Naomi Campbell and the Success of her Livestreams on YouTube
If we asked people on the street to mention a famous top model, surely many people would name Naomi Campbell. Nicknamed the Black Venus, Naomi has achieved a series of records and unique experiences since her early modeling days in the mid-80s. She has been a brand ambassador for countless companies during her long career and in 1988, she was the first black woman to grace the cover of Vogue (first in France and then in the UK) and Time Magazine. Over the years, she has been outstanding for her social commitment against poverty in Africa and discrimination against black models. Entrepreneur, model, and actress, Naomi Campbell is a global icon and never ceases to amaze. In April, during an uncertain period due to the health emergency and at the age of 50, she launched a livestream series on YouTube titled No Filter With Naomi. Over the 15 episodes, live for three weeks from April 6th to 24th, she interviewed celebrities including Anna Wintour, Paris Hilton, Marc Jacobs, and Sharon Stone from her home. These live videos are still available on Naomi's account and achieved great success. The project was also highly supported by Derek Blasberg, YouTube’s Head of Fashion and Beauty Partnership. Indeed, in a recent Business of Fashion talk, the supermodel announced that the second series would be online soon. We decided to analyze the impact of this project. Below are some data on the success of the "No Filter With Naomi" series.
NAOMI CAMPBELL CAPTURED YOUTUBE WITH HER LIVE VIDEOS
The livestream series started on April 6th featuring chat with another supermodel, Cindy Crawford, talking about her new normal during these hard times. It ended on April 24 with the YouTuber Jackie Ania, unveiling her makeup secrets. To date, the 15 videos achieved almost 3 million views and Engagement of 70K. In particular, the most viewed video is the one with model Ashley Graham on self-confidence. In second place, a video with worldwide tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, and, in third, the aforementioned video with Cindy Crawford.
Looking at Engagement, the video with the highest number of reactions featured Naomi Campbell chatting with American designer Marc Jacobs. Naomi asked him to recall a truly unforgettable experience: his first show as creative director of the French fashion house, Louis Vuitton. In second place by Engagement, additional exclusive content for Social Media: the interview with Anna Wintour, Vogue's Editor-in-Chief. Wintour surprisingly reported that she received internal criticism for selecting Naomi for her first September issue cover in 1989, but she decided to put her ideas forward. Her determination awarded another record to Naomi Campbell as Naomi became the first black model on the cover of the magazine’s most crucial issue. In third place by Engagement: the livestream with South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech who discussed her journey toward becoming a top model and highlighted the importance of supporting diversity in the fashion industry.
Choosing YouTube for the “No Filter With Naomi" series represents a sign of Naomi's pioneering approach. If we think about how luxury fashion, cosmetics, and lifestyle brands use social networks, Instagram has been the more popular platform. To better understand how much companies utilize Instagram, consider that based on the brands in DMR’s panel, in March 2020, 63% of their content was made on Instagram as reported in our analysis of the Covid-19 effect on Social Media. Naomi Campbell's preference for YouTube has proven to be successful, as well as different. To date, each video of the first "No Filter With Naomi" series gained, onaverage, almost 189K views and more than 4600 of Engagement. Once again, Naomi paved the way, this time for a new form of entertainment on Social Media with an original and authentic approach and moving freely from light subjects to very timely themes. We just have to wait for the second series with the certainty that it will be another success for Naomi Campbell.
