Gucci tops inaugural Cultural Currency Index

Italian fashion house Gucci has topped the first-ever Cultural Currency Index (CCI), a new social-first data-based model created to quantify how cultural engagement translates into measurable market momentum.

The index from Annex, the analytics-driven brand consultancy co-founded by Miah Sullivan, former global chief marketing officer and longtime fashion industry executive, was built in collaboration with AI-powered creator and social intelligence platform WeArisma.

Developed over two years, the CCI aims to give brands “an empirical readout of how social, search and site traffic activity correspond with real economic indicators, from consumer demand to share-price performance”.

The beta release assessed twenty fashion companies showing at Milan Fashion Week spring/summer 2026 season, and drew data from 11 platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Weibo, Douyin, RED (Xiaohongshu), Google, Baidu, Similarweb, and Yahoo!Finance. It scored brands across three pillars: brand involvement, measuring social and economic velocity, including media value from brand and creator content, as well as organic, untagged conversations; brand popularity, which evaluated engagement rates with dynamically weighted views, from a brand perspective and a creator perspective; and purchase intent, capturing future demand potential by blending follower growth, site traffic and shopping-related search activity on Google and Baidu.

Each brand was assessed during 10 days before Milan Fashion Week and 10 days during the event, three days before the show and six days after. They then each received a normalised score between 0 and 100, designed to allow comparison across seasons and markets.

Cultural Currency Index (CCI) built in collaboration with WeArisma

The Kering-owned brand Gucci was ranked first in the inaugural index, with 100 points, for “ripping up the rulebook,” with its cinematic activation, which the CCI noted “generated exceptional engagement and search activity”. Gucci was followed by Fendi, with 92.9 points for its activation of key Asian creators, “proved how targeted cultural strategy can translate into measurable intent,” while Bottega Veneta in third spot with 88.9 points, showed “balanced strength across all three pillars.

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

In the report, Sullivan states that her new index was created to challenge media value, which she describes as a “blunt instrument,” which rewards spend over strategy, volume over impact, and activity over outcomes.

“For too long, our industry has leaned on Media Value (MV) as a proxy for success,” explains Sullivan. “It does not reveal which brands are using their resources most intelligently, nor does it highlight those building the strongest foundation for future revenue. The landscape has shifted. Boards and investors now demand marketing metrics that demonstrate direct links to business performance.”

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

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

For Gucci, the SS26 showcase was described by the CCI as a “masterclass in digital domination,” as the Italian fashion house looked to mark a new phase under the creative directorship of Demna. By replacing the traditional runway with a surprise digital drop and a simultaneous film premiere in Milan and Shanghai, the brand achieved immediate global reach and a seamless bridge between hype and commerce, which was boosted by a see now, buy now capsule that proved “digital spectacle can translate directly into measurable sales and engagement”.

CCI data showed that Gucci generated 562 million impressions across platforms, with 516,000 total shares, representing 15 percent of all Milan Fashion Week social posts. Caro Daur’s TikTok achieved 11 million views to become the most viewed single piece of Gucci’s content across all platforms during fashion week.

In brand popularity, the brand ranked second overall, behind Prada, boosted by a 28.6 percent share of total media value, while in brand involvement, Gucci was second overall, behind Bottega Veneta, with an engagement rate reaching 8.2 percent versus an average of 5.9 percent.

When it came to the purchase intent pillar, the brand ranked fifth in search, behind Fendi, The Attico, Jil Sander, and Bottega Veneta, with a 9.1 percent increase in site traffic and a 10.3 percent rise in Google shopping-related searches versus an average of 4.2 percent. A small decrease on Baidu indicated that Western market traction slightly outpaced Asian response.

Fendi boosted by Asian creators and stars

Fendi, which closed Milan Fashion Week, brought both a “historic transition and a major market win,” said the CCI report, as the fashion house generated 303 million impressions across platforms, and achieved dominance across Asian platforms, as its contents accounted for 20 percent of all fashion week impressions on Red, 9 percent on Weibo and 15 percent on Douyin.

Its score of 92.9 score was particularly boosted by its first-place ranking in the purchase intent pillar, recording a 17.8 percent increase in site traffic, a 10.6 percent rise in Google shopping-related searches and 8 percent on Baidu. The peak occurred between 72 and 92 hours after the show, driven by the timed release of celebrity imagery and the presence of global ambassador Bang Chan of Stray Kids.

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

Bottega Veneta showed balanced strength across all three pillars

For third place, Bottega Veneta, the debut of Louise Trotter as creative director, showed “strategy and engagement,” to earn an 88.9 score. Anticipation for Trotter’s debut “was built organically, culminating in a show that combined minimalism, craftsmanship and cinematic presentation, amplified through a flawless livestream and strong creator presence”.

The report also stressed the effectiveness of Bottega Veneta’s digital execution and controlling the narrative of its show, as the brand’s YouTube show alone generated 16 million views, accounting for 5 percent of the brand’s total impressions during the monitored period. Overall, the brand achieved 351 million impressions across platforms and was boosted by its brand ambassador Kim Nam Joon of BTS, whose content generated 8 percent of the brand’s total impressions.

Milan Fashion Week saw a shift towards stunts

The index also revealed that the “stunt is now as critical as the show,” with Milan SS26 confirming a critical shift, as cultural events transcended the runway and converted celebrity, emotion, and audacious concepts “into dominant digital moments”.

Gucci was “best in class” for expertly merging K-Pop fandom, Hollywood storytelling, and high fashion, while Dolce & Gabbana engineered a viral stunt, with a single post from Vogue Magazine featuring Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour that achieved more than 24 percent of views of the total of the brand views.

Diesel was highlighted for “shifting the focus from the collection,” with its city-wide “egg hunt” that intended to democratise fashion and generate high volumes of user content. However, the CCI said the bold experiment failed to convert its high exposure into “meaningful engagement,” even with the brand ambassador Lyas featured on the brand’s TikTok channel. The video saw high viewership but very low shares. The data shows that it had 3.9 million views but only 149 shares, a performance that is significantly penalised by the TikTok algorithm.

“The experience itself was well conceived, but it was poorly executed. This resulted in the collection becoming a mere side dish to the overall activation, rather than its central focus,” added the CCI report.