Vogue’s three-hour-long livestream of the Met Gala red carpet got off to a clunky start on the first Monday of May with the camera so zoomed in it cut off the faces of two of the presenters, Vanessa Hudgens and Hamish Bowles, while sound temporarily disappeared.
Nevertheless, Condé Nast execs delivering the publisher’s annual NewFront presentation to advertisers at The Shed in New York City said the coverage, which was livestreamed on Vogue.com and Meta platforms such as Instagram, was a success, beating 2021, the first year it took control of live coverage. As for hard data, while Pam Drucker Mann, global chief revenue officer and president of U.S. revenue, cited millions of viewers, she did not break down specific numbers and a PR representative did not respond to request for comment. Last year, it generated around 200 million views across various platforms.
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Faced with dwindling print advertising revenues, which were only exacerbated by the pandemic, the company last year began taking control of some of its live events as a way to rake in extra ad dollars. In the case of the Met Gala, E! had long dominated the coverage of its glitzy red carpet, but now Vogue — which cohosts the star-studded event as Condé Nast has been one of the main sponsors for years — has control of new live programming, from the final fittings and last-minute looks to the red carpet, offering audiences exclusive behind-the-scenes access.
For Monday’s Met Gala, Hudgens and Bowles, a longtime Vogue editor and editor in chief of World of Interiors, were joined by La La Anthony and it was livestreamed on social media platforms. There was also a plethora of behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube, while influencer Emma Chamberlain interviewed a number of stars for the platform.
And whatever the total views end up being, Drucker Mann said advertising around Met Gala doubled year-over-year.
Condé has done the same with the Vanity Fair Oscars Party and used its Newfront presentation to announce that Allure Best of Beauty, Glamour Women of the Year and GQ Sports at the Super Bowl will also be joining its live programming slate.
It also unveiled its largest video programming slate ever for the 2022-23 season, with new and returning originals, social series, live event programming and an expanded audio lineup. In total, there will be 250 new and returning series across 55 global brand channels, including GQ’s expansion of GQ Sports — a vertical dedicated to the nexus of sports and culture.
“We offer one-of-a-kind cultural moments like the Met Gala and Oscars livestreams and are now going further with GQ Sports at the Super Bowl,” said Drucker Mann. “Our 2023 upfront offering meets the market with unmatched IP and content while delivering premium first-party audiences and performance measurement capabilities that work together seamlessly.”
The company also announced that Condé Nast Shoppable, which builds buyable content directly into its series, will now be available across multiple platforms.
According to its own data, Condé Nast last year recorded 14.3 billion video views.
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