BTS makes Louis Vuitton the stand out brand in February with j-hope partnership

Over the years BTS has collaborated with some of the biggest brands out there, and while the group itself has successfully influenced the masses, brands are now seeing the individual power that each member has to offer, with Louis Vuitton knowing this all too well. 

The fashion house first combined forces with BTS back in April of 2021, so the brand’s recent announcement of j-hope becoming its new “House Ambassador” is somewhat of a homecoming. Like all BTS affiliated things do, this partnership quickly captured media and public interest, and brought Louis Vuitton into the spotlight of February’s brand coverage. 

We’re used to seeing tech companies or large retailers dominate our brand coverage analyses, so having a fashion brand at the top — a luxury one at that —is a unique turn of events, and one that highlights how a good brand partnership can break through the noise that other industries create online. 

Three of the top 10 brand stories in February were about Louis Vuitton and j-hope, with Rolling Stone’s article being the most engaged, coming in at third on our list (66k). Although the maison was not the most mentioned brand overall last month, it was responsible for the most consistent narrative, which earned it 137k engagements in total. 

As notable as the earned media coverage to Louis Vuitton was in February, it’s almost incomparable to how the announcement performed across social media, which is where j-hope’s influence becomes increasingly clear.

Louis Vuitton’s own Instagram posts about j-hope have been massive, each seeing at least 4 million likes, which blows the majority of the brand’s other posts out of the water in terms of engagement on the platform. Its content even includes the likes of actress Ana de Armas and the announcement of Pharrell Williams signing on as the new men’s creative director, and yet, j-hope becoming an ambassador is the obvious attention driver. 

A lot of hype was also built on Twitter where BTS’ fanbase are strongly engaged. The official BTS account shared Rolling Stone’s article about the partnership, which earned over 112k engagements and helped push the publisher’s article to the top spot. 

The band members’ individual stardom is continuing to rise and more solo ventures are being explored as the group is currently on hiatus. This includes Jin beginning his service in the army (not to be confused with ARMY of course) and Jimin becoming Tiffany & Co’s newest ambassador, which was just announced today. Interestingly enough, Jimin’s partnership with Tiffany & Co has already seen more earned media interest than j-hope’s, but j-hope has commanded social media engagement with Instagram. Whether it’s on their own or in partnership with a major brand, these K-pop stars can capture attention like no one else. 

Here are some other ways brands stood out in February.

Jake from State Farm earns interest at the Super Bowl

State Farm found itself in the headlines of one of February’s top stories thanks to the actor who portrays its spokesperson being a real-life Kansas City Chiefs fan. A local outlet in Kansas City, 41 KSHB, reported on how the actor, Kevin Miles, has a special relationship with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The article went on to earn over 27k engagements, and nearly made it in the top 10 brand stories overall. 

Amazon pulls away from remote working

Amazon often makes our rankings for employee related stories, and February was no different, although we did see one topic resonate more than others, and that was the company announcing efforts to have employees work in the office at least three times a week. 

Reuters reported that the requirement would begin in May, and that the decision would hopefully make it easier to collaborate. There were two articles written about Amazon’s work announcement, but Reuters’ received the most engagement, totaling 30.7k. 

Auto brands make more headlines 

Several other auto brands joined the club this month that is usually dominated by Tesla and Ford. And while those two are still at the top in terms of how many times they’re mentioned in headlines, the likes of Toyota, Dodge, Lamborghini, and Mercedes are just some of the brands that also featured in February’s rankings. 

Content was a mix of improved models and EV’s that can rival Tesla, with a lot of the coverage coming from car publishers as opposed to any news outlets. 

February allowed a few different brands to enter the mix, and once again showed how a brand can elevate themselves through influencer partnerships. If there is one key takeaway it’s that the power of BTS is still alive and well for brand awareness campaigns, and if a brand has the means to work with them, they should absolutely do so.