LONDON, United Kingdom — “The idea that you need to spend a lot of money to get a lot of eyeballs I think is inaccurate,” says Derek Blasberg, the recently installed head of YouTube’s new division dedicated to fashion and beauty content partnerships. “What I think does well, especially in the fashion and beauty space, is a point of view and personality.”
Blasberg knows a thing or two about building an engaged audience. A former columnist and editor for Style.com, Harper’s Bazaar and other fashion and lifestyle publications, and contributing editor at Condé Nast’s Vanity Fair, he is well known throughout the industry — and very well connected.
At YouTube, his role is focused on cultivating relationships with brands and high-profile people in the industry so that they will use the platform more often, more effectively and build audiences there.
“My goal is that when we know its fashion week, people follow what’s happening in this world on YouTube,” he says.
Listen to Blasberg open up about his 15-year career in fashion — all the way from interning at Vogue during his degree at New York University, to working with Graydon Carter as Vanity Fair’s “Man on the Street” and hosting a show for CNN Style — and give advice on leveraging content and influencers for online engagement.
As for his tips on how to work a party? “The secret to anything is to have fun and stick with people who make you laugh.”
To subscribe to the BoF Podcast please follow this link.
Subscribe to BoF Professional for unlimited access to BoF articles, plus exclusive benefits for members.
To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail [email protected].
