Prada Tallies Results of Spring 2021 Digital Show

MILAN — It was one of the season’s most anticipated shows and judging from the online traffic it generated, Prada’s spring 2021 show, the first designed by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons as co-creative directors, was a success.

The company said Monday that the 35-minute video of the show and the following conversation between Prada and Simons was the company’s “most viewed” digital event.

Streamed on Sept. 24 as part of Milan Fashion Week across prada.com and the brand’s social media channels, including TikTok for the first time, the video logged 16 times the number of views compared to the spring 2020 show and four times those of last July’s “Prada Multiple Views SS21” digital event.

“We built a strategy to reach Prada’s audience using customized activities for each part of the world. Our aim was to be both global and local, interacting with a more intimate approach where appropriate,” commented Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s head of marketing and CSR.

As reported, while respecting social-distancing and protection measures, the digital show was flanked by global activations that included local private screenings; viewing kits to be delivered at home for digital screenings, and virtual viewing events taking place in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Berlin, Moscow, Dubai, Istanbul, Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

A special event in Shanghai was held at Prada’s storied residence Rong Zhai, where screenings were offered in different rooms of the villa, followed by a small reception. After a six-year restoration funded by Prada with the goal of turning the unique piece of heritage architecture into a flexible site for cultural activities, Shanghai’s 1918 mansion Rong Zhai was unveiled in 2017. The Shanghai event was attended by Chinese actors including Chen Haoyu, Li Gengxi and Ou Hao, and local singers Cai Xukun, Liu Lingzi and Zeng Keni, among other guests.

In China, the Prada livestreaming on its Weibo and Douyin accounts engaged more than 48 million users, the company said. The #PradaSS21 dedicated Weibo hashtag generated 170 million views the day of the show.

“Our plans successfully rolled out both physically and digitally, to achieve the best experience possible. The conversation between Prada and Simons, with questions submitted from all over the world, was an inclusive way to engage even more with our viewers and the whole event gave an outstanding result,” added Bertelli. Days before the show, the Italian luxury house offered its fans and followers the chance to submit queries to the two designers that they answered during a streamed session following the show.

In recent years, Prada has been ramping up its digital initiatives, most recently revamping its web site across all major markets and the brand’s e-commerce in the additional key markets of South Korea and Brazil. Last year, it forged ties with Oracle to support efficiency across its retail processes and a strengthened collaboration with Adobe to deploy advanced customer experience management solutions on a global scale.

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