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Faithful readers of my HBBIP newsletter will know that I am not above asking brands for free swag. To be clear, I would never, ever, not even once engage in quid pro quo—as in, “hey, want to get your brand featured in a widely distributed newsletter that some readers are calling ‘pretty good?’ Send me some free items and we can make something happen.” That would be simply reprehensible, mainly because I would be caught. There are graphs to consider: if your brand isn’t doing well, it would immediately be clear to everyone.
But if your brand is doing well, and you want to give me some free stuff? Then my inbox, much like my mailbox, is open.
Which brings us to a first, sort of: after 8.5 years of writing about creator marketing, one brand figured I had finally earned myself a little treat. The caveat is that this largesse wasn’t for HBBIP specifically—it was a little custom(er) analysis I do on the side—but hey, I’m not one to look a literal gift horse in the mouth. I was so excited that I even took a flat-lay!
Youth To The People products Alex received
Alright, so my creator skills (angles, lighting, removing plastic bags from my kitchen counter) could use some work. But can you blame me? I’ve never had a reason to take one of these photos before.
So thank you, Youth to the People, for making a (semi) young newsletter writer’s dream come true. The cleanser is cleansing, the scrub leaves me smooth, and the serum renders my face as radiant as my face is going to get. Never have I felt so pampered 🥰
With one holiday miracle already secured, I want to keep the good times and the free product rolling. So what’s a brand that’s growing, but would also make for a very luxe and lofty gift for me? Well, here’s one candidate...
The Top Brand of All Time (of the Week): Miu Miu
What can I say? I have champagne taste on a beer budget. If I’m out here scoring swag, then I might as well aim for the top. And right now it doesn’t get much higher than Miu Miu.
Dubbed “fashion’s biggest success story” by no less than the New York Times (and now by this blog post—will the honors never cease?), Miu Miu has proven a smash hit amid a turbulent industry. Boasting half a billion dollars in sales through H1 2024, the brand is surging thanks to the timeliness of the Miu Miu Girl: a semi-mythical, idealized exemplar of all that the brand stands for.
Who is she? Well, dear reader, much digital ink has been spilled on that very subject, and there’s still no clear answer. While the Miu Miu Girl possesses a certain je ne sais quoi, and can’t be easily pinned down, here’s what we do know about her:
- She’s a big bundle of contradictions:
- Per the NYT, she’s both “messy but chic” and “geeky but sexy”
- Yet another example of the impossible standards women are held to. (See, I’m an ally! Now send me free stuff.)
- Per the NYT, she’s both “messy but chic” and “geeky but sexy”
- She's confident
- She’s never boring
- She’s girly and playful, but make no mistake: she reads
- Or, once again from the NYT: she’s “vaguely academic”
- Basically, she does what she wants, when she wants it
A certain thought has probably been percolating for you, dear reader: all this sounds a lot like someone you know. Contradictory? Never boring? Vaguely academic? Do-what-they-want?
That’s right: she is me. HBBIP is a Miu Miu Girl! First brat, now this.
All the more reason to send me free stuff, Miu Miu. After all, what do of-the-moment stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Sydney Sweeney have that I don’t?
Before we take that question too literally, let’s look at some graphs showcasing Miu Miu’s remarkable rise in recent years.
Miu Miu EMV: 2018 - 2024
It’s been a steady lift for the brand following luxury fashion’s general slump in 2020. Things have proceeded pretty linearly from 2021 through most of 2024, with December still to come (in other words, the gap between 2023 and this year will end up being even wider).
The growth looks similar for both Miu Miu’s community size…
Miu Miu Number of Creators: 2018 - 2024
…And its content volume:
Miu Miu Number of Posts: 2018 - 2024
It does bear noting that Miu Miu’s post count hasn’t risen quite as steeply as its EMV and community size. As is often the case, it’s not the overall number of mentions that are making the difference, but how deeply those mentions are resonating with digital consumers.
More specifically, how deeply they’re resonating with digital consumers on Instagram. After all, that’s where most content about luxury fashion brands tends to live. Looking at Miu Miu’s 2024 data, the brand is no exception: Instagram was responsible for 83% of the brand’s EMV, 84% of its impressions, and 85% of its engagement. Pretty consistent! But this represents a significant shift from just a few years ago, when Instagram was responsible for 99% of all these metrics.
The culprit, as you can imagine, has been TikTok, which has grown exponentially over the same time period, and was responsible for driving much of Miu Miu’s momentum in 2024.
I’m about to throw a lot of numbers at you, because remember, us Miu Miu Girls are “vaguely academic.” Don’t say you weren’t warned:
Engagement for 2020 - 2024
Impressions for 2020 - 2024
What you see here are figures on engagement and impressions (let’s call them E&I for short) for Miu Miu from 2020 onward, split out by raw total and totals contributed by Instagram and TikTok. Momentum is on TikTok’s side: while total E&I and Instagram E&I have struggled to exceed 2023’s figures (though again, once December is factored in I expect all four categories to display YoY growth), TikTok continues to climb.
Still, when it comes to the Miu Miu posts generating the most conversation on social media, Instagram remains on top. Going by EMV, the platform is responsible for the brand’s top 12 posts of 2024, as well as 47 of its top 50. Sydney Sweeney, more specifically, is responsible for the brand’s top five posts, demonstrating what a social media goldmine and effective brand partner she has become.
Additional representatives in that top 50 read like a who’s who of contemporary rich, glamorous, famous people:
- Kylie Jenner
- Gigi Hadid
- Blake Lively
- Lili Reinhart
- Camila Cabello
- Hailee Steinfeld
- Peyton List
- HBBIP
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