About NIMA Digital

Our Story

NIMA Digital Consulting was founded in 2025 by Nicola Antonelli and Marina Di Falco, two Italian digital veterans who relocated to Dubai to serve the growing demand for luxury-grade digital consulting in the MENA region. The firm's name reflects its mission: bridging Italian luxury heritage with the dynamic markets of the Middle East and North Africa.

After decades of building digital operations for some of Italy's most prestigious brands, the founders recognized a gap in the Dubai market: many agencies offered generalist digital services, but none combined deep luxury industry expertise with senior-level, founder-led engagement. NIMA Digital was created to fill that gap.

How We Grew, and How We Work

Our founding team's professional path was built across two and a half decades inside luxury and fashion brands. At the time of joining, those companies were mid-sized or small operations, founder-led, often running without a formal org chart, and measured each quarter on whether the next growth milestone would land. Over the following years, several of those businesses scaled into operations with hundreds of employees, expanded across dozens of international markets, and became references in their categories. That scaling curve, with its structural breakpoints and the specific problems that emerge at each stage, is the source of our expertise. It is the reason we can recognise, early, which problems a founder is about to hit.

Smaller brands and scale-ups operate differently, and the consultancy they need is different too. Processes are partial, still taking shape. Marketing stacks are assembled opportunistically as new needs appear. The person running e-commerce is often also writing brand copy and handling customer service escalations. This is the normal operating mode of a brand in its scaling phase, and most of the informal practices already in place are working. Our approach starts by mapping what exists, identifying which of those informal practices deserve to be codified, and introducing AI-based tooling that multiplies what a small team can produce. Organisation and process are grown from what is already there, not imported from a template.

As brands cross thresholds (first international markets, first structured teams, first external investors) the strategy adapts. Early on, we operate as an extended part of the client team, covering multiple functions at once in what is effectively generalist coverage. As the organisation matures, we help the transition toward specialist coverage: dedicated performance marketing ownership, a proper CRM function, a data team, a structured product management layer. The consultancy relationship evolves accordingly, from embedded generalist to specific-problem specialist, and eventually to advisory. This progression is not an add-on to what we do. It is what we do.

The Founders

Nicola Antonelli

Co-Founder & CEO

LinkedIn Profile

Nicola Antonelli built LuisaViaRoma's digital empire from 1999, transforming it from a local Florentine boutique into one of the world's leading luxury e-commerce platforms. Over two decades, he served as CMO and Chief Revenue Officer, overseeing the digital strategy that generated over €300M in revenue.

Named Digital Manager of the Year in 2021, Antonelli's career spans the full evolution of luxury digital, from the first wave of e-commerce in the early 2000s through mobile, social commerce, and now AI-driven personalization. His hands-on experience building a €300M+ operation informs every strategic recommendation NIMA Digital provides.

Marina Di Falco

Co-Founder & Performance Marketing

LinkedIn Profile

Marina Di Falco brings nearly 15 years of e-commerce expertise with deep specialization in performance marketing for luxury brands. A Certified Media Manager, she is recognized for her ability to balance brand prestige with measurable performance outcomes.

Her expertise covers paid media strategy, creative optimization, ROAS maximization, and cross-channel attribution, specifically calibrated for luxury audiences where brand equity and conversion must coexist. Di Falco's approach ensures that every marketing euro drives both immediate returns and long-term brand value.

Founder Track Record

Industry Recognition

Speaking & Teaching

• ◆Ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy (MIMIT), Rome — "Made in Italy: la digitalizzazione come leva per la crescita" (June 2025)
• ◆Netcomm Forum, Milan (2019, 2024) — Italy’s leading e-commerce conference
• ◆Osservatorio Fedeltà UniPR, Parma — "Digital Loyalty Revolution" keynote
• ◆LUISS Business School, Rome — Guest lecturer, Master in Fashion Management
• ◆IED Firenze — International Mentor, Master in Fashion Merchandising & Buying
• ◆IED for Future — Speaker, industry mentorship events
• ◆Università di Firenze / PIN Prato — Lecturer, "E-commerce & UX Usability" module (16h), Master in Digital Marketing (14 editions)
• ◆Università di Firenze — Guest speaker, student orientation event (2023)

Published In

The Boutique Model

NIMA Digital operates as a boutique consultancy, no junior account managers, every engagement is founder-led with direct access to senior expertise. Rather than maintaining large internal teams, we work through a curated global network of specialists, hand-picked for each project. This model delivers three advantages:

• Direct founder involvement in every engagement, no delegation to junior staff
• Access to best-in-class specialists across technology, creative, and media
• Flexibility to scale teams up or down based on project needs