November 4, 2024
How Insta’s broadcast feature crept into brands’ marketing strategies

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During fashion month, the Moda Operandi team goes into overdrive: creating content, sending out tailored offers and updating the site to capitalise on the buzz around certain shows and trends. For the last few fashion seasons, the editorial, buying and shopping teams added another task to their list: updating the retailer’s Instagram broadcast channel.

The channel is open for anyone to join and offers the luxury e-tailer’s community insider coverage of fashion month in real time, explains Lauren Santo Domingo, co-founder and chief brand officer of Moda Operandi. “Our audience can brush up on all the gossip at the shows, the all-important soundtracks, the characters sitting front row, or the trends as they are emerging, all before the designer has even taken their bow.” Since launching last September, it has gained over 5,400 members and is connected to Domingo’s public profile, allowing members to react to polls and content shared by the Moda Operandi team.

The feature has been gaining traction since it was introduced in February 2023. Taking the form of a one-to-many messaging service, which leads on its brand or creator-led ‘group chat’ layout, influencers were quick to cotton on to the opportunity to connect with members of their communities and invite feedback. Now, more and more fashion and beauty brands and retailers are following suit. Jacquemus has a channel titled ‘Bonjour’, which broadcasts to over 58,400 members. Ralph Lauren and Saint Laurent are also using the feature, amassing 74,900 and 134,800 members, respectively. In beauty, Refy, which has become known for its community brand trips, has an 11,900-member channel, while Fenty Beauty’s ‘F Club’ has over 35,100 members.

The benefits of tapping in

For brands, it’s another tool in the kit to engage customers and reward and inspire loyalty.

Women’s fashion label Cult Gaia has a broadcast channel named ‘The Beam’, which launched in January of this year and now has 4,700 members. The channel is used to interact with the brand’s most loyal customers, sharing select content that wouldn’t be posted on the brand’s main grid or other platforms. This includes “crumbs from our team’s camera rolls, sneak peeks of collections before they drop, pieces while they’re still works in progress, and voice notes from Jasmin [Larian Hekmat, the founder]”, says Cult Gaia’s social media strategist Kristin Corpuz. The idea is that members “feel like they’re sitting with us at HQ”.

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