As we adapt to the new normal, many of us find ourselves experimenting with at-home beauty trends, as a response to salon and spa closures. While the fashion and luxury industries are being hit more severely by the pandemic, the global beauty industry has grown every year and has proved to be more resilient to economic downturns, as seen in the 2008 recession. Although cosmetics and fragrance sales have decreased during the recent pandemic, beauty brands have the opportunity to drive awareness and sales for their at-home beauty treatments and ride the wave of #selfcare and #pamperyourself beauty trends.
For our newest #BBMoment, we take a deeper dive into the data behind the booming beauty category and explore the key elements that are driving the success of these at-home beauty campaigns between early February-May.
#BBMoment: The top At-Home Beauty Campaigns During the Global Pandemic
The 3 Leading Social Posts Around At-Home Beauty By MIV®
As more people continue to shelter inside, social posts around at-home beauty trends are growing exponentially with activity peaking between the beginning of April until the second week of May. According to Launchmetrics' data, the post with the highest Media Impact Value™ (MIV®), was a meme published by Canadian dancer, Nora Fatehi, on the 31st of March, using the hashtag #QuarantineGlowUp. This racked up over $410K in MIV®. Although this post doesn’t feature a hero product, this incredibly high MIV® showcases that audiences are appreciating comedic and lighthearted content formats during these times.
Following this, Romanian mega influencer, Cristina Stefania, generated nearly $130K in MIV® with her sponsored post with Gilette Venus, using the hashtag, #BeautyAtHome, placing her in second place of top social posts by MIV®. While many of us may no longer take a few hours in the morning to get ready for our Zoom calls or Skype meetings, we still rely on our traditional shavers as laser clinics and waxing studios shutter doors. Gilette Venus’ clever move of tapping into a Mega Influencer for a quarantine-routine beauty product, clearly drove an astonishing amount of awareness for the brand’s staple.
In third place, beauty conglomerate L’Oreal Paris showcases their virtual try-on tool for their local Philippines Facebook community to experience a new hair color before actually coloring their hair with their at-home hair color kits. Generating over $105K in MIV®, this virtual try-on tool not only provided entertainment for audiences but also created an opportunity for the brand to drive product sales, as people look for at-home solutions to color their roots or find creative ways to express themselves, in time for their next in-person social plans.
L’Oreal Paris Leverages Local Owned Media to Drive Impact
Not only did L’Oreal Paris’ Philippines earn one of the top 3 posts by MIV®, the beauty conglomerate built out a comprehensive campaign featuring their at-home hair color kits to drive product awareness and engagement as audiences explore new beauty trends and experiment with DIY beauty. In total, L’Oreal Paris Philippines accounted for 8 out of the 10 top social posts globally ranked by MIV®. The brand offered tips for hair coloring at home with the help of celebrity influencers, and shared a list of stores that carry their hair coloring kits, created quirky content around quarantining at home, and offered direct beauty expert consultation sessions through their posts. With two common hashtags tying each post together, #PamperYourself and #StayAtHome, the brand created a significant spike in the quantity of content produced in the hashtag during mid-April, utilizing the at-home trend to generate increased awareness.
The Body Shop Continues to Drive the Momentum of Its Social Campaign #SelfcareSunday
The Body Shop, another major player in the global beauty industry, had created a campaign surrounding at-home beauty, even before the pandemic happened. To continue the success of its social campaign - namely #SelfcareSunday - the brand utilized the hashtag, #SpaAtHome, to create more impact and drive engagement on its skincare offerings during this time. With a total of 6 posts during this period, the brand amassed over $102K in MIV® and had an astonishing $17K on average MIV® per post, whilst also featuring related content across the brand’s social media channels.
Foreo Taps into Influencers to Drive At Home Facial Smart Devices
As many of us continue to create our very own at-home beauty spa, Foreo, a world leader in building smart beauty technology, found the opportunity to tap into influencers to help promote their wide range of beauty devices. With the added layer of utilizing various hashtags like #SelfCare, #SpaAtHome, #StayAtHome, and #FacialAtHome, the brand maximized the exposure of its products by tagging trending topics on social media. The top post for the brand during this time was a sponsored post by Mega beauty Influencer, Rady, about the brand’s UFO Smart Mask Device, which generated over $62K in MIV® and received over 33K likes on Instagram. While the short makeup tutorial featured multiple products from various brands, the UFO device was shown as the main highlight with a complete tutorial on how the influencer preps her skin before completing her makeup look.
DIY Beauty Trends Continue to Grow
With the growth of at-home beauty trends, it isn’t surprising that DIY beauty trends are also seeing significant growth on social media. As audiences find creative ways to replicate professional services at home, many are also feeling inspired to possibly recreate store-bought beauty products with easy ingredients found around the house. Mid-Tier beauty Influencer, Weronika Sączawa, shared a DIY beauty facial mask recipe on her Instagram channel, generating the highest MIV® for the hashtag, #DIYSkincare, with nearly $60K in MIV® and over 35K likes. This showcases the opportunity for beauty brands to get creative and share recipes for easy at-home beauty treatments to drive engagement and continue to be top of mind of their loyal consumers.
While the global beauty industry has found itself to be resilient to recessions in the past, the long-term economic impacts still cannot be underestimated. Close and careful monitoring of changing consumer behavior and trends will be key for beauty brands as they work towards recovery, and the industry must continue to find creative ways to generate demand and respond to decreasing sales in two major beauty categories: color cosmetics and fragrances.
Another key element for recovery is the need for beauty brands to drive foot traffic into physical storefronts since traditional retail still plays the largest role in the distribution of beauty products. We are excited to see how beauty brands adapt to the new normal as businesses worldwide slowly reopen and we hope that this #BBMoment has been insightful for you!
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By Launchmetrics Content Team
The Launchmetrics content team is always on the lookout for new trends in the fashion and technology sector. We are geeks with style and lovers of good stories!
