Gucci tops the inaugural Cultural Currency Index (CCI), the first data-based model created to quantify how cultural engagement translates into measurable market momentum. The index was unveiled in Milan by Annex, the analytics driven brand consultancy co-founded by Miah Sullivan, former global CMO and longtime fashion- industry executive. The CCI was built in collaboration with WeArisma, the AI-powered creator and social intelligence platform.
Developed over two years, the CCI is designed 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. For Sullivan, the project began with a question she could never answer as a CMO: what metric reveals the tangible value of cultural amplification? “As a CMO, I could always measure exposure but never its consequence,” said Miah Sullivan. “This beta release of the Cultural Currency Index is the first step toward closing that gap and giving leaders a consistent indicator of when cultural energy begins to translate into business traction.”
The beta release assessed twenty fashion companies showing at Milan Fashion Week S/S 2026. Gucci ranked first, followed by Fendi, Bottega Veneta, Prada, and The Attico. Data is drawn from eleven platforms, comprising Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Weibo, Douyin, RED (Xiaohongshu), Google, Baidu, Similarweb, and Yahoo!Finance. It was organized across three weighted dimensions: brand involvement, brand popularity, and purchase intent. Each brand receives a normalized score between 0 and 100, allowing comparison across seasons and markets.
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The methodology applies interquartile filtering and distribution adjustments to prevent outlier distortion, creating a more stable picture of brand momentum than exposure- based models. In its first statistical validation, the CCI recorded a positive correlation (r = 0.63) between index scores and share-price outperformance versus the market, suggesting that shifts in cultural momentum tend to move in step with investor confidence. While early, the result supports the intention to refine CCI’s function as a leading indicator rather than a retrospective measure.
Gucci’s digital-first presentation of The Tiger generated exceptional engagement and search activity, while Bottega Veneta showed balanced strength across all three pillars. Fendi’s activation of key Asian creators proved how targeted cultural strategy can translate into measurable intent. Collectively, the findings highlight the brands most effective at converting visibility into economic traction. A comprehensive breakdown of the CCI methodology is contained within its first report, which was distributed at this evening’s launch conference.
The Milan beta marks the first public release of the Cultural Currency Index. Annex will refine and expand the model through additional datasets and peer review ahead of 2026 editions covering Paris, New York, and Shanghai. Future reports will incorporate longer-term demand indicators and regional weighting to maintain comparability across markets.
The CCI is positioned not as a replacement for creative judgment but as a complement to it: a quantitative counterpart to the intuitive assessments that have long defined brand strength. By creating a consistent, transparent framework, Annex intends to offer marketing, finance, and creative teams with a shared language for evaluating how cultural attention tangibly contributes to business performance.
Out of respect following Mr. Giorgio Armani’s passing, Armani’s memorial presentation was not assessed this season.
