The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted many established marketing frameworks. Since February, brands have been forced to update their communication strategies following limits and conditions imposed by Covid-19. As reported in our study "The Covid-19 Effect on Luxury & Lifestyle Social Media", in March during the lockdown, Celebrities and Influencers' social activity grew by only 0.5% on average, while Engagement went down by 1.5%. We noticed the same trend in Instagram Sponsored Posts, decreasing by 42% on average from March to August, with Engagement falling by 54%. In this article, we explain how the role of Celebrities and Influencers has changed at the main fashion weeks, from digital presentations in June and July to the phygital evolution in September and October.

CELEBRITIES AND INFLUENCERS' IMPACT AT THE LATEST FASHION WEEKS

In June and July fashion weeks of London, Milan, and Paris, the impact of Celebrities and Influencers strongly suffered from the absence of physical events. Considering our report on the Digital Fashion Weeks, Celebrities and Influencers released only 157 posts on Social Media using events' official keywords and hashtags, equivalent to 7% of the content. Brands could not invite personalities with wide followings on social networks: the 157 posts generated just €132K of Earned Media Value which was 3% of the total value. Comparatively, in January 2020 (pre-Covid) during Men's fashion weeks which are less followed, Celebrity and Influencers’ made 998 posts equivalent to €4M of value.

The lack of Celebrities and Influencers with a massive number of followers combined with the pause to physical events impacted the type of content and its Engagement. In January, rapper Tyga(21M followers on Instagram) posted a picture of his arrival at the Off-White show, which gained 549K of Engagement and €610K of EMV. In June and July, the best content was published by Indian fashion influencer Santoshi Shetty (717K followers on Instagram) with 16K of Engagement and €9K of EMV.

In September and October, with the mix of limited access shows and digital projects, the situation improved both for fashion weeks and Celebrities and Influencers. As reported in our analysis, Celebrities and Influencers made 1,714 posts for €6.7M of value for the Fashion Weeks (excluding New York). In Milan and Paris, where most of the physical events took the stage, this category reached 20% and 9% of the total EMV, respectively. Russian model Irina Shayk made the top post for SS21 fashion weeks. She posted a backstage shot with British supermodel Karen Elson and Italian model Maria Carla Boscono. It achieved 358K of Engagement and €258K of EMV.

According to our analyses, the role of Celebrities and Influencers changed in the latest fashion weeks. At the same time, it's clear that their Social power involves the ability to share with followers an experience they're living. That said, the return to physical events represents an ideal condition to better leverage their potential. We'll have to see how Celebrities and Influencers will find effective alternatives to their physical presence at events. Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni has seemingly started a pathway to this trend. Even though she did not attend any of the SS21 shows, Ferragni was the top Celebrity/Influencer for Milan Fashion Week. She made 6 posts with runway looks that reached €542K of EMV. If you want more insights about New York, London, Milan, and Paris SS21 Fashion Weeks, you can download our full report by clicking here.