The Met Gala is one of the fashion industry’s most coveted events. It attracts stars from all around the country, including actors and actresses, musicians, models, and more recently, influencers. What exactly goes on within the Met Gala is somewhat secret. However, a glimpse is visible through red carpet moments and social media coverage. This year was a bit different than prior years. Why? Because the Met Gala effectively took over social media when it happened. It was the most successful year for Met Gala social media channels. In fact, the #MetGala was a worldwide trending Twitter topic for the first time ever. So, how and why did the Met Gala take over social media this year? Continue reading to see the factors involved in this takeover and how they can be used as a marketing strategy.
What Is the Met Gala?
The Met Gala is a prestigious fundraising yearly event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. It is in New York City and, sometimes, people refer to it as the Oscars for the fashion world. Celebrities, athletes, and more attend the event. Also, the idea is to dress to the Met Gala theme of that year, with this year being American design.
Influencer Invites
One of the somewhat controversial points of this year’s Met Gala was that some social media influencers were guests of the event. There were other occurrences of this happening in years prior. However, influencers were usually guests of a company or something of the like. Whereas, this year, influencers were invited purely for being influencers. This makes an important point about the value of influencers when it comes to social media marketing. In fact, social media influencers are actually one of the most powerful parts of marketing strategy in the modern day. At last, they have massive followings and a degree of connection with their followers.
This marketing power may very well have played a large role in the Met Gala meeting a new level of social media presence. All of the invited influencers’ followers were then interested in and talking about the event. When, in reality, they may not have even cared otherwise. Plus, the controversy and the online discussion regarding whether they should even be guests lead to more attention and presence for the Met Gala. Publicity is publicity, and it gets people talking.
Get People Talking
More people are talking about this event than ever before. Whether it be people talking about their favorite influencer going, whether they should have even been invited, or AOC’s controversial dress that said “Tax the Rich”, the point is that people were talking about the Met Gala all over the internet. This provides the event an incredible boost. Just like the Met Gala, getting people talking about a business will boost that business. However, this does not include negative actions from a business that can cause chatter, as this can also lead to people turning away from that business.
How Branding Is Important to your Marketing Strategy
There are many factors that are important to a good marketing strategy and one that many companies neglect is branding, which relates to people talking about a business or event like the above. When a company really buckles down and makes a commitment toward branding, it can lead to more people recognizing the name of the business and increased exposure for them. Once people recognize a business and their product or service, this leads to more discussion about them, which will feed the business–whether it be through new customers or further exposure. Furthermore, it increases the occurrence of word of mouth marketing, which has a high conversion rate when compared to other forms of advertisement.
