Celebrities often receive priority seating at fashion shows. But when Tommy Hilfiger showcased its Fall 2016 collection during New York Fashion Week in February, the brand tried something new: setting aside a section for Instagram influencers. The 14 VIPs viewing from the “InstaPit” included German model Stephanie Giesinger, whose single photo from the event – an image of her holding one of the brand’s clutches – received over 52,000 likes in an hour.
Fashion brands are increasingly finding that Instagram, rather than Twitter or Facebook, generates the most buzz around runway events. During New York Fashion Week, women’s brands posted an average 20 times on Instagram and 26 times on Twitter. However, 97% of engagement with women’s brands took place on Instagram, according to L2’s Insight Report: New York Fashion Week. In comparison, Twitter posts accounted for only 1% of engagement.
Tommy Hilfiger’s success with Instagram is evidenced by how much engagement the brand hashtag generated. The #TommyFall16 hashtag boosted interactions with the brand’s Instagram posts by 530%, according to the L2 study, which also finds that 84% of Fashion Week post engagement came from posts marked with the hashtag.
That achievement contrasts sharply with Tommy Hilfiger’s previous runway promotions on Twitter. At the brand’s Spring 2016 show in September, attendees were invited to film and share 360-degree videos using the social network’s new Twitter Halo feature. However, tweets with the #TommySpring16 hashtag only garnered 10% more interactions than the average tweet – suggesting that the platform is no longer the main conduit for Fashion Week hype.