Piera Valentina Toniolo (Dolce & Gabbana): Influencer marketing at the top

Luxury Brands Cannot Afford Inauthentic Partnerships

At EcomConf 2026, Piera Valentina Toniolo, Digital Marketing Director at Dolce & Gabbana, delivered one of the most candid assessments of influencer marketing we have heard from a luxury house. Her central argument was simple: for a brand built on prestige, a misaligned partnership does not just underperform. It damages the asset that took decades to build.

Reach is the wrong metric

Toniolo challenged the common fixation on follower counts. In her experience, nano and micro influencers with deep authority in specific communities, whether that is fine dining, architecture, or high fashion, consistently outperform mega influencers for luxury conversion. The reason is simple: their audiences follow them for taste and judgment, not entertainment. When a trusted voice recommends a luxury purchase, the recommendation carries weight that a mass-market endorsement cannot replicate.

Dolce & Gabbana evaluates potential partners on engagement quality, content history, audience demographics, and above all, genuine alignment with the brand’s aesthetic world. Follower count is not among the top five criteria. This approach requires more time and more judgment calls, but it produces partnerships that feel natural to the audience rather than transactional.

Content freedom within brand boundaries

One of the most interesting points Toniolo raised concerns creative control. Luxury brands are often tempted to over-script influencer content to protect brand consistency. Dolce & Gabbana has found the opposite approach more effective: define the brand’s world clearly, establish a few firm limits, and then give creators genuine freedom to express themselves within that space. The resulting content feels personal rather than promotional, and audiences respond accordingly.