and the aesthetic had to align with the La Perla brand so a huge amount of effort and detail was poured into getting that just right,” says Berry. “Each of the layers had to be brought to life, from the garments moving when you hover over them to the micro animations around the villa itself. We partnered with a brilliant creative technologist and UX/UI development team with experience in luxury e-comms to make this happen.”

As an agency rooted in brand experiences and events, creating a bespoke digital platform was something of a departure for Berry and her team. In fact, Villa La Perla represents a first for both agency and client alike. “We’re not a digital agency, but we wanted to recreate the sort of events we do for so many clients, only this time in a virtual form,” says Berry. “This is the first time we’ve done anything like this, and it’s a first for La Perla too.”

She continues: “We’ve learnt a lot, particularly how some of the critical path stages are actually backwards from creating a live event, and it’s been challenging: we had a three-month turnaround and had to create the storyboard before any of the campaign imagery had even been shot. But I’m super proud of what we’ve been able to achieve.”

POSITIVE PRESS

The response from global press to both the Maison collections and the Villa La Perla experience proved positive, with coverage secured from a wide range of influential publications and editors.

Over 20 initial pieces of press coverage across global target markets, including the UK, US, Asia, Italy, France, Middle East and Russia, were mostly in-depth news features in which the entire article focused on La Perla, the Maison collections and the Villa La Perla experience. This included extensive coverage in such heavyweight publications as Vogue, Marie Claire, Grazia, Harpers Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. A long list of smaller product placement galleries and warm leads, particularly in one of La Perla’s key markets of China, were also created.

In each case, the coverage focussed on the product story telling around Maison’s history and craftsmanship, as well as highlighting La Perla as a brand finding innovative, digital ways to communicate and connect amid the pandemic.

Sameera Hassan is Chief Marketing & Customer Engagement Officer at La Perla. For her and the La Perla brand, COVID-19 has driven the discovery of new ways to communicate and engage without relying on face-to-face contact.

“To see how well both the collections and the Villa La Perla digital experience were received, enjoyed and mentioned by the global press was really exciting for us,” says Berry.

“The biggest opportunity from leveraging a virtual experience was the sheer global scale of press and consumers we were able to reach,” she says. “From China to the US and from Italy to the UK, everyone logged into the experience simultaneously on one day, something that would have been incredibly difficult to coordinate in a physical environment.

“We received great anecdotal feedback from both the press and consumers, who said they loved learning about La Perla and the Maison collection through a new digital experience. One editor even declared Villa La Perla ‘a whimsical work of art’.”

A DIGITAL FUTURE

If 2020 was a year of opportunity born from adversity, then going digital was undoubtedly the way to make the most of it. Across industries, businesses from every sector have moved online quicker than ever before, harnessing the power of digital storytelling alongside social media to amplify their brand message. This was true pre-COVID of course, but lockdown has driven a sharp focus on the importance and power of immersive, experiential content and campaigns. “It’s only going to get bigger,” says Berry. “Our clients have always expected us to challenge their thinking, but we’ve got to go further and challenge them with actionable, relevant and future-focussed ideas. COVID has forced agencies like ours to change our approach to campaigns so it’s crucial that we stay innovative and adaptable.”

The success of Villa La Perla in bringing La Perla’s history and collections to life through an immersive experience is likely to pave the way for more of the same in the future. Says Hassan: “Even before the pandemic, there was a growing importance for luxury brands to break through into the digital space – it’s where the consumer is increasingly spending their time.

“But despite COVID, and even after we’ve recovered from its impact, digital will be pivotal for luxury brands to capture consumers both existing and new.”

SPOTLIGHT ON SUSTAINABILITY

With technology advancing at an unrelenting pace, Berry sees more opportunities emerging, particularly as a post-COVID world turns its attention back to the other big issues of our time, such as climate change.

“Sustainability is a key issue for any business and I can see a real shift to digital events taking place in the fashion industry,” she says. “We’re all going to be held more accountable for our carbon footprint so being smarter and using more advanced tools to communicate with our audiences will be fundamental.

“And with 5G on the horizon there are massive opportunities ahead – it’ll change the face of how brands and agencies create ever more immersive online experiences.”