Prada:
SS & FW 2021 Runway Show Strategy

CONTEXT

Starting with Raf Simon's debut Prada womenswear show [1] in September 2020, I was tapped by Ferdinando Verderi Studio to lead strategy on marketing and amplification for the 2021 runway show cycle—including SS21 & FW21 .

In particular, we were asked to challenge the conventions of the livestream show format and to find new ways of amplifying the brand and engaging with fans. The brand's strategic challenge was this: how can Prada simultaneously be more accessible and exclusive at the same time?

APPROACH

For the SS21 show, the world was looking to Prada for a statement on the collaboration between Muiccia and Raf. So instead of giving the first interview to media, Prada opened themselves directly to the world post-show through a live Q&A session. [2]

Anyone globally could ask their questions to the two designers. One of the most beautiful parts of this all is that the submissions were thoughtfully unexpected (and at times naive)—a result not possible had this Q&A been conducted by journalists.

Due to the success of this concept, we continued to develop the post-show Q&A format for the FW21 menswear and womenswear show in January and February respectively.

For the FW21 menswear show [3], Prada hosted the Q&A with fashion students from universities globally – connecting past, present and future voices into a singular dialogue on Prada. Through this gesture, Prada acknowledged the importance of the next generation of designers, inwardly focusing the discussion amongst a specific group of creatives while still broadcasting the conversation to all.

For the following FW21 womenswear show [4], Prada continued this introspective approach to the Q&A format. This time, the brand invited some of its closest collaborators and friends for a roundtable discussion: Richie Hawtin, Rem Koolhaas, Hunter Schafer, Lee Daniels and Marc Jacobs.

RESULTS

With over 2.5 million views, the SS21 runway show was the most watched in Prada’s history at the time, with 16x more views than the prior season [5].

This record was then broken again with the FW21 runway shows, both of which received over 3.6 million views.