Influencers have helped cosmetics brands unlock near limitless growth with major brands ramping up budgets for influencer marketing.
Cosmetics brands are a primary example of industries that have pushed aggressively into the influencer space. In recent years they have rapidly expanded their digital marketing budgets, pouring countless dollars into influencer marketing, which has proven to generate massive revenues.
Influencer success for Maybelline
The rapid rise of influencer marketing for cosmetics brands feels like a very recent development, but before the big brands entered the market, smaller subsidiaries were already riding the waves of influencer success and testing how to mature their efforts. In 2017, an analysis published by social analytics company ShareIQ, showed that L’Oreal subsidiary Maybelline, proved highly successful in its social media marketing efforts.
This would prove foundational for the L’Oreal group to accelerate its social media and influencer marketing pivot. Maybelline was able to generate 59 million likes across different platforms, higher than its parent company L’Oreal, who garnered 27 million likes and Estée Lauder, who generated 5 million likes. The value of a like can be a topic for debate, but it shows that brands under the umbrella of L’Oreal were finding their footing in the social media space. On Pinterest, Maybelline outperformed its competitors and sister-brands by amassing 730,000 repins. A number far greater than L’Oreal who generated 167,000 pins and Estée Lauder 28,000 pins.
Digiday cited ShareIQ’s Director of marketing, Jonathan Gardner, commenting on the results cosmetics brands put great value in content being shared on visual platforms, whereas text-based platforms such as Twitter (X) are of less importance. Vice president of integrated Consumer Communications, Marnie Levan, highlighted that the company is aware of customers looking to influencers for educational and trend purposes. Hence, Maybelline has to deliver great content to help influencers communicate with their audiences.
The strong position of Maybelline in the influencer domain came after the company launched its influencer campaign in cooperation with beauty blogger Shayla Mitchell, who, at the time, had 2.5 million followers on Instagram. The campaign promoting the Maybelline x Shayla collection, became the brand’s most successful campaign, Digiday noted. In the years that followed, L’Oreal accelerated its presence in the influencer marketing field.
L’Oreal embraces influencers
In October 2018, influencer marketing technology company Traackr, talked with Social Media Performance Director at L’Oréal Group, Marc Duquesnoy, about the cosmetics company’s transition toward scaling influencer marketing. L’Oreal has been allocating an upward of 38 percent of its media budget toward digital advertising of which influencer marketing has been an integral part.
The company has seen challenges during its influencer strategy roll-out, but believes its necessary to drive brand awareness. Duquesnoy explained that “influencing” its ecosystem has always been a hallmark within its marketing efforts, way before the era of digital advertising. He pointed to hairdressers who were the first influencers, recommending its products to their clients. Later, L’Oreal ventured into magazines, opinion leaders and celebrities, Duquesnoy added.
The rapid rise of influencers had opened up another gateway for L’Oreal to expand its marketing efforts, acting as beacons of trust among consumers, which reinforced the brand among its target audience. Duquesnoy notes that influencer marketing is becoming more important, as consumers have become wary about advertising and brand messaging. They are also better informed about products thanks to those same influencers.
With the rise of influencers, a new dynamic has been created in digital advertising. Influencers are able to create trends and create new dynamics about topics within the space of L’Oreal. A good example, Duquesnoy points out, is the rise of digital native brands, which skip the traditional retail model. Nip + Fab, who partnered with Kylie Jenner, has an online exclusive approach and strong focus on social media advertising.
This novel approach to carving out market share in a saturated market, has forced L’Oreal to expand into the influencer space, selecting topic authorities to create momentum and relevance amongst its target audience. In order to maintain some semblance of control within this crowded space, L’oreal distinguishes two types of influencers, those with a huge following and local micro-influencers. The latter has a small, but tightly knit community.
L’Oreal however has to divide this strategy amongst its 34 brands across 150 countries, which brings a lot of complexity to its influencer marketing strategy. The company keeps control over its strategy by having clear separation and organization around influencers. The International Marketing Direction develops and oversees the image of each of its brands, creating strict rules and guidelines that local branches have to abide by. The Marketing Direction team has close relations with its largest influencers and other high profile international figureheads, as Duquesnoy describes them.
Influencer marketing at Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder, together with L’Oreal is another traditional player who is venturing into the influencer marketing space. In November 2020, Carlota Pico from VeraContent spoke with Regional Communication and Social media manager for the EMEA region at The Estée Lauder Group, Piera Valentina Toniolo about how the cosmetics company transitioned toward digital advertising and leveraged the power of influencers in its advertising efforts.
The interview comes about a year after Estée Lauder’s president and chief executive officer Fabrizio Freda announced the company would be allocating 75 percent of its advertising budget to digital social media influencers. Cited by The Drum, during an earnings call, Freda elaborated on the decision as to why the company wanted to ramp up influencer spending. Freda commented that influencers had proven to be highly productive for the brand.
This has been made possible by the team learning how to tap into influencer marketing more efficiently, spending budget in areas where it saw success. One such campaign has been the promotion of its Smashbox 7 Cover Shot eye palette. The influencer campaign which was managed by media agency Seen Connects, a how-to video collaboration between five influencers in the beauty space, generated 486k views, managing an average engagement rate of 12.3 percent. The content allowed Estée Lauder to connect with new and existing customers.
The ramp up in influencer spending was a huge leap forward for a company who didn’t have a digital communication manager for the EMEA region to begin with. Toniolo had to build a department from the ground up. While challenging, it allows for Estée Lauder to explore new advertising avenues. The group has launched dedicated local Instagram accounts for Germany, the Middle and Switzerland since July 2020, which allows the company to have a presence in emerging markets.
Toniolo notes they have seen promising results. In certain regions it couldn’t use platforms such as TikTok, which has been banned in India.In the Middle East, Snapchat is the dominant social media platform. This isn’t only a challenge for Estée Lauder, other brands face this market dynamic as well. Especially for traditional players like Estée Lauder, who’ve seen their retail visit drop by about 45 percent in the EMEA region after the COVID pandemic.
Toniolo explains this requires a radically different approach, shifting from a traditional brick-and-mortar strategy to online. An example of aiming to mimic the store experience, was launching an international virtual event to launch its Advanced Night Repair skincare product, a hallmark product that turned Estée Lauder into the cosmetics behemoth it is today. During the virtual event, 1,500 people connected at the same time to witness the unveiling of its reformulated skincare product.
During the event, so-called education leads showed how to apply the product. A dance teacher giving classes, a yoga teacher and a closing party with a DJ set, Toniolo recalls. Despite the event being wholly virtual, it was a success, she adds. The influencers loved the virtual event, posting countless pictures and stories across Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. The team at Estée Lauder was unsure about the pick-up, but in hindsight the project was a huge success, Toiiolo commented.
Estée Lauder on TikTok
TikTok has become a core asset for Estée Lauder’s social media and influencer marketing strategy. Interestingly enough, at the time, Estée Lauder didn’t have its own profile on the platform. Instead, it opted to work directly with influencers active on the platform. Toniolo explained that the brand is trying tie in TikTok-ers into its strategy as much as possible.
The push for incorporating TikTok into its digital strategy isn’t surprising, as the Chinese social media platform has seen massive pick up among global audiences. Toniolo comments that younger consumers are currently more active on TikTok, favoring the platform over Instagram, with the latter having a strong presence among the Millennial demographic. Hence, in order to reach a younger audience, Estée Lauder has to take TikTok into account. Through the platform it has been able to expand its brand into other regions.
Picking the right influencers is a job in and of itself. Toniolo explains Estée Lauder picks the influencers based on the local market and audiences. When the brand launches a campaign in France, it wants to make sure the followers are French too. During the early stages of its influencer marketing roll-out, the team scanned the accounts to see how many fake followers they had. As time progressed, Toniolo notes the team can now determine which accounts are genuine based on its own experiences.
Assuming the influencers are genuine, Toniolo continued, localization with audiences remains the primary foundation for its campaigns. Once the appropriate influencer has been selected for a local campaign, the team validates whether the account can meet its preset KPIs. Once this check has been completed, the cosmetics company explores a collaboration and across which platforms.
Shiseido discovers potential of influencers
In April 2019, Japanese cosmetics brand Shiseido announced it would be increasing influencer marketing spending by 50 percent in the United States over 2019. Glossy comments that the beauty company had acknowledged the importance of influencer marketing during the creation of an influencer campaign targeting Millennials.
A testament to its reinforced focus on influencers has been the launch of its 2019 Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate and Eudermine Revitalizing Essence campaign, focussing on its her- skin-care category. For its Ultimune Power campaign, it partnered with fashion and beauty expert iInfluencer, Kahlana Barfield Brown, who at the time had garnered 236,000 followers on social media platform Instagram. Brown featured promoted products from Shiseido on lifestyle website The Coveteur.
Shiseido complemented its separate influencer campaigns with always-on programs. The Japanese fashion company partnered with marketing services technology company Stylehaul and e-commerce platform MikMak to launch an integrated influencer campaign. The program welcomed up to 10 influencers who would post organic content on their social media channels.
The jump into digital influencer marketing was exciting and novel for the cosmetics brands with a 146 year old history, explained Vice president of U.S. integrated communications at Shiseido Americas Corp., Tiffani D. Carter-Thompson during the WWD’s Digital Forum in Los Angeles in November 2018. She commented that Shiseido’s primary customers were over 35 and the company already had a well-established niche retail partner network.
In order to pivot itself to a younger audience, it first launched complementary products such as its new sun-care products and reintroducing make-up. This helped the company generate awareness amongst younger audiences. Through the products, Shiseido dipped its toes into influencer marketing. Feeling ready to professionalize its influencer marketing efforts, it partnered with Stylehaul, who would help them interpret the results and find the influencers that could help reach its objectives.
Shiseido delivers product experiences
Shiseido aimed to create tailored product experiences online. Carter-Thompson emphasized that the cosmetics company wanted to do more than just push products to younger audiences. The critical component was ensuring that content creators understood the philosophy behind the brand’s make-up products. By instilling a deep understanding of its make-up, influencers would become credible advocates amongst their followers. This resulted in 80 content pieces that were being served across channels on Instagram.
Its new sun-care products were treated with an exclusive invite-only activation campaign in the sunny city of Malibu where 200 influencers could demonstrate the product line’s use-cases over a course of three days. The products were applied during various activities, ranging from exercising, wellness treatments to fashion. Activities that would showcase the unique features of the new product range.
One post was selected as a test case for paid advertising. Carter-Thompson explained that it merely to see how the post would perform among the organic content. Adding that it was a risk, as it ventured beyond what the company was initially aiming to achieve, a strong product understanding through high contextuality. This post however stood alone among a sea of other content experiences.
The influencer campaigns from the brand have seen tremendous success. In 2021, Shiseido wanted to maintain its influencer momentum. By implementing Traackr’s VIT Score as a framework for its campaigns, the company managed to increase influencer marketing visibility by 54 percent over the course of 2021. The cosmetics brands saw higher brand awareness through video views, establishing 36 percent year over year growth and saw trust in influencer brand posts increase by 12 percent.
The case of Shiseido has the same components of L’Oreal embedded in it. Established cosmetics companies feel the pinch of online exclusive brands, who feel comfortable with working with influencers and not burned by previous partnerships or delayed retail experiences. Hence, traditional cosmetics brands have to ramp up their efforts across social media to reach new and existing audiences.
Triple digit growth through TikTok
In October 2022, the Fashion Network reported that data analytics company Launchmetrics found that TikTok saw the strongest growth in media impact for beauty brands. The team at Launchmetrics analyzed over 700 cosmetics and fragrance brands and saw that the platform had enormous commercial potential. This rang especially true in the Chinese market where influencers were a crucial part for companies to promote their products to their target audiences.
Roberta Herrara from the Fashion Network cited that Tiktok has increased growth impact for beauty brands by 176 percent year-over-year. Brands saw enormous brand lift by partnering with celebrity influencers like Ariana Grande, Kylie Jenner and Anya Taylor Joy, the latter who collaborated with Viktor&Rolf.
Benefit Cosmetics, subsidiary of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, has seen tremendous growth in the United States through TikTok’s e-commerce feature Shop. In January 2024, Glossy noted that since joining the TikTok Shop beta program, Benefit has sold over 87,000 product units. For Benefit all the reason to double down on its TikTik Shop campaign.
Brands like Benefit enjoy strong discoverability among younger audiences through the Shop program, Glossy commented. A strong contrast to Google, which leans more to older audiences. Senior Vice President of Global omni-marketing for Benefit Cosmetics, Toto HaBa, explained that the brand wants to reach new audiences through the TikTok program.
HaBa strongly believes in the feature, expecting a triple or quadruple its sales on the social media platform. The platform is still emerging and companies like Benefit bring new innovation to TikTok, which further accelerates growth across the network. HaBa adds that the brand wants to help define the future of shopping on TikTok. Hence, the ramp-up on the platform is a long-term strategy for the cosmetics brand, who wants to create a diverse network of creators around its brand to target each niche.
The success of Benefit in part has been made possible by the decentralized nature of the brand on the platform, HaBa added. Benefit Cosmetics has multiple accounts tailored per region and country. A strategy Estée Lauder has also adopted. Glossy highlights Benefit’s Australia account on Instagram, its Middle East YouTube account and its over 30 dedicated TikTok accounts which can service its target regions separately.
TikTok success
K18 Hair wanted to increase brand awareness in the hair community on TikTok. Content from the brand itself had already garnered over 11.2 billion views, with the brand being ready to extend its momentum. The brand partnered with Song Candy Media to promote co-creation with creators on the platform. While not influencer marketing pur sang, K18 turned users into brand ambassadors who would act as advertising channels to generate brand uplift.
In order to foster collaboration with users on the platform, Song Candy Media created custom audio that could be used by creators within their own creations. A dedicated voice-over was created that emulated the scientific nature of K18’s products. A beat was layered underneath the voice-over that would allow for smooth transitions within videos.
This saw massive pick-up among creators, which skyrocketed hashtag awareness to over 24 billion views between December 2021 and January 2023. Through the massive exposure, K18 saw its follower count increase with over 160,000 followers. This shows that creators on the platform can be turned into influencers. Generating strong exposure for cosmetics brands. It must be noted that the budget for this campaign wasn’t disclosed.
L’Oreal has also experienced strong exposure on TikTok, especially in the #beautytok space, which was one of the primary objectives for the cosmetics brand. The company wanted to pivot in one of the most popular communities on the platform to create buzz around its brand and firmly establish itself in the beauty segment. In order to nudge itself in the space, it collaborated with micro and macro creators on the platform. They sent beauty boxes to creators who could showcase the products on their channels.
After creators received their boxes, L’Oreal set out on an amplification strategy to drive additional awareness. The team at L’Oreal used TikTok’s Topview ads to create high visibility, which was partnered with Top Feed Reach & Frequency ads to remain on top of mind. The latter is crucial for upcoming and existing brands, as generating impressions is fairly easy, but establishing a top of mind position is the most challenging and costly part of many digital campaigns.
The rise of cosmetics brands
Cosmetics brands have seen tremendous and enviable results through influencer marketing. Their collaborations have reached countless new customers and re-engaged existing ones. Initially, established brands have carefully tested the waters, but once they felt comfortable and saw sales numbers grow exponentially, all breaks were off. Estée Lauder allocated 75 percent of its digital marketing budget into influencer marketing, seeing how quickly and efficiently it could generate sales through online personalities.
Their pivot into influencer marketing isn’t surprising. Influencers enjoy high authority among their audiences. Their followers trust them for their next purchase. As educational platforms where they learn how to apply the products. Influencers are a vehicle for trends. Media streams that cosmetics brands can tap into.
