Inside Glamour Spain's Video Strategy

Last year, Glamour Spain’s video views on YouTube jumped by a huge 35%. In 2022, the team has ambitious plans for growing this number even further. Fresh off the huge success of their new fashion film – "Los (Des)propósitos" – which has already had over 2.5M views (and counting), we caught up with Marcos Chamizo, Head of Programming and Development at CNE Spain, and María Mérida, Glamour Spain’s Senior Editor, to find out the secrets behind their success.

Here, the duo take us inside their super successful video strategy, share their thoughts on how best to work with social media platforms, and they even let us in on what makes a video go viral.

Congratulations on the launch of Glamour Spain's new fashion film "Los (Des)propósitos.” How did this project come together?

María Mérida: We wanted to release a fashion film that people could relate to, which somehow connected with how people are feeling right now. I think this really is the key to making a video go viral. So we thought about New Year’s resolutions and how frustrating it is being so far from achieving them just a month or two after Christmas. That was the main idea behind the film.

Marcos Chamizo: We worked with the team that helped Glamour bring to life Familia Glamour – a series of minifilms starring Najwa Nimri (from Netflix’s hit show Money Heist) that developed this idea of the love/hate relationship between family members. “Los (Des)propósitos” with Clare Galle (the star of huge spanish Netflix show “A Través de mi Ventana”) maintains the same humoristic tone of the first series, but with a more refined aesthetic.

Tell us about some of the success Glamour Spain has had recently in terms of video? What is your video strategy for the brand over the year ahead?

MC: Glamour Spain experienced a +35% year-over-year Youtube growth in 2021 – but also a +219% year-over-year Instagram growth, and we're hoping for an even bigger jump in 2022. Our main goals for the first half of the year are diversifying our current slate of series, with new originals that will appear from February on (like Close Friends, our first premiere of the year), but also developing expert-led originals that reduce our dependence on celebrity bookings and fill the voids on our programming on some verticals (such as fashion and shopping).

Glamour Spain has lots of amazing video content on its social media platforms. How does social media play a part in your video strategy?

MM: It is essential. I think it was Quentin Tarantino who said recently that it's never been easier to make films, but that all that magic is happening on social media. It is the space where people want to see new formats, new ideas, and it's also the best place to keep the conversation alive. And that conversation helps to develop our brand's identity better than anything else.

MC: Then you add TikTok to the mix too! We launched Glamour España's TikTok account just a couple months ago and it already has a huge following and is also driving big viewer numbers. For us, social media is also a pool where we can find new interesting talent opportunities with an already-established audience, and they are much easier to reach out to than major celebrities.

The Glamour TV section of glamour.es is a great video archive of treasures. How did the idea to create this come from and what have you learned about your content from having this platform?

MM: Absolutely! We really wanted to create our own archive of treasures. We've been working really hard on Glamour's identity as a brand and video has been really important in this process. Our audience loves our videos so it's essential that they can find them easily. It is as important as having a fashion or beauty section to the site.

There is no doubt that video is more in demand than ever before. What are the challenges you face in your roles?

MM: In terms of creativity, we are constantly trying to find new formats and keep working on new ideas to release films that people will love to share. That's the one word our team always has in mind – "share.” In order to do this, it's very important that we can find actors/celebrities that people love to watch and develop an idea that seems fresh and new.

MC: One of the main creative challenges we have right now at Glamour Spain is how to maintain low-lift production, while developing more sophisticated originals. While we're still producing the junket-style series that have been bringing a big audience to the brand, we now want to offer our audience more complex ideas.