When it comes to influencer marketing the cosmetics and beauty industry is an early adopter that those in less mature industries can look towards to see how to nail it. Beauty and cosmetics brands have mastered the art of expertly choosing the right influencers that showcase the diversity of their products and expand existing client bases through authentic user generated content.

Here are some of our favourite beauty brands #winning at authentic influencer marketing campaigns:

 

L’Oréal
The L’Oréal #beautysquad campaign is a brilliant example of a global brand working with multiple influencers to showcase the diversity of their products. The campaign saw L’Oréal work with 8 mid-tier influencers and vloggers each with unique styles and from different cultural backgrounds. That meant L’Oréal could spread their budget while obtaining maximum reach from different consumer groups. By using micro-influencers and providing little structure to their influencers, while allowing open and honest reviews not just of L’Oréal products, the campaigns retained their authenticity.

Image courtesy of L’Oréal Paris.

 

MAC
The cosmetics brand that is so passionate about influencer marketing, they even names a lipstick after it! Back in March, MAC recruited 10 beauty influencers and vloggers from around the globe to create their own unique lipstick. While they documented the process, they gave complete autonomy of product and content creation to their influencers, resulting in a single campaign that taps into a huge range of influence. MAC proved themselves masters of pairing new product innovation with influencer marketing. The results was fresh and inspiring content and products that oozed with originality.

 

Image courtesy of MAC Cosmetics

 

Estée Lauder
Many heritage brands rely on ‘tried and tested’ methods which don’t always resonate with an expanded audience, however Estée Lauder is a great example of how an iconic beauty brand has tapped into the millennial market through a solid influencer marketing strategy. They have run a number of campaigns using a range of influencers from the mega-influencers like Kendall Jenner with over 75 million followers, to comparatively smaller players like vlogger Chrizelle Lategan and Irene Kim. Again, they ensure authenticity which is key by handing over complete creative control to their influencers to review their products and generate high quality content across both images and videos.

 

NYX
Through strategic social media campaigns and influencer programs, NYX has grown into a multi-million dollar company. Hailed as one of the fastest growing cosmetics brands, from 2016 – 2017 the brand has seen it’s social media engagement grow by 97%. They achieved this by partnering with the likes of Charisma Star, in addition to building an army of micro-influencers through sending their customers new products. The result? Influencers of a range of sizes spreading the word with creative and authentic content. Nathalie Kristo, NYX Cosmetics SVP of Global Marketing and Business Development, NYX, explained the strategy as using their physical stores to “celebrate the new generation of beauty influencers, and their dedicated followers, by highlighting the creativity and artistry of these real-world makeup lovers.”

 

Image Courtesy of NYX

 

 

To Three Lessons Learnt
Whether you are in beauty and cosmetics or not, there are some key takeaways from these examples of brands that are nailing it.

 

1. Spread your budget – By spreading the budget across a range of influences, they broaden their reach and expand their target audience.
2. Trust your influencers – while these brands provided their influencers with guidelines, they ultimately trusted them to come up with unique and inspiring content that retained authenticity and resonated with their audiences.
3. Trust your product – Don’t be afraid to acknowledge other brands. We all know they exist and by allowing your influencers to reference them, in addition / comparison to your products, the influencer retains their credibility and trust from their audience.

 

 

 

Find out how you can create your own profitable influencer strategy 

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Maeve Sugrue

I’m Head of Marketing at ZINE where I am helping peers and customers who want to revolutionise their influencer marketing strategy. I love food, fitness and Min Pins.