#KristenELLE was the world’s number one trending topic on Twitter on Tuesday 13th March while the shoot was taking place in Los Angeles. The initiative generated so much excitement that ELLEuk.com had the highest site traffic figure in over two years, surpassing even traffic visits for ELLEuk.com’s Royal Wedding coverage, with a 231% increase in global unique users, and a 218% page views percentage increase of traffic from Twitter and Facebook.
Usually a fiercely guarded secret among glossy magazines, ELLE gave its Twitter followers exclusive access to a shoot for the first time, kicking off with the tweet: ‘Right, we are go. Rail run through with @amcelle, hair artist, photographer, shoot director. #KristenELLE’. ELLE never released images of the actual shoot; tweets showing the location, the clothes rail and accessories were enough to stir excitement among readers and achieve a truly remarkable following on Twitter.
Magazine subscriptions doubled as readers signed up for Kristen Stewart’s special subscriber’s issue while momentum continues to build amongst followers for the big reveal of the eventual issue, on sale in May.
The live digital stream of a cover shoot is yet another great example, say the publishers, of the innovative ways in which ELLE and Hearst Magazines UK, offer readers content across multiple platforms, allowing them to engage with the brand wherever and whenever they choose.
Lorraine Candy, Editor-in-Chief of ELLE said: "ELLE is known for being a ground breaking and pioneering brand which is why we chose to break with magazine tradition and disclose our cover star two months in advance of publication. This unique idea is testament to our integrated approach across ELLE, ELLEuk.com and Twitter and one of the many new ideas we are working on as a team. We have pushed the boundaries to reap excellent rewards and will continue to do so as the brand evolves this year. It was a brave move and we have proved that the strength of our positioning in the market allows us to be the first with new strategies."
