The Met Gala is a fundraiser event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York, usually marking the opening of an annual fashion exhibition. Year after year, the event raises an eight-figure sum due to its exclusive guest-list featuring top celebrities and VIPs who all come together to celebrate fashion. Designers are often seen to attend alongside their muses, to promote the looks carefully curated for the themed occasion.
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But the Gala is unlike any other charity event - throughout the years, it has been referred to as “the Oscars of fashion”. The 2023 edition celebrated the opening of “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.”, an exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the German designer. Lagerfeld occupied the role of Chanel’s creative director from 1983 until his death in 2019. Besides, throughout his career, he has worked for fashion houses such as Fendi, Chloe, Patou, and Balmain, as well as founded his eponymous brand.
Thanks our proprietary algorithm called Media Impact Value™ (MIV®) we have measured the impact that the event has generated for featured brands. In this article, we will dissect the Met Gala performance and look at which brands generated the most media buzz as part of our Top 5 Performing Brands Ranking, as well as discover the top Voices, and placements that have received the highest Media Impact Value™ from the event.
Overall, the Met Gala generated $995M in MIV® over a total of 115,919 placements. Social channels hold a large part over online media in terms of profitability, with social media driving $836M in MIV® across 64,470 placements, while online media generated $159M in MIV® across 51,449 placements. The leading platform in terms of Met content was Instagram, driving a MIV® of $395M, followed closely by Facebook with $243M in MIV®, and online media sources with $143M in MIV®. By that, we notice Instagram continues to maintain its position as the most relevant social media channel for fashion and luxury brands.
Touching on influential Voices, media continue to figure as top voice type by grossing an MIV® of $792M. Being an exclusive event, the red carpet is streamed over at Vogue’s social media pages and website, which has earned the magazine $46M in MIV® over 713 placements, and placed it as top voice of the Met Gala. Viewers could also watch the livestream with celebrity interviews on E!, which earned the channel $40M in MIV® across 888 placements.
Honoring Karl Lagerfeld, this year’s Met Gala offered huge exposure for brands. Below, you’ll find the ranking of 5 top-performing brands in terms of Media Impact Value™ along with their total number of placements respectively.
The Top 5 Performing Brands at the Met Gala 2023
The Met Gala's Biggest Brand Moments: What We Can Learn About Successful Fashion Marketing
Brand Focus: Chanel Takes Center Stage
It comes as no surprise that Chanel was the top-performing brand at the Met 2023, earning $111M in MIV® with 19,599 placements. As Karl Lagerfeld spent decades designing for the French luxury house, Chanel was among the most worn brands at the event. A vintage look worn and shared by Dua Lipa on her Instagram account amassed $1.4M in MIV® alone. Not only, it was the top-grossing post for the brand, but also the top-performing post across all of Met Gala’s coverage. Chanel looks, designed by Karl, were also seen on Nicole Kidman, Jennie Kim, and Penelope Cruz, among others.
Brand Focus: Fendi Presence at the MET Stage
As Lagerfeld continued to design for Fendi until his passing, the brand secured a lot of visibility on the red carpet, worn by Kate and Lily Moss, or Gwendoline Christie. In total, Fendi earned $32M in MIV® over 7599 placements, while their top-grossing placement was associated with a South Korean actress, Song Hye-kyo with $814K in MIV®.
Brand Focus: Schiaparelli Makes a Statement
Schiaparelli made quite an impact at the Met Gala this year, achieving $15.6 million in MIV® thanks to the high-profile appearances of some of its celebrity fans. Co-chair Michaela Coel stole the show with her Schiaparelli gown. Kim Kardashian also chose to wear a custom-made Schiaparelli haute couture gown dripping with pearls, inspired by the iconic Chanel pearls that Karl Lagerfeld had reinvented several times. New York theater producer, Jordan Roth, styled by Michael Philouze also made a statement on the red carpet with his black Schiaparelli gown featuring a fan accent on the bodice.
Events such as the Met Gala are a constant competition for attention, and those brands who match show-stopping looks to the most admired celebrities, win the game. Each media mention is a critical component of a brand’s performance.
Analyzing Media Impact Value™ figures across brands provides valuable insights into the success and returns generated by the Met Gala. MIV® serves as an effective metric for benchmarking against competitors and helps brands understand their position within the industry. Monitoring tools help measure the impact of brand activities and track brand efficiency to see how brands investments perform over time.
In today’s world dominated by social media, attention is a scarce commodity, therefore brands who manage to boost their visibility will notice their efforts pay off.
By Céline SabbaghBrand Content Manager
Céline is passionate about the fashion industry and loves to create content, both written and visual. She is the Brand Content Manager at Launchmetrics and is always excited to delve into the fashion digital world that is shaping the industry of tomorrow.
