Victoria's Secret's Marketing Weapon

Victoria’s Secret is known worldwide for their premium lingerie, over the top annual fashion show, and their host of six-foot-tall gorgeous models. Although Victoria's Secret has lots of models appear on their website and catalogs, only a handful are selected for the coveted title of “Angel”. There are currently 14 Angels under contract, which includes veteran VS models like Stella Maxwell, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, and others.

So, what comes with Angel status? The terms of the secretive contract are kept very under wraps by the brand, but these are things that we do know about what it means to be an Angel:

-Angels have to commit at least 50 days a year to VS

-they have specific commitments to promote the brand at special appearances and on social media

-VS takes priority in the model’s scheduling and bookings

-Must have a “healthy and muscular look” aka VS doesn’t want their models to look undernourished like most models in the industry  

Basically, when VS models become an Angel they are becoming a direct extension of the VS brand. Modeling for VS is their priority, and their job is to be the recognizable face of the brand. This marketing move is one of the many reasons why Victoria’s Secret is dominating the lingerie industry. Yes, they do sell premium lingerie worldwide modeled by beautiful women, but so do many other companies selling similar products. VS racked in 7.78 billion dollars in sales 2016 for their parent company, L Brands, and is the largest American retailer of lingerie. One factor to their success needs to be credited to their marketing strategy of employing certain models that embody the ideals and desired look of VS, and promote the brand in everything they do, especially on social media.

Since the Angel contract must have a nondisclosure agreement in it, nobody is sure on the amount of social media postings that the Angels are required to post, but based on their frequency, it seems like a full-time job. Each Angel’s account is filled with posts that directly and indirectly promote VS. Some posts that are direct advertisements by the Angels and will feature them wearing their “favorite” VS item, the @victoriassecret tag, and have a caption that promotes the brand in a fun way. Other posts are meant to show the supposed friendship between all the Angels. VS works very hard to get its audience to believe that these women consider one another not only friends, but family. And maybe they actually do (they are required spend lots of time together shooting for VS), but even if they don’t, all of their social media accounts are filled with pictures of them hanging out together at the shoots, goofing off together on their own time, birthday shout-outs for one another, and congratulating each other on big accomplishments. These posts are supposed to make them appear like one big, happy family. 

Each Angel has millions of followers on different social platforms and receives hundreds of thousands of likes on each picture. That’s a huge reach for promoting the VS brand and advertising for specific products or sales.  

The Angels are a marketing tool that allows VS to reach a much higher volume of people on social media than they could with just the regular Victoria’s Secret social profiles. The VS Instagram account has over 56 million followers, but the Angels combined followers are almost twice that number. And the Angels originate from a variety of areas of around the world, (Elsa Hosk is Swedish, Sara Sampaio is Portuguese, Behati Prinsloo is from Namibia….) so they have more of an international pull when it comes to social media followings as well.

Victoria's Secret has successfully changed the game of shopping for undergarments, with a huge help from the Angels. The stigma of shopping for bras and underwear used to be a taboo task that women did in secret, and it's now a fun and celebrated experience. This selective group of models represents VS ideals of confidence, fun, and body empowerment, and they have it all displayed on social media for the world to see. So, when Victoria's Secret gives another model her wings they are adding another Angel to the family and another extension to their brand.