Fashion Briefing: Fashion brands on YouTube Shorts are gaining a first-mover advantage

According to social media leads and influencers, YouTube Shorts is offering the type of first-mover advantage reported by early TikTok adopters, via high engagement numbers out of the gate. Its also fast-tracking strategic initiatives like gaining YouTube subscribers, without long-form video investments and boosting sales.

Paris-based content creator Frederico Stauffer, whos regularly tapped by Louis Vuitton, Herms and Prada for paid, video-focused partnerships, started a YouTube channel on October 20 to experiment with Shorts, he said. He posted favorite videos hed previously posted on Instagram or TikTok, where he has 73,000 and 31,000 followers, respectively. After posting the first [Shorts] video, I had 20 subscribers and 4,000 views in the first hour, he said. That video now has 13,000 views, and his third and fourth Shorts posts have 3,900 and 5,000 views, respectively. Stauffer said hes going to start recommending the platform to his brand clients, calling it a minimal-lift, worth it investment, particularly as they’re already churning out video content.

Among apparel brands that have added Shorts to their marketing mix are Nike, Skims and American Eagle. Luxury players including Gucci, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton are also on board. YouTube Shorts videos see more than 30 billion daily views and attract 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users, according to YouTube.

Pacsun has consistently posted Shorts for the last two months and had a presence on the platform for several months before that, said Tyler MacDonald, senior manager of influencer and social media at Pacsun. He and his social-focused team of five are taking a trial-and-error approach to Shorts content, mixing the best of Pacsuns TikTok and Reels videos with original posts spanning influencer outfit checks and inside looks at the company. A recent Shorts video with 5,000 views features its corporate employees entering the office and their times of arrival. But Pacsuns also posted a lot of flops on the platform, MacDonald said. About seventy percent of posts are produced by Pacsun, while 30% are made by influencers.

For Pacsun, Shorts is proving most useful as a tool for gaining YouTube subscribers. YouTube and long-form video content will be a large focus for the company in 2023. Before Shorts, the level of engagement resulting from the labor-intensive content creation for the platform hadnt proven worth it. Pacsun now has 26,000 YouTube subscribers. MacDonald said hes hopeful Pacsun will have a strong grasp on the type of Shorts content that best resonates among YouTube users by the end of the year.

Likewise, Stauffer aims to engage his Shorts-fueled YouTube following with long-form content, in the form of photography tutorials, in the future.

Meanwhile, Project Runway alum Gunnar Deatherage is driving his Shorts audience of 1.8 million to his long-form content on Patreon. There, members paying $3-$14 per month can view more in-depth takes on his instructional fashion design and construction videos. They can also download design patterns and gain exclusive access to a Discord community.

People assume the only money to be made on YouTube is from the views, he said. But the clicks absolutely do turn into dollars. It pays the bills.

In addition, Deatherage has taken part in brand partnerships that feel authentic, with most enlisting him to create designs based on whatever it is theyre promoting. For Netflix, that was a dress befitting Beth Harmon in The Queens Gambit.

Primarily a short-form video creator, Deatherage first became active on social media during the pandemic, he said. He posted his first Shorts video in mid-2021. He now sees 20 million to 30 million video views per month on YouTube, owing his growing audience to the platform algorithm-driven Explore Hub.

Deatherage said Shorts has great potential for those with a craft, including designers. He shared a plan to stir anticipation around a collection by documenting its creation on the platform before debuting it on a fashion week runway.

Hes also looking forward to using YouTubes evolving shopping tools, as hes got a full catalog of digital sewing patterns [hes] always trying to peddle.

Through a partnership with Shopify announced in JulyYouTube allows users to integrate product selling into long-form videos, Shorts and livestreams.

Its really early, so it hasn’t really taken off yet, Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, told Glossy of the partnership. But one of the things that are going to be very big for 2023 is live shopping in the Western world. And it will be in a way thats different from what happens in China.

Bridget Dolan, managing director of YouTube shopping partnerships, said the most popular categories selling on the platform are beauty, fashion and technology.

Were seeing more [shoppable] activity since weve made short-form videos shoppable, she said. Its part of a fun experience: You watch a creator, theyve talked about a product, and you value their opinion and trust them. You can then buy the product then and there.

She added, Its helpful for the viewer, but it also helps the creator and fuels them to keep going.

Remaining a go-to stage for brands and popular creators has been increasing challenging for social platforms amid increasing competition. For YouTubes part, its testing various monetization models, including an affiliate program as well as a payment program tied to different methods of tagging products, Dolan said.

The fact that YouTube now houses a short-form video hub, more conducive to the type of off-the-cuff content people are demanding, is a big step in the right direction, based on Stauffers experience. He recalled a job he did for Louis Vuitton capturing social content on the set of a campaign shoot. The crew spent the day capturing styled-to-aT videos in four different rooms, for 2-3 hours each. Stauffer, henceforth, had 5-10 minutes to record video in each room. The brands resulting 10-minute video saw just over 200,000 views on TikTok, while Stauffers 5-second video saw 2.6 million.

The videos shot by those of us in the corner end up having a way bigger impact, he said. He noted his constant focus on meeting luxury brands elegance standards while also playing to platforms trends.

Speaking of standards, regarding the potential of a Vine return, Deatherage said hed keep his distance. Shorts 60-second video limit is as short as hed like to go. It feels a little blasthemous to my career and to my craft to [confine what I do] to six seconds, he said, referencing Vine videos original duration.

Pacsun, on the other hand, would be all in. Were just always on our toes, ready to see what the new thing is. And we like discovering alongside our Gen-Z audience and being where they are, MacDonald said. Were on BeReal now and wed use Vine, for sure.

Inside our coverage

Glossy Research: More DTC brands are setting their sites on wholesale

Week in Review: Louis Vuitton’s Dream Space, NYFW data and dim forecasts at Under Armor, Canada Goose

Victoria’s Secret’s Adore Me acquisition is the latest consolidation in the intimates market