Condé Nast’s flagship beauty and fashion property Vogue is as active online as it is in print; namely, it’s reclaiming the art of the beauty tutorial video for its viewers. From Teen Vogue to Vogue Girl Japan and Vogue Italia, the brand’s 25+ global social video properties are turning the how-to video into an incredibly valuable asset by working with some of the top influencers in the business. Nothing new there, but Vogue is publishing that content to its social and owned-and-operated channels, rather than via the influencers’ social properties, and is generating millions of views and engagements in the process.
In the past 12 months, Vogue has generated 1.7B YouTube views, and 3.6B Facebook video views across its social properties, with its “Beauty Secrets” video tutorial series driving 103M YouTube Views and 7.4M Facebook views. On YouTube, the digital series is generating almost 4 times the engagement of the platform average. Let’s take a look into how Vogue got here…
The History of the Beauty Tutorial Video on YouTube
Since the birth of YouTube, viewers have turned to the platform to pick up beauty tips and tricks from creators who passed on their skills with hair and makeup styles. Those of us who had learned to perfect the art of the cat-eye or nail the frosty lip look from books and magazines now had a real-life tutorial that we could watch over and over again. The vast majority of these creators were free to create content without editorial restriction and became YouTube superstars in their own right.
The explosion in mobile video consumption only furthered the demand (and supply) of the beauty tutorial video, and while influencers like James Charles and NikkieTutorials continue to generate views in the millions, entertainment and media publishers and brands are also cashing in on the buzz, mashing celebrity spotlights with behind-the-scenes footage to create beauty how-to content to entertain the viewer.
Vogue has been one of the most successful brand publishers to adopt the how-to beauty tutorial as its own. Take its “Beauty Secrets” series, for example. Published to its owned-and-operated sites, the digital content also works for them across social video, and the earned media around each upload is more than many other brands could hope for. With quality production values and a stellar list of participants like Kylie & Kendal, Rihanna, and Gwyneth Paltrow, it’s no wonder that “Beauty Secrets” has been so successful for the publisher.
Vogue’s Beauty Secrets: 103M YouTube Views in Last 12 Months
So which “Beauty Secrets” videos from Vogue have generated the most views for the publisher in the last 365 days?
Taking the #1 spot with 20.3M YouTube views, and a V3 (views generated within 3 days of upload) of 6.7M, is “Kylie Jenner’s Guide to Lips, Brows, Confidence.” The 10:47-minute video follows social media queen and cosmetics entrepreneur Kylie Jenner as she creates a daytime look. Queen Kylie shares some of her best beauty tips with the viewer, while showing off some of her own range of makeup in the process. The 34-step beauty tutorial video has, to date, generated over 614K YouTube likes, shares, and comments.
The second most-watched beauty tutorial in the series is “Rihanna’s Epic 10-Minute Guide to Going Out Makeup” which has generated 19.2M YouTube views and an average V3 of 5.8M. While it fell a little short of Kylie’s upload in terms of views, Rihanna’s tutorial has generated nearly 6x the platform’s average engagement rate, a sure sign that this how-to has been a massive hit with viewers. The singer, who has her own cosmetics empire, Fenty, teased some new products during the footage and led the viewer through a hugely-entertaining tutorial for her “getting ready” routine.
The third most-viewed “Beauty Secrets” video published to YouTube in the last 12 months features Justin Bieber’s other half Hailey Baldwin in a “5-Step Guide to Faking a California Glow” how-to. The international model showed off the best way to attain a fresh look in a talking-head video which generated 8.6M total views, and a V3 of 933K for Vogue.
Curious to see more about the performance of tutorial videos overall on YouTube? Check out our deep dive into the how-to content format here!