According to Launchmetrics, International Celebrities and Heritage Brands Owned New York Fashion Week
New York Fashion Week (NYFW) marks the start of Fashion Month, during which the industry’s biggest brands showcase new collections. This year’s Fall Winter 2024 NYFW brought America’s most well-known names into the spotlight anew. Preliminary reports crowned Becky G, Tommy Hilfiger, and Michael Kors as top Media Impact Value™ (MIV®) earners. Two weeks after the event, on February 28, leading analytics company Launchmetrics released a final report with additional data that reveals the impact of international celebrities, Instagram, and heritage American brands during NYFW.
Instagram Leads Social Platforms
For another consecutive season, Instagram remains the top social platform for sharing NYFW trends, viral moments, and general content. More than 50% of the earned MIV® at the event was generated on Instagram. The platform has maintained the uncontested top spot over Facebook, TikTok, and online media, which cumulatively accounted for 49% of MIV® this season. It should be noted that, due to its unparalleled growth, TikTok is expected to surpass Facebook in percent share of MIV® in the coming years — though right now, both platforms are tied at 10%.
Additionally, Instagram influencers played a major role in generation MIV® for brands this season. In fact, influencer Qimmah Russo amassed $1.6M in MIV® across just four social media placements, making her the top Influencer Voice at NYFW. Similarly, fellow influencer Janette Ok had the top-performing influencer placement from the week, accruing $931K in MIV® for an Instagram Reel.
The Season For International Stars
As might be expected for a New York City-based event, the United States was the leading MIV® generating country during NYFW. The United Kingdom and South Korea followed in second and third place — the Asia Pacific (APAC) region has received increasing attention during each new Fashion Month, thanks to brands’ deploying rising pan-Asian stars as brand ambassadors. Additionally, this season, South America has also joined the conversation: Brazil remained a leading presence and Argentina made an impressive debut at 4th place, thanks in part to placements by Argentinian influencers Angie Landaburu and Valeria Mazza.
On the other hand, international names ruled the top celebrity MIV® chart. In first place was Mexican American singer Becky G, who on her own earned a whopping $1.4M in MIV®. Following were K-pop singer Seulgi (874K in MIV®) and Kazakh actress Zarina Yeva ($825K). The remaining top-earning stars were equally diverse: Indian actress Sonam Kapoor, who was present at Tommy Hilfiger’s show accrued $781K. Other Tommy Hilfiger show attendants, South Korean stars Junho Lee and Nayeon Im, as well as Thai darling Win Metawin, also made it to the celebrity ranking, amassing $763K, $750K and $531K respectively. With the fashion industry finally harnessing the power of global superstars and their fandoms, the growth of international representation at Fashion Months to come shows no signs of slowing down.
The Brands to Watch
Classic American brand Tommy Hilfiger made its official, highly-anticipated comeback to the NYFW stage with its FW24 collection on February 9. To commemorate its return, Tommy Hilfiger enlisted the help of beloved celebrities. Its star-studded guest list and owned media placements made Tommy Hilfiger the undisputed top earner at NYFW at $21.3M in MIV®. Becky G had the night’s top placement at $767K MIV®, while representatives of the APAC market Sonam Kapoor, Junho Lee, Nayeon Im were some of the most talked-about personalities present. The show’s special closing, featuring a performance by Jon Batiste, generated $1.5M in MIV® on its own.
In second and third place were Michael Kors and Tory Burch, with $16.8M and $8.5M in MIV®, respectively. Michael Kors took its promotions to the next level by honing in on owned media. Blake Lively, Dahyun Kim, Gabrielle Union, and Rachel Zegler, among other high-profile attendees, drove MIV® generation for the show through widespread media coverage. Each of them garnered $4 million (Blake Lively), $2.4 million (Dahyun), $1.3 million (Gabrielle Union) and $1.3 million (Rachel Zegler) in MIV®.
Similarly, Tory Burch took advantage of owned media to garner attention for its show, earning the top brand placement on TikTok, at $274K in MIV®. Indonesian actress Natasha Wilona, who boasts more than an Instagram following of over 40 million, amassed $274K across two placements.
Some brands found increased online success this year compared to their performance at last year’s Fall Winter 2023 NYFW — the top three growing labels this season were Eckhaus Latta, Sandy Liang, and Jason Wu. On the other hand, some beloved designers continued to see growth in interest: Thom Browne, Michael Kors, and Tory Burch saw an uptick in content downloads and saved looks from this season’s runways.
Another buzz-worthy New York Fashion Week is officially in the books, and the end of Fashion Month is fast approaching. As one of the fashion industry’s busiest months comes to a close, the year’s trends are aligning to uplift diverse voices across social platforms.
*Author’s Note: Media Impact Value™ (MIV®) is an algorithm proprietary of Launchmetrics’ Machine Learning. It assigns a monetary amount to every post, interaction, and article, analyzing more than 100 quantitative and qualitative attributes specific to the fashion, luxury, and beauty industry including audience engagement, industry relevance, source authority, and content quality, to create a highly accurate method of measurement. This algorithm is not to be confused with KPIs like EMV (Earned Media Value).
