Gucci's parent firm Kering hands iProspect global media duties

Gucci's parent firm, Kering, has appointed iProspect to handle global media duties for all its brands, including Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, and DoDo. The agency will be responsible for managing all end-to-end media planning and buying, integrated across brand and performance. IProspect will operate as a media partner across all 42 markets where Kering has a media presence, and gradually take charge over in the first quarter of next year. R3 handled the review.

The announcement follows a unique four-month agency review based on innovation principles and a fast-tracked process. Kering sought agility and nimbleness within the response to brief to select its future partner. Kering said iProspect's digital and data-driven strategic vision and capabilities, its drive for innovation and creativity, along with its constant agile mindset was the reason for its selection.

"The Group looks forward to working with iProspect within the fully integrated dentsu network as its unique partner, empowering the combination of a global vision and strong local expertise," Kering said.

Meanwhile, iProspect's global brand president, Amanda Morrissey, said enhancing its strong partnership with Kering is an amazing win for iProspect, one which propels its existing relationship onto the global stage. "As the end-to-end agency, with the full scope of brand and performance media, our passionate team looks forward to working with one of the most innovative, digital-first, and data driven luxury brands in the world," she added. IProspect declined to comment on additional queries from MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

Kering posted group revenue of €4,187.8 million during the third quarter of this year, up 12.2% on a comparable basis year-on-year and 10.0% relative to the same period in 2019. In the first nine months of the year, Group sales were up 36.6% on a comparable basis year-on-year. Revenue from the luxury houses' directly operated stores, including eCommerce, grew by 12.0% on a comparable basis relative to the third quarter of 2020 and 11.0% relative to the third quarter of 2019.

In Asia Pacific, after solid growth in the first half of the year, sales rose relative to both 2020 and 2019, but were held back by rising COVID-19 case. numbers during the summer. Meanwhile, online sales continued to grow at a firm pace, up 24.4% relative to the first quarter of 2020 and 147.9% relative to the same period in 2019.

Meanwhile, in Singapore, Gucci and Balenciaga recently turned heads with their "The Hacker Project", featuring a collection that "hacked" designs from iconic pieces from each brand. This resulted in a Gucci spray paint logo written over a clean Balenciaga storefront at Paragon. Gucci also recently added Shin Min-ah and Lee Jung-jae as its global brand ambassadors. Shin starred in Netflix's Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha while Lee is known for playing the protagonist in Squid Game.

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