The event began with participation from Verónica González, a writer and community manager for Telva magazine, who gave a presentation on the evolution of consumer habits and how social networks have helped to turn young people who are not well-known models or who do not conform to the traditional standards of beauty to become fashion icons. One of the examples which Verónica shared was the Marc Jacobs brand, which carried out a casting process for Spring/Summer 2015 via Instagram with the #castmemarc hashtag, and managed to reach 119.445 publications. 

After the conference, fashion instagrammers Georgina Vives (@gigi_vives) and Inés Arroyo (@ines_arroyo), were interviewed by Marta Alonso, a faculty alumni member, who wrote a book entitled “We Instagram” and is also CEO and Founder of Circle Line.  During the interview Georgina said “I enjoy myself more when I involve my followers in actions with brands” because that way she feels she is in contact with them. Inés said “people born after the year 2000 no longer have Facebook” and continued by explaining that they communicate via other networks, such as Snapchat, Instagram, or Youtube. 

Topics related to the future of instagrammers were discussed, as well as whether the social network, Instagram, is a passing phase.  Inés Arroyo believes that in five years’ time Instagram will no longer exist, that there will be a new network and that it will depend on the users to adapt to the new social network, and is also constantly aware that the success they are experiencing now will not last forever.  However, Georgina believes that “Instagram still has a long way to go and now has a bigger audience than Facebook”. 

Finally, Marta Alonso asked them about the new platform, www.21buttons.com, a shopping application which allows instagrammers to tag the pieces of clothing they are wearing in their photographs, users can click on them and then go directly to the page to buy each product.  Through this online purchasing system “a shop on Instagram can sell more than a shop on Passeig de Gràcia”, said Marta Alonso.  If we take into account that Passeig de Gràcia is the busiest street in our country with an average of 35.000 pedestrians walking through it every day, according to ABC, and the fact that instragrammers Inés Arroyo and Georgina Vives have 300.000 followers for their respective Instagram accounts, Marta Alonso’s statement is not so absurd. In fact it is a clear example of the direction in which marketing and communication trends are moving.