Designer Shifts Create Most Impact Among Consumers in 2025

The musical chairs of the luxury creative directors and unconventional brand ambassadors led to the most media impact value so far in 2025.

That was the finding of Launchmetrics’ year-in-review data, released last week.

The conversation in 2025 was dominated by creative director appointments at luxury houses and brands and drove “significant spikes” for the brands involved, said Katherine Knight, vice president of brand and communications for Launchmetrics.

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The top performer was Demna at Gucci, which generated $15.1 million in MIV, she said, followed by Matthiew Blazy at Chanel at $13.4 million and Jonathan Anderson at Dior at $13 million.

But it wasn’t just their appointments that attracted attention. When they presented their first collections, it “amplified this impact further,” she said. During Milan and Paris fashion weeks, conversations around their debut shows accounted for 40 percent of the shows’ total impact, “which is massive.”

Using Anderson at Dior as an example, that drove more than $55 million in MIV alone — “that’s more than 96 percent of all the shows on the Paris Fashion Week schedule,” Knight said. “So I think it’s a clear statement, and a reminder to the outsized cultural influence that creative directors continue to hold, and it really demonstrates just how their powerful storytelling can shape a brand’s trajectory almost instantly from the day of the announcement and onward.”

Key fashion moments beyond creative directors included some high-profile ambassadors, such as Bad Bunny for Calvin Klein, whose total impact was $23.1 million, most of which came from “indirect echo,” or third-party buzz, she said.

With ambassadors, “it’s all about amplification. We saw an average of 77 percent of impact comes from third-party mentions.”

Other popular ambassadorship announcements included Katseye for Gap, which created $19.6 million in MIV, driven by a dance routine that one of the members posted online.

Sports also continued to have an impact.

“This has been the year of sports and how culture and sporting events are merging into fashion,” Knight said. She pointed to Kendrick Lamar wearing Celine’s boot-cut jeans at the Super Bowl, which generated $4.6 million in MIV, as an example, along with Adanola, a U.K. activewear brand trying to break into the U.S. market. In January, Adanola tapped Kendall Jenner as an ambassador and drew $1.3 million in MIV. And the NikeSkims collaboration, within one week of its launch in September, generated a total MIV of $13.7 million.

In footwear, Knight said, no shoe made a bigger splash than the Puma Speedcat, which created campaigns featuring Dua Lipa and Rose that generated MIV of $8.1 million.

And entertainment still had its place. An open-air set for “The Devil Wears Prada 2” translated into “early-stage virality,” with Gabriela Hearst getting $1.4 million in MIV from one shot of Anne Hathaway wearing one of her outfits.

“Brand ambassadorships, as we’ve seen, remain a cornerstone for boosting visibility, but also cultural relevancy,” Knight said. “And so brands need to really be strategic — securing these and amplifying them beyond their own media and beyond the ambassador content. This concept of indirect echo is something brands need to keep in mind for next year.” 

Overall Launchmetrics said fashion actually a total decline of 2 percent in MIV, with premium companies down 4 percent and luxury brands down 3 percent, but mass market brands actually growing, albeit slowly.

“Mass market is the most resilient with a slight growth of 1 percent,” said Knight, adding that this segment of the business benefited from consumers searching for more budget-friendly brands.

In terms of channels, Instagram continued to dominate, accounting for 43 percent of MIV, while TikTok had a smaller share of 9 percent, Knight said. “But its momentum is undeniable, as it’s continuing to grow year-over-year.” This year in particular, TikTok experienced growth of 29 percent which, she said, “underscored the broader industry shift toward short-form, engaging video content.”

As a result, the platforms where “richer content,” or places that are “more aligned with how consumers are actually engaging content today, saw both increases in placements and value. It highlights a move towards impact over output, and the fact that it’s about strategic placements and meaningful content more than volume.”

The lesson for brands, she said, is to lean into a “more intentional, owned media strategy.” She called it “a very powerful lever [that] is fully within a brand’s control. So when activated strategically, it can deliver meaningful impact. My advice to brands here when it comes to channels is don’t underestimate the value you can generate from the channels you actually already own.”

Knight pointed to what she termed a “notable shift in how media is influencing” sales. Growth for media overall was “modest,” at 3 percent, with social media serving as a “powerful driver.”

Interestingly, the top post during Paris Fashion Week came from a TikTok post, not an article. “This indicates how the media is increasingly relying on social media to extend its reach and relevance.”

Turning to beauty: mass market was the winner here, too, growing at 10 percent. Instagram continued to lead at 43 percent of the value, and TikTok played an even bigger role, coming in at 22 percent of the total MIV, and growing at 35 percent year-over-year, she said.

Influencers were also important in this sector and helped drive cultural relevance and commercial performance. Key moments include Harris Dickinson as the first male ambassador for Rhode, leading to $1.6 million in MIV.

She pointed out that brands with celebrity founders need to branch out beyond those people “to really drive meaningful impact.” Launchmetrics singled out Selena Gomez, whose posts for her Rare Beauty brand only accounted for 4 percent of the brand’s media impact in 2025. Instead, the success of the brand came from expanding into fragrance and its partnership with Tajin.

Other big moments for beauty in 2025 included L’Oréal Paris’ runway show during Paris Fashion Week that generated more MIV than 96 percent of all the shows on the calendar. “It’s a clear demonstration of how a creative approach to activations can really deliver high ROI in a crowded market and help you stand out,” Knight said.

She singled out the Charlotte Tilbury campaign, “Legendary for a Reason,” which was amplified on TikTok, and generated 300 percent more MIV than the brand’s usual content.

Knight summed it up by saying that, like in fashion, “the most disruptive beauty partnerships are the ones consumers never saw coming. So in 2026, we expect brands to be pushing the boundaries of their marketing activations in order to create more engaging, more immersive ways to connect with consumers.”