Money, algorithms and social media likes: “That's how I invented mister Enjoy,” boasts Mirko Scarcella, former guru of Gianluca Vacchi, who has launched many VIPs online and on social media. The problem isn't just that he boasts about it. It's the deficiency... of values.
Just turned 30, he turns over 4 million euros a year building digital identities from his studio in the Canary Islands, Spain, and has a tattoo on his chest reading "I am the chosen one." Mirko Scarcella is the man who decisively helped "create" the Gianluca Vacchi phenomenon — a character who has taken Instagram by storm with lavish parties, Rolls-Royces and semi-naked dancing alongside young women and bottles of Dom Pérignon.
Following one of the latest interviews given by Vacchi's former guru, in which he speaks of Trump as an idol, we decided to turn the X-ray of Luca Poma on him — leading LifeGate columnist, university lecturer, razor-sharp corporate communications expert, founder of the blog Creatori di Futuro and author, among many books, of the recent Il sex appeal dei corpi digitali, which is very much on topic.
Luca, what do you make of the phenomenon we're talking about?
There are people who can only be described as deficient. This one, though, is well-off, given his turnover.
Are we sinking to the level of insults?
Absolutely not — that's not my style at all. I was referring to the word derived from the present participle of the Latin deficere, meaning lacking. Lacking in many things: first and foremost, a low profile, which in this type of profession is indispensable. When I am called in to advise company presidents and CEOs or public figures, I always stay one step back, I never appear, and that is what all my colleagues who dedicate themselves with passion and dedication to this fascinating profession do as well. The "chosen one" should always and only be the client.
In your view, what else is Mirko Scarcella "lacking" in?
Certainly not in turnover — that must be admitted and acknowledged. I do recall a phrase of his: "I can make great dreams come true through the web in a single day." Personally, beyond the self-celebratory and "promotional" emphasis, I firmly believe that great reputation-building projects can only stand the test of time insofar as they are built on truly solid foundations. And the web is a valuable tool, but certainly not the only one, because the offline world carries a decisive weight regardless. Can you picture Gianluca Vacchi at an art exhibition, or expressing his own opinion on some significant political decision, or speaking at a university conference?
So what is Scarcella's formula, given that he delivers results regardless?
Some speak of "shortcuts": there is suspicion of purchased likes from Russia to surreptitiously inflate his clients' fanbases, the purchase — by his own admission — of thousands of web domains that redirect to the client's profile, channelling traffic to artificially game the restrictive algorithms of social platforms, and — in all likelihood — the intelligent management of "collusion networks," meaning social profiles — real or fake, it makes no difference — that are grouped together and collaborate with one another. A network of this kind, comprising thousands of pages, can easily and rapidly distort the popularity of any figure or piece of content, racking up a disproportionate number of likes and consequently gaining a great deal of attention within social networks. There is an interesting piece of research on these techniques from the University of Iowa and the Lahore University of Management Sciences, published just recently (CBS covers it here). But surely these are just the claims of gossips… it must all be envy.
So in your opinion, is this how this individual may have become a "web guru," as some journalist colleagues have described him?
That's something you'd have to ask him. What is certain is that building a reputation is something quite different from (merely) guaranteeing a person like Gianluca Vacchi millions of followers. Reputation management cannot and must not disregard the quality of conversations — it is certainly not just a matter of quantity. Ours is a society increasingly hungry for appearances, bulimic for glamour as an end in itself.
Can Mirko Scarcella's work be placed within this trend?
Probably yes. Gianluca Vacchi, after all, is "famous for being famous" — there is no specific reason underpinning his celebrity: what he has, he has largely inherited. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but there is quite a gap between that and turning someone into an "icon." Unfortunately, in a period of crisis like this one, which perhaps only now we are very slowly leaving behind — not only an economic and financial crisis, but perhaps also a moral one, given some truly poor examples that have reached us over the years from the worlds of politics and public administration — people are increasingly eager to switch off from everyday life and take refuge in "undemanding banality." In this sense, Vacchi's idiotic dancing in his underwear on his yacht somehow responds to a widespread need, and he cannot be criminalised for giving a portion of social media users exactly what they are looking for. One might ask whether this can and should serve as a model, as they would like to present it — especially for younger generations — but that is another discussion, and it would take us too far afield.
Returning to those who have profited from this "icon": does the "pay-per-kilo" model of building digital reputation prove to be a winning one regardless? Anything goes, as long as you get results? Is that the point of your profession?
In my view, absolutely not — and not only for reasons of "ethics." You see, in the reputation manager's work there is a constant issue: the distance between identity and image. When this distance becomes excessive — heavy push on perceived image, regardless of the person's actual identity — the scaffolding creaks and risks collapsing, bringing the entire building down with it.
I do not know Gianluca Vacchi personally, and I certainly cannot assess whether, to put it simply, he is playing a role or genuinely is one — but we cannot avoid asking ourselves what the world he puts on stage represents, what values it evokes, and — ultimately — what goal he is trying to achieve.
If the goal is celebrity for its own sake or the stroking of one's ego, Scarcella's strategy is certainly a winning one. The pity is that neither of those two elements enters in any way into the equation that determines reputation, which is a very different thing from celebrity and considerably more ephemeral. In short, it will be interesting to see what remains of Vacchi in five years' time, if he is unable to reinvent himself on far more solid foundations. Even if, between ourselves, his "positioning" is by now fairly clear, and it will not be easy to reverse the trend and add content capable of qualifying him and withstanding the wear of time.
Scarcella recently stated that he would like to work for Donald Trump, who appears to be one of his idols, alongside Sylvester Stallone.
I find that quite easy to believe. One of my idols, on the other hand — if I may say so — is José Pepe Mujica, the former president of Uruguay, who gave the world lessons on the need to rediscover a "sustainable" way of life that is respectful of the environment. He has a simply extraordinary global reputation, and not a single follower, since as far as I am aware he is not personally present on social media platforms — except for a few fan pages dedicated to him. Even though all of this will, I imagine, be incomprehensible to Scarcella, this is an astonishing reputation story. That's the kind of person I would love to work for — even for free.
