We all know the feeling of doing a double take as our phone announces our weekly screen report to see our scrolling has increased by 50% week by week. With so much more time on our hands indoors this year, social media has, for some, become our number one pastime.
So, with media companies searching for even more ways to drive engagement with their brands in the remote world, which celebrities have helped them along the way?
The 2020 celebrity engagement report analyses images on the Instagram accounts of four leading fashion magazines to see who was driving the highest levels of engagement from viewers, as well as who was pulling in the most value per like.
| Celebrity | Likes | Like Value | % of Following | Magazine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jennifer Lawrence | 53,638 | £231 | 4.47% | Elle |
| Timothee Chalamet | 182,487 | £785 | 3.20% | Vanity Fair |
| Dakota Johnson | 37,305 | £160 | 3.11% | Elle |
| Brad Pitt | 151,842 | £653 | 2.66% | Vanity Fair |
| Zendaya | 142,556 | £613 | 2.50% | Vanity Fair |
| Lily Collins | 112,367 | £483 | 2.50% | British Vogue |
| Ciara | 29,720 | £128 | 2.48% | Elle |
| Harry Styles | 107,387 | £462 | 2.39% | British Vogue |
| Joaquin Phoenix | 135,153 | £581 | 2.37% | Vanity Fair |
| Scarlett Johansson | 121,208 | £521 | 2.13% | Vanity Fair |
Jennifer Lawrence was only in 6 images in the whole year but still managed to garner the highest likes-to-followers ratio on any fashion mag Instagram.
In terms of like value, the photo with the most likes of all was Vanity Fair’s image of Timothee Chalamet, announcing a first look at his lead role in Dennis Villeneuve’s Dune. This image garnered over £700 in like value, compared to Lawrence’s £231.
Interestingly, none of the top 10 most engaging celebrities across all 4 magazines were cover stars for the respective magazine they ranked for. This could have something to do with the fact that social media users are more likely to interact with natural posts over promotional posts.
| Celebrity | Likes | Like Value | % of Following |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timothee Chalamet | 182,487 | £785 | 3.20% |
| Brad Pitt | 151,842 | £653 | 2.66% |
| Zendaya | 142,556 | £613 | 2.50% |
| Joaquin Phoenix | 135,153 | £581 | 2.37% |
| Scarlett Johansson | 121,208 | £521 | 2.13% |
| Leonardo DiCaprio | 104,917 | £451 | 1.84% |
| Reese Witherspoon | 96,292 | £414 | 1.69% |
| Billie Eilish | 94,409 | £406 | 1.66% |
| Laura Dern | 92,512 | £398 | 1.62% |
| Renee Zellweger | 89,410 | £384 | 1.57% |
| Celebrity | Likes | Like Value | % of Following |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lily Collins | 112,367 | £483 | 2.50% |
| Harry Styles | 107,387 | £462 | 2.39% |
| Helena Bonham Carter | 69,480 | £299 | 1.54% |
| Beyoncé | 65,748 | £283 | 1.46% |
| Margot Robbie | 63,590 | £273 | 1.41% |
| Judi Dench | 60,692 | £261 | 1.35% |
| Emma Corrin | 59,482 | £256 | 1.32% |
| Zoe Kravitz | 56,626 | £243 | 1.26% |
| Rihanna | 52,362 | £225 | 1.16% |
| Marcus Rashford | 49,869 | £214 | 1.11% |
| Celebrity | Likes | Like Value | % of Following |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dakota Johnson | 36,836 | £158 | 2.17% |
| Brad Pitt | 30,802 | £132 | 1.81% |
| Elizabeth Banks | 26,464 | £114 | 1.56% |
| Demi Lovato | 21,195 | £91 | 1.25% |
| Celine Dion | 15,018 | £65 | 0.88% |
| Chrissy Teigen | 9,445 | £41 | 0.56% |
| Regina King | 8,847 | £38 | 0.52% |
| Beyoncé | 8,707 | £37 | 0.51% |
| Megan Thee Stallion | 8,281 | £36 | 0.49% |
| Scarlett Johansson | 7,619 | £33 | 0.45% |
| Celebrity | Likes | Like Value | % of Following |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jennifer Lawrence | 53,638 | £231 | 4.47% |
| Dakota Johnson | 37,305 | £160 | 3.11% |
| Ciara | 29,720 | £128 | 2.48% |
| blake lively | 22,694 | £98 | 1.89% |
| selena gomez | 20,240 | £87 | 1.69% |
| emma corrin | 19,599 | £84 | 1.63% |
| jennifer aniston | 18,200 | £78 | 1.52% |
| hailey bieber | 18,191 | £78 | 1.52% |
| brad pitt | 17,590 | £76 | 1.47% |
| zoe kravitz | 17,059 | £73 | 1.42% |
Understandably, the magazines with higher follower counts drove a higher like value to their top pictures, but it’s interesting to see that Elle’s top pictures had a higher rate of engagement, showing that the highest number of likes does not the most engaging picture make.
| Celebrity | No. of Images | Likes | Like Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Styles | 12 | 566,551 | £2,436 |
| Beyoncé | 56 | 433,430 | £1,864 |
| Zendaya | 13 | 370,951 | £1,595 |
| Rihanna | 18 | 325,109 | £1,398 |
| Zoe Kravitz | 20 | 247,943 | £1,066 |
| Florence Pugh | 15 | 161,042 | £692 |
| Jennifer Aniston | 11 | 152,149 | £654 |
| Jennifer Lopez | 10 | 148,167 | £637 |
| Elle Fanning | 10 | 132,865 | £571 |
| Sophie Turner | 13 | 83,823 | £360 |
Beyoncé is well-regarded as one of the most popular celebrities of our age, so it’s no surprise that she was far and away the most popular celebrity shared on Instagram in the fashion world.
However, even with her dominating our Insta feeds, Queen Bey wasn’t able to pull in as many likes as singer/actor/fashion muse Harry Styles. In Just 12 pictures this year, Styles collected almost £2.5 grand in likes, while Beyoncé’s influence didn’t even hit £2k.
Of the hundreds of celebrities featured on the four accounts we surveyed, only nine faces appeared under every title. Whether its Oscar winners Brad Pitt, and Lady Gaga or fashion frontrunners like Zendaya and Rihanna, these are the 9 people who’ve influenced our engagement the most this year:
| Celebrity | Most Likes on 1 Picture | Magazine |
|---|---|---|
| Brad Pitt | 151,842 | Vanity Fair |
| Zendaya | 142,556 | Vanity Fair |
| Dakota Johnson | 36,836 | Marie Claire |
| Jennifer Aniston | 18,200 | Elle |
| Zoe Kravitz | 17,059 | Elle |
| Florence Pugh | 16,781 | Elle |
| Rihanna | 52,362 | Biritsh Vogue |
| Lady Gaga | 49,413 | Vanity Fair |
| Jennifer Lopez | 48,034 | Vanity Fair |
To find the most engaging celebrities, we chose to analyse the Instagram accounts of fashion magazines so we knew the people interacting with the images weren’t necessarily going to be fans of those who featured in the images.
We scrolled thousands of images across four accounts, limiting the qualifying posts to:
The Instagram accounts we analysed:
