min magazine 2008 Most Intriguing: Christine Iacuzzo
Friday, November 7, 2008

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Christine Iacuzzo
VP of U.S. Advertising and Marketing, Gucci

Gucci star Christine Iacuzzo— a brand-marketing prodigy—can’t keep the lid on her energy. “I always enjoyed being creative—even if I wasn’t doing the actual designing or art directing,” she says. After rocketing from intern to media planner at Prada and Giorgio Armani, she arrived at Gucci in 2001 and rose to her current position on a wave of creative contributions that began with traditional print advertising and grew into much bigger, multifaceted marketing campaigns.

While Gucci regularly advertises in high-fashion titles like Elle, Vogue and W, Iacuzzo and her team pride themselves on making presentations unique. “The February issue of W was a flip book with two different covers,” she says. “We had the opportunity to own the entire editorial section where Gucci was the sole advertiser with 30 pages. This is the most impactful advertising unit that Gucci and W have ever run. I’m proud of that.”

The current market challenges have spurred even more innovation. “You need to create unique opportunities,” she says, using the campaign promoting the opening of the Gucci’s New York store as a prime example. “We had multiple high-profile impact units (including the 30 pages in W), taxi tops, bus shelters, phone kiosks, a digital billboard in Times Square and Gucci branded coffee cups sold at carts in midtown. We also had an online ad campaign linking to a special month long, New York-dedicated microsite which stimulated user-generated content and excitement for the opening. The entire New York collection sold out in a week.”

Iacuzzo plans to look at new media opportunities, but remains loyal to magazines as a vital vehicle to reach Gucci consumers. “Environment and readership are crucial to connecting with our consumers,” she says.



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