Gucci tops first Cultural Currency Index

Italian fashion house Gucci tops the first-ever Cultural Currency Index (CCI). The CCI is a new social data-driven model that quantifies how cultural engagement translates into measurable market dynamics.

The index comes from Annex, an analytics-backed brand consultancy. It was developed in collaboration with AI-powered creator and social intelligence platform WeArisma. Annex was co-founded by Miah Sullivan, a former chief marketing officer and longtime fashion industry executive.

Developed over two years, the CCI aims to give brands “an empirical overview of how social media, search and website traffic activity corresponds to real economic indicators, from consumer demand to stock price performance.”

The beta version evaluated twenty fashion companies that showed at Milan Fashion Week for the Spring/Summer 2026 season. The data came from eleven platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Weibo, Douyin, RED (Xiaohongshu), Google, Baidu, Similarweb and Yahoo!Finance.

The index evaluated the brands based on three pillars. The first pillar was ‘Brand Engagement’, which measures social and economic velocity, including the media value of brand and creator content as well as organic, untagged conversations. The second pillar, ‘Brand Popularity’, assessed engagement rates with dynamically weighted views from a brand and creator perspective. The third pillar, ‘purchase intent’, captured future demand potential through a mix of follower growth, website traffic and purchase-related search activity on Google and Baidu.

Each brand was evaluated over a period of ten days before Milan Fashion Week and ten days during the event. The judging covered three days before the show and six days after. Each brand was then given a normalized score between 0 and 100, allowing comparison across seasons and markets.

Cultural Currency Index (CCI) developed in collaboration with WeArisma

Kering-owned brand Gucci took first place in the first index with 100 points for “breaking the rules.” Their film activation, according to the CCI, “generated exceptional engagement and high search activity.” Gucci was followed by Fendi with 92.9 points. By activating key Asian creators, Fendi demonstrated “how a targeted cultural strategy can translate into measurable intentions.” Bottega Veneta took third place with 88.9 points, showing “balanced strength across all three pillars.”

Rounding out the top ten brand positions were Prada, The Attico, Dolce & Gabbana, Boss, Jil Sander, Tod’s and Max Mara. It’s also worth noting that out of respect for Giorgio Armani’s death, his memorial show was not rated this season.

In the report, Sullivan explains that their new index was created to challenge media value. She describes it as a “blunt instrument” that rewards spend over strategy, volume over impact and activity over results.

“For too long, our industry has relied on media value (MV) as an indicator of success,” explains Sullivan. “It doesn’t show which brands are using their resources most intelligently, nor does it highlight those that are creating the strongest foundation for future revenue. The landscape has changed. Boards and investors are now demanding marketing metrics that show direct connections to business performance.”

Sullivan notes that the CCI is not just another ranking, but rather a “lens for evaluating brand performance. It measures how effectively a brand translates strategy into cultural relevance and how that relevance signals future sales growth and purchase intent.”

Gucci’s digital-first presentation of ‘The Tiger’ generated exceptional engagement and search activity

For Gucci, the SS26 presentation was described by the CCI as a “masterclass in digital dominance.” The Italian fashion house wanted to usher in a new phase under the creative direction of Demna. Instead of the traditional runway, there was a surprise digital drop and simultaneous film premiere in Milan and Shanghai. This gave the brand instant global reach and seamlessly bridged hype and commerce. This was reinforced by a ‘see now, buy now’ capsule collection that proved that “digital spectacle can be translated directly into measurable sales and engagement.”

The CCI data showed that Gucci generated 562 million impressions and 516,000 total shares across platforms. This represented 15 percent of all social media posts from Milan Fashion Week. German influencer Caro Daur’s TikTok video reached 11 million views, making it Gucci’s most viewed single piece of content during fashion week.

In the ‘Brand Popularity’ category, the brand came second behind Prada, supported by a share of 28.6 percent of total media value. In the ‘Brand Involvement’ category, Gucci was also in second place behind Bottega Veneta. The engagement rate reached 8.2 percent compared to an average of 5.9 percent.

In the ‘purchase intent’ column, the brand ranked fifth in search behind Fendi, The Attico, Jil Sander and Bottega Veneta. Website traffic increased 9.1 percent and shopping-related searches on Google increased 10.3 percent, compared to an average of 4.2 percent. A slight decline at Baidu suggested that the pull in the Western market was slightly stronger than the response in Asia.

Fendi strengthened by Asian creators and stars

Fendi, which closed Milan Fashion Week, provided both a “historic transition and major market success,” according to the CCI report. The fashion house generated 303 million impressions across all platforms and dominated the Asian platforms. The content accounted for 20 percent of all fashion week impressions on Red, nine percent on Weibo and 15 percent on Douyin.

The score of 92.9 was particularly strengthened by the first place in the ‘purchase intention’ pillar. Website traffic increased by 17.8 percent, shopping-related searches on Google increased by 10.6 percent and on Baidu increased by eight percent. The peak was reached between 72 and 92 hours after the show, driven by the timed release of celebrity images and the presence of global brand ambassador Bang Chan of Stray Kids.

“Fendi’s results confirm the effectiveness of its dual strategy: leveraging the influence of K-pop to drive youth engagement while transforming cultural visibility into measurable demand,” the CCI report added.

Bottega Veneta demonstrated balanced strength across all three pillars

Bottega Veneta took third place. Louise Trotter’s debut as creative director demonstrated “strategy and commitment” and received a score of 88.9. Anticipation for Trotter’s debut “built organically, culminating in a show that combined minimalism, craftsmanship and a cinematic presentation. This was reinforced by a flawless livestream and a strong creator presence.”

The report also highlighted the effectiveness of Bottega Veneta’s digital execution and control over the show’s narrative. The brand’s YouTube show alone generated 16 million views, which accounted for five percent of the brand’s total impressions during the observation period. In total, the brand received 351 million impressions across all platforms. A key factor was brand ambassador Kim Nam Joon of BTS, whose content accounted for eight percent of the brand’s total impressions.

Milan Fashion Week saw a shift towards stunts

The index also showed that the “stunt is now as crucial as the show.” Milan SS26 confirmed a decisive change. Cultural events went beyond the catwalk, transforming celebrity, emotions and bold concepts “into dominant digital moments”.

Gucci was “best in class” at expertly combining K-pop fandom, Hollywood storytelling and haute couture. Dolce & Gabbana staged a viral stunt with a single Vogue Magazine feature featuring Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour. This post received more than 24 percent of the brand’s total views.

Diesel was singled out for “shifting the focus away from the collection.” The city-wide “egg hunt” was intended to democratize fashion and generate large amounts of user content. However, according to CCI, the bold experiment failed to convert its high reach into “meaningful engagement.” This was true even with brand ambassador Lyas appearing on the brand’s TikTok channel. The video had a high number of viewers, but very few shares. The data shows that it had 3.9 million views but only 149 shares – a performance penalized significantly by TikTok’s algorithm.

“The experience itself was well conceived but poorly executed. This resulted in the collection becoming a mere incidental aspect of the overall activation rather than being the focus,” the CCI report added.