‘Beauty is a culture’: Maison BETC’s boss Florence Bellisson on career in luxury marketing

Bellisson, who is half Swedish, recalls doing an internship at Forsman & Bodenfors, which was a baptism of fire for the “shy” youngster working on the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper account. At that time, advertising in its magazine wasn’t as common as it is now, but in one of the editions, the editors had a blank space that Bellisson was asked to fill. Her Swedish wasn’t fluent and she wasn’t a copywriter, but she knew she ”couldn’t say no” and gave it her best shot.

“I wrote, ‘What are you thinking about it?’ which was linked to the fact that I was a bit lost,” she laughs. “The client came back and said, ‘Oh, that’s a very good idea, because you’re right. We need to be closer to the public.’ He was super happy. “It was a misunderstanding in a way, but it empowered me that maybe I could have ideas beyond being a person who knows how to draw and do academic work in terms of artistic skills.”

From then on, Bellisson has always maintained that curious nature. She says the “blank page” still excites her every day.

In 1995, she joined Young & Rubicam as an art director and then spent 15 years in her first stint at BETC, climbing the ranks to creative director. Interestingly, during her career, Bellisson has worked on both the client and agency side within the luxury space.

“I wanted to test my skills towards different industries, different ways of developing creativity and finding solutions for clients,” she says. “They have their ‘unknowns,’ rules that are not shared when you arrive, rules that you get to understand. Sometimes that has been very funny and sometimes it is more difficult for me to understand and adapt myself.”

A dream role at Hermès

In 2016, Bellisson landed a dream role at Hermès as executive creative director, which, she explains, was absolutely “not as casual” as being in an agency. “There’s a lot of protocol. It was a new era of collaborating and sharing ideas. It is a fabulous place to work. I did lots of funny things, because it is funny and everything has a Hermès twist. There’s a wittiness it wants to nurture.” During her time there, Bellisson took on a new venture of working more on events for the brand, which opened up her mind to new ways of being creative for a brand.

A pivotal time for a brand in trouble

Since 2019, Bellisson has been the chief creative officer at Maison BETC. One of her favorite projects from her career was for Air France, which came at a pivotal time for the brand, which had been involved in an aviation accident in 2009. ‘L’Envol’ was inspired by Angelin Preljocaj's choreography, which was drawn from his ballet Le Parc and holds a special place in Bellisson’s heart as she is also a dancer.

“It was about telling people to be confident about Air France, because it had had the catastrophe. The music was Mozart, so it’s totally classic, but it was really emotional at the end of the day. It was very minimalist.”

For Bellisson, the best work comes from a place of emotion. As she puts it, the beauty industry is a “culture” that is “very complex and fascinating” due to people’s varying takes on it, from geographical-based trends to personal adoptions. A brand she highlights as exciting in the space is Byredo, which released its makeup line in 2020. “It was cinematic,” Bellisson says of the launch.

BETC announces global network

Today, BETC has announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind, specialized global network of creative and strategic talent, dedicated to premium brands. Bringing together more than 120 carefully selected individuals from across the globe, and with offices in New York, Paris and Shanghai, Maison BETC is a response to the emerging challenges facing the international luxury sector today. Bellisson explains that, since Trump has taken office for the second time in the US, things have become “challenging” regarding taxes and growth.

Of Maison BETC, she explains that it “speaks beauty” because it “is a language,” but if it doesn’t speak in the “right tone” for brands, then it’s a failure. “Beauty is a culture,” she says. “It’s quite complex, but it’s fascinating because it’s such a tool of empowerment. It’s both something that can be highly luxury, highly exclusive, highly expensive, but at the end of the day, we need to follow the desires of the customers, because it’s their needs that we need to come with solutions with different objects and different way to master the face you want to have to interact with others.”

Led by chairman Clément Boisseau, Maison’s BETC talent will include renowned industry figures such as Florent, Marine Hakim and Olivier Vigneaux, alongside Bellisson. With over two decades in the industry, she explains that when she first adopted senior roles many years ago, she was actually “quite shy.” Now, she’s helping shape a new direction for the agency.

“We’re at a pivotal moment in the evolution of the luxury industry, where creativity must go beyond aesthetics to shape meaning and purpose,” Bellisson explains. “I’m looking forward to working with exceptional talent across our key markets to help brands elevate their positioning and craft narratives that make history – creatively, culturally and commercially.”

She always encourages her team to watch good advertising work daily, as if it were their daily newspaper. “It’s healthy. I have my morning coffee; I look at good work.”