The 2023 Met Gala by the numbers

To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. In the seven days following this year’s Met Gala, video views, site traffic and social engagement all saw record highs for engagement across Vogue channels. The gala, which celebrated The Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, ‘Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty’, raised almost $22 million — another record for the event. In the first two days following the Met Gala, Vogue’s social channels saw 12.3 billion impressions from the hashtag #metgala, up 30 per cent year-on-year. Globally, Vogue’s social channels garnered 114 million engagements, up 713 per cent from the year prior. To reach these numbers, Vogue’s social team developed its strategy based on learnings from 2022. “We wanted to better understand what really worked and move the needle on this, versus what we could eliminate from a bandwidth and resourcing perspective,” says Abigail Sjoberg, Vogue’s global senior director of audience development, social and analytics. To this end, the team took the numbers and identified what performed well with social audiences globally: red carpet footage. “The raw, grittier assets that the team could capture on the ground perform on platforms like Instagram and TikTok,” Sjoberg says. So, they doubled their resourcing on the ground, and developed a strategy to send Vogue’s global teams assets in real time. The Met Gala live stream, which ran for the third year in a row, generated 53 million views across 10 Vogue markets and social platforms. This doubled 2022’s viewership. Presenter La La Anthony and comedian Chloe Fineman, YouTuber Emma Chamberlain and writer Derek Blasberg hosted portions of the live stream. This tied into Vogue’s social strategy — the team leaned into clips from the live stream, and clipped likely-viral moments in real time. Sjoberg highlights the video of Chamberlain interviewing singer-songwriter Doja Cat from this year’s Met, and recalls Chamberlain’s “love ya” moment with rapper Jack Harlow the year prior. Storytelling across all channels, not just Vogue’s owned-and-operated sites, was a priority. On the site, Vogue’s 2023 Red Carpet Gallery is now Vogue’s most-read and engaged story in the website’s history, with 3.6 million unique visits and 31 million engaged minutes. Countries including Germany, India, Italy, Japan and Mexico also topped site traffic records for the regions. Looking ahead, Vogue’s next public-facing cultural event is the forthcoming Vogue World show in London, set to take place in September. It’s Vogue World’s second iteration, following the show’s New York debut last September. In keeping with the New York event, Vogue World will be live streamed from London. Viewers can also expect additional events in Vogue markets. The strategy for acquisition and global distribution of assets will remain the same as the Met, Sjoberg says: capture as much footage as possible and distribute it as widely as possible. She also reflects on learnings from Vogue World New York, and the benefits of added access to rehearsals and backstage that isn’t possible at the Met. “We’re able to see how the show will operate, and know when those moments that will become viral will happen to capture them in a premium way,” Sjoberg says. “Vogue World is more about storytelling.” Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author: Tapestry sales rise 5% on China and Gen Z growth Tom Ford sale closes with Guillaume Jesel and Peter Hawkings at the helm With funding drying up, who in fashion tech is still scoring investment?

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