Getty Photo: Scott Woodward attending Funksion Fashion Show Miami
The Red Carpet as a Business Model to Build Brands.
Celebrity style, fashion and luxury brands and the impact from red-carpet appearances: Celebrities are often seen as fashion icons, and their red-carpet looks are closely analyzed and emulated by fans. When a celebrity wears a particular trend or designer, it can lead to a surge in sales of that item or brand and a significant overall halo effect in the brand’s desirability and equity which translates directly to sales increases for the brand in its higher priced collections or in its lower priced items that the moderate markets can obtain as accessible luxury to be part of the brand experience and participate at some level. It’s akin to the Calvin Klein strategy of leveraging underwear and fragrance to be accessible aspects of their high-end collection segment.
For years award shows have been billed and sold as a women’s game, with gowns and colors and beautiful faces and glamour with the movement among attendees to wear specifically custom designed gowns to the Golden Globe, Oscars and Independent Spirit Awards right through the SAG Awards and Grammys. But the awards shows were not all that the gowns and the colors and the faces and the glamour of the women on the red carpet were selling. They also sell their own images, manufactured in collusion with the brands they represent, as well as the millions of magazines and websites that recorded those images, and profiting very handsomely from it. This model now prominently includes the men and has captured Gen Z and Metrosexual males like nothing else.
To ignore that history and their own role in creating it is both hypocritical and ultimately undermines the perhaps meaningful shift in that equation, which may be taking place this weekend as the women involved finally use their clothes to do more than just boost to the bottom line. Both designers and celebrities have been doing this for more than three decades. To understand why this change is a big deal, you need to understand the background, history, evolution and the equation that has broadened to now include men, and on top of this, the important and evolving androgynous trend that has been ever-present from the Oscars to the Met Gala in New York with the likes of Timothee Chalamet in Tom Ford at Wonka Eddie Redmayne in a Saint Laurent men’s-blouse, Austin Butler looking picture perfect as the emerging Brad representing his YSL fragrance contract on the carpet with the latest celebrity of the moment Barry Keoghan, of Salt Burn fame doing retro-punk perfectly and playfully at the Golden Globes.
It’s hard to pinpoint when the red carpet became an economy for the fashion industry unto itself — somewhere back in the late 20th century — but it has been a carefully cultivated marketing tool for generations now, built on an illusion into which we all buy: the largely fabricated pretense that actresses (and actors) are choosing their own gowns, and that what we see is a pure expression of their personal style, which is not case given Harry Styles has gone full-blown Mick Jagger metrosexual, which is antithetical to his low-key straight boy nature, but it plays to a huge gay swath of fans and positions him as the next Elton John iconic fashion and music figure, particularly with his Pleasing nail polish line, which addresses the fluidity trend in this space.
The fact is, what we are seeing is a look that has been bought, and created, by a global brand, or group of brands, from clothes to shoes, bags, jewels, watches and hairstyles. And the individuals involved have been more than willing to secure their financial future by selling it: swirling in it, namechecking it and otherwise promoting higher end expensive couture or gowns or tuxedos to be a halo for the entire fashion house to lure Gen Z into its fold with singular purchases to become part of the brand and its story, even if it’s hoodie streetwear.
For any major awards show, nominees will have contractual relationships with fashion brands — negotiated by managers and agents — that require them to wear a gown or a tuxedo by that brand to that event. They may have input into the final product. They may even, with the help of a stylist (who is also often paid by both actor and brand) have chosen it themselves, but rather chose it under very specific guidelines from a very specific selection for very specific reasons, most times for compensation or to keep a swath of clothing from the Designer as compensation.
It began, as most sell-your-soul initiatives do, innocently enough. As the advent of the fashion police and the worst-dressed lists began to shine a light on the occasionally terrible taste of Hollywood. Giorgio Armani was, famously, the first to realize the potential benefits, and became the founding father of the Fashion/Hollywood axis after his placement of suiting on Richard Gere in American Gigalo, which then led to runway marketing and placement. Soon, however, most of his peers followed. It was, largely, a mutually beneficial relationship of like-minded individuals where everyone benefited: A celebrity got a great dress, and a brand got a great-looking famous person in their dress, and we all got to ogle them. Jeremy Allen White, who just ignited Calvin Klein again culturally with his new underwear campaign, the first campaign to be spot on in brand equity in a while, was suited in Calvin Klein for the Golden Globes, as part of his contractual deal now to represent the Underwear and support the label at Hollywood red-carpets.
As movie receipts fell, however, fashion exploded, and money entered the picture. Soon talent (and their managers) realized that income lost in choosing, say, a small indie film to bolster acting cred, could be offset by agreeing to become an “ambassador” for a runway brand, a job that could range from a single appearance to ad campaigns, show and party attendance, and sometimes even product collaborations. Sometimes the payments went straight to a charity. Sometimes they went to support artistic choices. And thus the slippery slope was oiled by the best intentions, and down everyone slid.
Per Page Six, Jennifer Lawrence was reportedly going to receive $15-20 million for her contract to represent Dior — a brand with one of the largest celeb stables in fashion (it includes Rihanna and Natalie Portman), though the brand itself wasn’t talking. Louis Vuitton, YSL, Tom Ford, Gucci and Chanel among the most starry-eyed of the runway names and obtain the biggest A-level celebrities to endorse them in runway, red carpet appearances and other lucrative brand-ambassador type deals.
For High-end Jewelry and Watches, Red Carpet Integration ROI is Lucrative.
It’s easy to see what the stars get out of being wooed by jewelers and accessories designers. But what such a prime placement does for the makers of those jewels or handbags is harder to pinpoint. Of course, there’s the exposure to more than a billion people, many of whom are watching in rapt attention what the megastars are wearing and carrying. Indeed, for diamonds, Oscar night has long been the mother lode of publicity with other award shows studying the business model astutely and copying it to sheer perfection and to now include jewelry, accessories and watches, in particular. There are other awards shows, but the Oscars are the single most important event worldwide for diamonds. Selena Gomez just wore an existing Tiffany bird choker for the Emmys and it was covered by press around the world and a huge moment for the re-invented brand, now positioned toward a younger hipper demographic.
Oscar night participants admit it is about the bottom line as well celebrity. “We’ve had very specific instances where the Oscars have had a direct effect on our sales,” said Edward Asprey, corporate director of the jeweler Asprey & Garrard. “The first was four years ago — the first year we participated — when Claire Danes wore our blue topaz daisy necklace. Literally, within a matter of weeks, we had sold between $300,000 to $400,000 worth of pieces from that collection.” Asprey credited that experience with solidifying his firm’s belief that, while it may be the self-proclaimed oldest jeweler in the world — it has been the appointed jeweler for the British monarchy since Queen Victoria’s reign in the mid-19th century — it can still attract younger, or at least young-minded, customers. “That necklace was young, exactly as she is,” he said, referring to Danes. Asprey & Garrard has started to time the launch of its new collections with the Oscars and relies on the occasion as a showcase for the jewelry’s versatility.
When Cate Blanchett has worn several small bracelets together and earrings as barrettes, it set off a demand for lighter, delicate pieces and raised our number of multiple sales as well. And after several stars wore antique pieces, our demand was so great for antique jewelry that we reopened that department after it had been virtually closed for years. Van Cleef & Arpels is another Oscar jeweler with tangible results, having sold several pieces after they were worn at the Academy Awards. A pair of diamond and platinum earrings that were worn by Sharon Stone one year were sold shortly thereafter, as were a pair of gardenia ear clips Stone wore another year although a piece sold here and there might sound inconsequential initially, that post-Oscar business carries more weight given that the market for this type of high-end jewelry is obviously much smaller than that for the average pair of studs. Those Van Cleef diamond and platinum earrings given exposure by Stone were valued at $97,000; and the company’s signature gardenia earrings are typically in the $50,000 to $65,000 range.
Besides being good business, the Oscars give international exposure. There are a lot of people that love to emulate what Hollywood personas are wearing.
Jeweler Fred Leighton often sells pieces that are worn at the event, especially when the star is someone with legendary status and got numerous calls for the double-strand diamond necklace that Sophia Loren wore, and it was sold a few months later with the selling price was in the “high six figures. The awards show can also set trends that reverberate throughout the entire industry. According to the Diamond Information Center, diamond stud earrings got a big boost last year after they were seen on actress Helen Hunt as It’s no different than one big fashion show and can really help push an item.
Other executives agree that the Oscar mega-event helps in their brand’s overall marketing efforts. “It’s a synergistic effect,” said Scott Woodward, the former Chief Marketing Office of Movado and its luxury portfolio of watches at the Movado Group, who said the firm ties in such things as advertising and a retail program around events like the Oscars, where the company promoted its Concord watch brand. Movado, he added, has also seen that “sales do sometimes spike around the time of an event. Concord was a major advertiser in Vanity Fair’s Oscar insert that was tied to Neiman Marcus. And some of the Concord pieces worn to the Oscars are slated to tour several Neiman Marcus stores later this year. It was done two years by Woodward and his team the second year [of Oscar-related promotions put some major focus on watches, which never received much attention in years past,” said Woodward.
With a watchmaker available in its hotel suite, the firm offered actresses the chance to custom-match their watch straps to their dresses with a satin strap. The company sought out men attending the event, who often have little to say when interviewed about what they are wearing, so Woodward was a leader in this space that gave way to what is happening now in the market with men. Recently, one of his favorite integrations, red-carpet placements was Ryan Gosling wearing Tag Heuer as part of his brand ambassador role with a custom-made Barbie-pink watch.
Still, the process of creating and producing an item that will catch an actress’s fancy can be pricey, with no guarantee that a company will get a return on its investment.
Consumers are impressed with what celebrities wear and do and consumers have photographs of celebrities with the products. As far as they are concerned, it’s something that relates directly to sales, but sometimes it costs us more to work on the Oscars than we get back. Right now, we’ve got over $30,000 invested in the creation of the “Jesse” bag from “Toy Story 2.” If it’s well received and gets some coverage with Pixar (the movie’s production company) providing permission to make it for sale. But it usually takes about 75 to 100 pieces before we recoup our costs, still the lure is irresistible, particularly when it comes to associating a brand with younger, hipper consumers.
?In summary, the Oscars provide great visibility but little short-term return for fashion houses. The value in making a red-carpet appearance can take a decade to be realized as brands build relevance and maintain aspirational appeal. Aspirational brands need to find ambassadors to a millennial audience whose purchasing power will come to fruition in the next 10-20 years.? While fashion houses likely don’t see immediate surges in short-term sales, the long-term relevance and aspirational status help to build brands and now a days get Gen Z to make purchases of lower-tier items getting them into the brand as future consumers. Few venues match the undivided attention to fashion offered by the Academy Awards red carpet. On paper, hordes of celebrities modeling the fashion’s most prominent designers to an engaged audience of more than 20 million sounds like the perfect campaign. But the Oscars are not as lucrative for designers, at least in the short term, as they may seem. “We know that there is an engagement level of a fan that drives sales,” says Stacy Jones, CEO of El Segundo, California-based entertainment marketing agency Hollywood Branded Inc. Jones’ agency conducted a survey last year, which found that consumers are 43% more likely to purchase clothing products worn and used by their favorite celebrities.
The question though is, there is a very small percentage of the world that can afford these designers. But it’s important for these brands to have this word-of-mouth appeal to keep them aspirational. Walk into Bergdorf Goodman, and it’s unlikely you’ll fetch an evening gown for less than $7,000—you might spend as much as $32,000—but red-carpet dresses are often custom and won’t be found on the rack anyway but it creates buzz around a brand at retail and with consumers, especially with the internet and social media.
Celebrities help keep brands and these designers seen as the luxury level that one wants to get to. Whether at the end of the day [a red-carpet appearance] is driving immediate sales, it’s more about the lifetime of the brand. Is it driving aspirations for the brand?”
Fashion source Racked.com took a quantitative look at the payoff for designers who dress celebrities on red carpets. This site found mixed correlations between the number of times a fashion house was featured on a red carpet and sales in the corresponding year. For example, Valentino, one of the most-worn designers, dressed 11 celebrities in 2013 and saw revenues nearly double in the same year. In 2015, however, after dressing only two celebs, the fashion house still turned in a 36% increase in revenue.
The strategy behind which celebrities fashion houses align themselves with is changing to maintain relevance to the millennial generation, says Jones. “You see the Kardashians on the runways of Paris, and years ago that would have been unheard of,” she offers as an example. “Times have changed. Designers know that the younger millennial celebrity is a massive influence on a market that, again, they’re not looking at necessarily tomorrow, but they’re looking at a decade down the line that they’re going to need to be in partnership with, appreciated by and in aspiration to.”
Celebrities usually wear gowns and garments on-loan from designers for red carpets, but jewels and watches are a different kind of exchange. Celebrities, and more so their agents, have gotten savvier and they don’t want to run risk of a celeb wearing [jewelry or a watch] by one designer and closing out the opportunity to potentially be paid by another designer for a much larger campaign.” Those campaigns can be 12–36-month partnerships in which a celebrity can become the face of a brand. But even getting a watch on the wrist of an a-list celebrity for a single evening can fetch anywhere from $50,000-$250,000.
The Oscars is really the Quintessential (formerly print, now social media) Advertisement.
Star power is advertising power these days, and an Oscar-nominated actress is potentially the best billboard money can’t buy. If a famous actress wears a designer’s dress, she delivers a kind of endorsement that’s pure gold. No one knows that better than the elite Hollywood corps of celebrity fashion stylists who can transform ordinary actresses into extraordinary stars by virtue of selecting the right clothes to wear to the right event. That event, hands down, is the Academy Awards.
As elegant gowns and glittery gems increasingly overshadow the Academy Awards ceremony, the competition among fashion designers, jewelers and even cosmetics companies is reaching a new level of frenzy. The Oscars could be subtitled: World’s Most Important Product Placement Opportunity given the import of social media and breaking the internet today.
“It’s the biggest runway show of them all,” says Scott Woodward, former Ray-ban, Calvin Klein and Movado chief marketing officer, which launched a multifaceted effort under his leadership years ago to land its Concord brand of watches on some very famous wrists. “There are two things people care about when they’re on their sofa watching the Oscars: who wins, and what they are wearing. I’m not necessarily sure it’s in that order.” I was part of the Oscar nominated actors wearing Ray-Ban on the red carpet. While at Movado, I was the 1st brand sponsor for the Independent Spirit Awards And did back-stage and red-carpet gifting and created the “Someone to Watch” award for rising stars. While at Movado, I orchestrated “Oscar-movie themed” watches that actors from those Oscar nominated movies with Allison Janney wearing the custom American Beauty watch made of rose petals and Michael Clark Duncan, nominated for The Green Mile wearing a watch made of green leaves. The press coverage was 200% more than normal and generated immeasurable success and interest in all our brands. Woodward’s strategy years ago was not just doing it for the Oscars of the Concord promotions, but it was for all year long and to get into the right TV and movie opportunities for future integrations and to cement relationships. The red-carpet exposure he created with the Oscar watch themed product launched a new line of watches based on the Concords worn at the Oscars.
Just as landing Ray-Bans in movies or Gatorade at the Super Bowl can skyrocket awareness of a brand, dressing stars at high-profile awards shows has become one of the most important marketing moves for fashion companies. “It’s product placement on steroids, which helped Concord give away five $20,000 movie-themed watches to the movies’ stars and loan dozens of custom-made styles, some $150,000 each, so If you’re not a player on this level, you can’t be considered a leader in your category. All this fuss is about the 10 actress nominees and a handful of presenters and male nominees, plus an occasional head-turning date. The Four Seasons, the Mondrian, Peninsula Beverly Hills, and L’Ermitage hotel have become Oscar central to so many fashion designers, jewelers and even cosmetics companies have buzzed into town that the hotels have become sort of a West Coast version of New York’s Seventh Avenue.
The hotel showrooms are mutually beneficial and most stars and their teams I love the idea of coming to the West Coast and doing this for major red-carpet exposure for themselves and the brand. The Oscars have helped luxury fashion companies recognize L.A. as a powerhouse that rivals New York City and has become more crucial to and reliant on the business, as celebrities are so integrated into to the business model for brands and have whole divisions that deal with and focus on this 100% to augment the brand’s mission. It’s more than just going out to dress someone famous, whether an actor, access, musician, internet star or muse, but rather it is part of a larger and important brand equation for success, particularly given social media today.
Woodward had his own line of message-themed tee-shirts at one point and did diamond-encrusted versions of them for the Oscar and Grammy Award shows, so he’s had a long history of undertaking successful red-carpet and Oscar-suite initiatives, including having Paula Abdul and Lance Bass to wear his creations on American Idol and other red-carpet events. Woodward and Abdul are pictured at the L’Ermitage in his custom Peaceful tee.
