The team at Condé Nast Spain knows a thing or two about how to create exceptional branded content. This year they earned Webby honors for two campaigns “#VOGUE30: The Party,” and “The Night Is Young. Vogue x Estee Lauder,” the latter earning the Webby People’s Voice Award in Best Branded Editorial Experience.
We spoke with Condé Nast Spain’s head of branded content and creative studio, Jorge Madrid, about the work that went into these projects, the most challenging moments, and what it takes to deliver meaningful branded editorial.
Read our Q&A below, and enter your work before the extended deadline: Friday, Feb. 7th.
“ Winning a Webby Award makes us proud and feel like we are among the best in the world. ”
1. Condé Nast Spain received Webby honors this year for #VOGUE30: The Party, and The Night Is Young: Vogue x Estée Lauder. Congratulations! Give us a bit of background for each of these projects: What was the goal, and how did you settle on the right direction forward?
First #VOGUE30: In 2018, Vogue Spain celebrated its 30th anniversary, with many special features and historic collaborations. The icing on the cake was the party that took place in Madrid in July, with an outstanding guest list that included lots of international celebrities and many of the most relevant people in the fashion industry to enjoy Rosalía and Kylie Minogue’s performances.
Among the guests were models Karlie Kloss, Irina Shayk, Maryna Kinchuk, Jon Kortajarena, and Andrés Velencoso; stars such as Adrien Brody; designers Olivier Roustein, Manolo Blahnik, Dean and Dan Caten, Palomo Spain; influencers including Justin O’Shea and Veronika Heilbrunner; tennis player Garbiñe Muguruza, and many other personalities.
The moment, the people, the music… all deserved to be captured in some unforgettable video pieces that were published the next morning on Vogue’s Instagram. The result speaks for itself: a selection of the guests dancing to Rosalía’s “Malamente” in a magical atmosphere filled with disco balls and laser lights.
The Night Is Young is a branded fashion film made in collaboration with Estée Lauder. The goal was to present their best-selling serum Advance Night Repair to a younger audience… We created the story of a summer night where everything is magic. We recruited three young talented women—a singer (author of the music in the film), a painter, and an art director—who had a magic millennial night full of experiences and authenticity.
2. The Night Is Young: Vogue x Estée Lauder took home the Webby Award for Best Branded Editorial Experience (Advertising). What would you say is key to creating branded editorial that resonates with your audience?
We believe that content is key, but context can be even more important. In this case, we built a whole experience around a very unique piece (the fashion film), that included a made-to-measure long format with extra contents such as pictures and texts that are shown in a page that loads perfectly both in mobile and desktop. Whenever we create these pieces of content, we always apply what we call “editorial intelligence,” which basically means that branded content has to be made with the same approach as regular editorial content: having our users always in our mind.
3. What was one main hurdle in working on either #VOGUE30 or The Night Is Young, and how did you overcome it?
We would say that in #VOGUE30 the main hurdle was including the video shoot as a premium production in the middle of a huge party that had many different teams working on it. We had to make sure the video team had both the space and the time to film without interfering with the el normal course of the event, so we had to do a lot of previous work to make sure everybody could do their job.
In the case of The Night Is Young, the main hurdle was to produce in a really short time. We had many scenes to shoot, in the night, and very short time to work on them.
4. What emerging tools or trends are you excited about experimenting with in your branded editorial work in the near future?
We want to introduce data as a part of our work, as well as 360 and/or interactive video. This year we are very focused on podcasts, which are getting really popular in Spain.
5. What does winning a Webby Award mean to your team?
The CNCS team is super motivated and always looking for inspiration. Winning a Webby Award makes us proud and feel like we are among the best in the world. We include the Webby Awards in our credentials and we speak about them in as many meetings with clients as we can.
