Vanessa Kingori on the Reinvention of British Vogue

The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion

Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts

4.6 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

British Vogue’s editorial transformation over the past four years has been widely documented, but changes on the business side are equally noteworthy. Vanessa Kingori, British Vogue’s first female publisher (who works alongside editor-in-chief Edward Enninful), has taken more of a consultative role with advertising clients, focusing on the health of their brands, not just reach and impressions. Today, brands are more interested in how they can create human connections and innovate through Vogue’s channels, rather than just buying space on the printed page.

On the latest edition of The BoF Podcast, Kingori talks with BoF’s Imran Amed about the publication’s new business strategy, and how it ties in with the magazine’s focus on diversity, inclusion and sustainability.

Cover launches still matter, but Kingori and Enninful are focusing on reflecting the multifaceted lives of their readers. With that, has come a change in how the magazine highlights and thinks about women. “The big shift here is [Edward] is taking the magazine from being about these beautiful dresses, to being about the woman in the dress,” said Kingori. “She wants beautiful things, but she also has a lifestyle. She has a career. She has other aspirations, she wants to accessorise a dress.”
Though everyone seems to be ringing the alarm bells, according to Kingori, print is not dead. “There is no digital marketing that you could do that would be more effective. Our print magazine is our biggest marketing tool, and our social media platforms are our biggest agents,” she said.
The title hasn’t shied away from making brands feel uncomfortable by bringing up societal issues, and it’s actually been of commercial benefit to British Vogue. “The reality is, we have increased our sales revenue and our digital audience in every single way, in every single metric since we started. Audiences are ready for those difficult conversations,” said Kingori.

Vanessa Kingori’s Commercial Reboot of British Vogue

Meghan Markle’s Vogue: When Activism Is More Fashionable Than Fashion

What Anna Wintour’s Big Promotion Means for Condé Nast

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Transcript

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0:00.0	There is no digital marketing that you can do that would be more effective.
0:07.0	That our print magazine is our biggest marketing tool and our social media platforms are our biggest agents.
0:15.0	Beauty is more than the aesthetics. We love beautiful things. We love beautiful people.
0:21.2	But beauty resonates from what people are about
0:24.9	and what they stand for.
0:26.2	Purpose and profit aren't things
0:28.2	that necessarily have to conflict with each other.
0:30.5	You can do both and you can do so in a way that's authentic
0:33.8	and that resonates with people everywhere.
0:37.9	Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion.
0:41.8	Welcome to the Bof podcast. It's Friday, June 25th.
0:46.1	The fashion industry has been taking note of the reinvention of British Vogue.
0:50.8	Edward Ennful's new inclusive vision of fashion has played out in the pages of
0:55.5	Vogue but also all over the internet, with recent covers of Billy Eilish and Malala Yusuf Zai,
1:01.6	not your typical Vogue cover girls. But there has been less discussion on the business
1:06.0	transformation at British Vogue. I sat down recently with Vanessa Kingori, who is now the chief business officer
1:12.2	overseeing Kande Nast Britain's fashion publications, and she told me about the way she's been
1:17.6	translating Edwards' vision into a commercial strategy that works. Here's Vanessa Kingori inside fashion.
1:25.6	Vanessa, thank you so much for joining us. I wanted to start by talking about
1:30.8	your new role because it's not widely understood, but you've actually recently been installed in the
1:37.9	role of chief business officer and your role at Condé Nast is expanding. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what this new role entails,
1:47.0	what you'll be responsible for, what your biggest goals and ambitions are?
	...

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