This year’s BravoCon proved to be hunky-dory for NBCUniversal in terms of digital performance.
The Bravolebrity-studded convention, which after its 2019 debut was put on pause because of the pandemic, was greeted by 30,000 fans in New York City the weekend of Oct. 14. PvNew can exclusively reveal that BravoCon drove 7.3 million short-form streams across all platforms, including BravoTV, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and OneApp, resulting in a 25% increase in short-form streams on their website from 2019. In the week following the event, coverage of BravoCon 2022 resulted in 74 million cross-platform engagements, up double- and triple-digits across platforms from the 2019 convention.
Over 400 video assets were published across all platforms, including 98 produced videos and a Twitter livestream. In addition, non-video editorials, such as Bravo Daily Dish and live blogs, drove over three million page views. More than 6.2 million messages were deployed across email, SMS and push notifications before, during and after the three-day event. BravoCon editions of Andy Cohen’s talk show, “Watch What Happens Live,” also scored its best weekly ratings average in almost four months in adults aged 18-49, with repeat episodes doing 37% better than their year-to-date average.
With dozens of panels, meet-and-greets, installations, a Bravoleb bazaar and more, BravoCon made its mark on social media with over 85,000 mentions over the course of the convention, resulting in approximately 1.36 billion impressions. Compared to the 2019 edition, social media conversation increased by 377%, with impressions increasing by 126%. Social coverage garnered 56 million total engagements, up 64% from 2019, and 18 million minutes of video watched. The Twitter livestream resulted in 1.7 million views and Instagram remained the largest source of engagement, growing triple-digits since 2019. Additionally, YouTube garnered 3 million video starts, and TikTok delivered 5.2 million views.
Indeed, one of the most popular talking points on social media and throughout the convention was the explosive recent season of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” which sparked a feud between Lisa Rinna and Kathy Hilton, with Hilton’s sister, Kyle Richards, in the middle. The drama centered on a trip taken to Aspen toward the end of the season, during which Hilton had an alleged meltdown. Rinna claimed Hilton had said negative comments about all of the cast members, especially about her sister Richards. From there, reports began to leak alleging that Hilton had also used a homophobic slur while at a club in Aspen.
In an interview with PvNew at BravoCon, Hilton shot back against Rinna’s version of events. “Let’s just put it this way: What I said was not what Lisa said,” she said. “I was in shock. And that’s why she dragged it for so long.”
The whole drama has some fans calling for Rinna to be fired from the franchise, which was evident during the BravoCon “Beverly Hills” panel, as Rinna was greeted by boos from the crowd. But speaking to reporters on the red carpet after the panel, she simply responded: “We are the No. 1 show on cable and on television and I’m a fucking rockstar.”
