Dior CEO Pietro Beccari discusses digital risk taking

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On the morning of the Dior Haute Couture Fall 2021 show, Pietro Beccari was overflowing with bonhomie. Speaking from the garden of the Rodin Museum, where the show takes place, the CEO is optimistic about hosting Dior’s third physical show in Europe since the pandemic, following a host of shows that have been viewed by 249 million people online. .

“We saw Covid coming and decided to speed up, not slow down,” Beccari said. “We came out of the pandemic stronger than the others because we had a little more courage to do what the others [brands] could not or did not want to do.

LVMH does not provide financial data on individual brands but has designated Dior as an “approach” brand for 2020, achieving double-digit growth in the second half of the year. The luxury giant is releasing figures for the first half of 2021 this month, with Dior still expected to be in great shape. “You hear it with my voice,” Beccari said. “It’s the voice of someone excited; I am very happy.

Beccari pays tribute to the “league of champions” of Dior’s creative directors: women’s fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, men’s fashion designer Kim Jones and jeweler Victoire de la Castellane. “Because of their talent, our products are always very desirable,” he says.

Morgan Stanley estimates Dior sales in 2020 at more than $ 6 billion. This has been fueled by very high communications spending, analysts add – a formula that has included frequent and high profile exhibitions, exhibition sponsorship, and an abundance of creative energy around the product.

Novelty is at the heart of Dior’s digital strategy, says Beccari, emphasizing what he calls “Dior Dream”, blending culture and innovation. At the heart of it are high impact parades being broadcast and shared on new and old platforms, from WeChat to TikTok, from YouTube to Bilibili. They included an SS22 men’s physical collaboration with Travis Scott in Paris, a Cruise 2022 fashion show with a capacity of 400 seats at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens and a Parisian couture show against a 350-meter-long tapestry background. Of the 249 million views across all platforms, shows reached 92 million views on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) alone.