This year will mark the first time that New York Fashion Week will be hosted for the most part digitally due to the pandemic. The CFDA partnered with YouTube Fashion to share how the platform can support designers and brands as they move their focus from in-person events to virtual experiences. Here, the Fashion team at YouTube covers best practices for how to win on YouTube, explores their digital fashion week playbook and shares insights and data that can leverage your brand channel.

YouTube recently partnered with the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode on the first ever digital fashion week and the results were noteworthy. YouTube Fashion received more than 12 million views on 80 shows from haute couture and men’s. Now is  the time to take ownership and secure your own real estate on this social platform.

Why YouTube

YouTube is the 2^nd most used search engine in the world and has the largest Gen Z and Millennial audience. It reaches 2 billion monthly active users across the world and can be navigated in 80 languages. YouTube reaches 18 – 49 year old’s on mobile alone which is more than any cable TV network. Their viewers spend an average of one hour a day watching YouTube (and that’s just on mobile) and 90% of users under the age of 25 say they look to YouTube to discover new brands.

Brand Guide & Best Practices

YouTube has analyzed a lot of data and content to better understand what users are looking for and have come up with suggested best practices;

Users are looking for long form, personality driven content, specifically 4-10 minutes in length. They want to spend time with a person and are ultimately looking for inspiration, education, access and entertainment.

The tried and true formats that work best for fashion content are: original series, transformations, vlogs, hauls + reviews, get ready with me, niche, challenges and try on. Take these formats and put your brand voice and personality on top of them. You can also utilize YouTube features to enhance your brand storytelling such as on demand,  4D/4K/UHD, premiers/live and VR180/360/3D.

Digital Fashion Week on YouTube

The YouTube.com/Fashion vertical launched in 2019 and already has 1.2 million subscribers. This platform gives viewers a front row seat to watch live and VOD style and beauty content from brands, professionals, publishers and creators. So how can brands look their best on their YouTube Channel during fashion week?

Before the show (now – 48 hours prior)

• Update you channel
• Create a content plan
• Create YouTube Premier
• Clear rights to your music
• Pin your show to your channel

Day of the Show (48 hours prior – end of show)

• Embed the video on your website
• Create a digital moment by using YouTube Stories
• Engage with your community via livechat

After the show (after show – 30 days)

• Tell viewers what to watch next with end cards, this can help extend watch time on your channel
• Launch amplification strategy
• Release timely content
• Continue community engagement
• Include a link to the full show on YouTube in media alerts
• Consider paid media support

For the weeks leading up to NYFW, YouTube dives deeper into preparing your channel for NYFW.

Channel branding

• Make your branding clear and representative so that people who find your channel will instantly understand what your videos are about. Make sure to secure a vanity URL and verify your channel.
• Make it as simple as possible; integrate your brand identity (logo/graphic) and have channel items displayed in a clear way (banner, channel icon, sections etc.).
• Aligned to your URL and wider digital experience; remember your channel branding will become an extension, especially if you star in your channel.
• Create amazing content – think of creating 3 to 5 pieces of content to support your show and build an engaged audience. Brands that posted multiple videos formats from the same show saw 4x more viewership.

Set-Up YouTube Premiere

• YouTube Premieres lets you and your viewers watch and experience a new video together. It’s like a movie or TV show premier. Once a Premiere is scheduled, a shareable and public watch page is created and viewers can set the reminder to watch.
• You can set-up a chat feature to build live engagement.

Focus on the title and thumbnails in your video

• This helps the YouTube system know what your video is about and share it with fashion fans. It also helps viewers easily and quickly recognize the type of content they are interested in.
• Titles should be written like PR headlines, put the important information first and always include your brand name.
• Thumbnails should use photos of people which are proven to perform best. Use closed cropped photos and text overlay.

Clear the rights to your music

• Music is an important part of any fashion show and YouTube encourages brands to think about their music strategy in advance to save time for rights and clearances.
• Videos can be taken down if music rights are not cleared.

Lastly, set your show as the featured video

• This will be your channels intro video and will be front and center.