Bridging the Audience Gap with Moncler
1
The Background
As the luxury fashion market was shifting its focus to the increasingly powerful millennial consumer, Moncler’s chief executive officer Remo Ruffino announced a new approach to target this consumer.
Signaling a change in strategy, the Italian label—which was already a disruptive force, turning functional skiwear into a luxury brand with a €1.9 billon turnover—announced it would release monthly drops instead of season shows to attract this millennial audience.
In Summer 2018, Code and Theory was tasked with providing a creative strategy for the release of Moncler Beyond across all its social platforms, a hero brand campaign activation that spoke to its values of uniqueness, multiplicity and creativity.
The overarching goal was to understand Moncler’s current and target audiences, and to grow engagement and overall reach. Code and Theory delved into the performance of all of Moncler's content and social platforms, then focused in on the Moncler Instagram.
2
The Challenge
The world of social media has reached peak saturation, with historic brands often struggling to find their social voice. Gone are the halcyon days when simply producing imagery alone was enough to cut through the digital noise and create maximum impact.
Moncler had to understand how to speak directly to its audience, particularly on Instagram, in the right way and at the right time. With social platforms changing algorithms day to day, the rules of engagement are constantly shifting. A focused creative strategy on each social platform is imperative for success.
3
The Insight
Digitally astute millennials demand nuanced storytelling and identify with content that is authentic to them. We first had to understand Moncler’s current audience so that we could know what they were responding to.
To connect with an audience on a visual storytelling platform such as Instagram requires careful art direction and the adaptive curation of imagery to avoid visual fatigue.
At the time, Moncler was simply repurposing campaign imagery and events, rather than speaking to this target millennial audience in an authentic way that resonated with them.
Moncler’s strengths lie in its multiplicity, however this also presented a challenge when trying to create a coherent, resonant brand story that could drive engagement.
We knew we had to start with the story, the fundamental editorial pillars that speak to what Moncler is trying to articulate. Brands that excel on social platforms have a distinct point of view. They succeed in creating an impact by crafting a distinct voice across all social channels—a voice which ladders back to the brand's DNA and overarching value proposition. Establishing this fundamental foundation empowers better storytelling and audience connection.
4
The Solution
To optimize the performance of the Moncler Beyond content & social platforms across the ecosystem, we provided clear, actionable insights based on benchmarks, engagement rates and views. Leveraging detailed analytical reports and platform best practices, we harnessed the cycle of optimization, turning data into insights to inform the Moncler creative strategy.
We considered not only Moncler’s social platform performance, but also brands in the competitive landscape. Understanding their audiences, including life stages, interests and brand affinities, as well as how they interacted with platforms and responded to content, allowed for more cohesive storytelling and curation. We provided social posts and influencer kits with copy and assets for maximum engagement.
Shifting to a bird’s eye view, we crafted a holistic strategy specifically for Instagram. We were able to understand Moncler's current audiences and identify potential new audiences with similar brand preferences engaged on Instagram.
Combining audience insights and post-performance analysis, we developed a framework to transform the Moncler Instagram including: producing original visuals and adapting content for platform-specific features, crafting an ownable aesthetic, defining an editorial strategy to include product storytelling, strategic influencer curation, and an integrated paid programmatic strategy approach.
