Launchmetrics: Ralph Lauren benefitting the most from fashion week exposure

Fashion weeks are a great opportunity to generate buzz around a brand, but who’s doing it best? Launchmetrics, a data analytics firm focusing on the fashion, beauty and luxury sectors has measured the impact of 400 runway shows during last season’s Paris, Milan, New York and London fashion weeks and concluded that Ralph Lauren is the brand getting the most from the event.

To determine the list, Launchmetrics has mapped content mentioning the 400 brands across traditional media, influencers and celebrities’ profiles on social media, partner media (such as websites and social media from department stores selling the brand) and owned media (a company’s own website and social media profiles). Then, the company measured the impact of all media placement by using its Media Impact Value (MIV) metric, which converts buzz into currency. Ralph Lauren generated 37.6 million dollars in MIV during fashion week -- 30 percent of which (over 11 million) came from the company’s own media, which goes to show that official communication channels form a significant tool for generating buzz.

However, Ralph Lauren loses the throne to Victoria Beckham when it comes to leveraging own media during fashion week. The own channels of the brand led by the former Spice Girl turned fashion designer generated 9.9 million US dollars in MIV during fashion week last season. Beckham is followed by Moschino and Gucci, whose own media generated 4.8 million US dollars and 8.5 million US dollars in MIV, respectively. Own media represents about 43 percent of their MIV. Long story short: consumers are taking the company's official channels seriously by engaging and sharing the posts.

While influencers and celebrities generate more MIV than traditional media (60 percent vs. 28 percent), own media is where brands have the most room to improve and increase Return on Investment (ROI), said Launchmetrics’ Chief Marketing Officer Alison Bringé during a webinar to marketing professionals offered in partnership with Pinterest last week. However, Bringé notes that brands shouldn’t forget that “it’s not only about having a social media presence but rather strategically targeting the right audience”.