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At HYD Studio, we partner with a range of beauty brands. From start-ups to established brands, we seek to unfold their forever values, craft compelling stories and define them as market leaders in an increasingly competitive market.
The Evolution Of The Beauty Industry
Online communities are a cornerstone of the beauty industry, with social media, again, transforming how these have developed.
NYX Cosmetics, one of the very first beauty brands to embrace user-generated content, encouraged customers to share photos wearing NYX products using the hashtag #nyxcosmetics. Glossier, also quick to react, built its cult following by posting user-generated content and influencer collaborations, creating highly engaged customers across its platforms. And not forget, the Fenty Beauty by Rihanna campaign generated over 5 billion views on TikTok (Fenty Beauty is now valued at $2.8 billion dollars…). By bringing the consumer into brand campaigns and engaging with them, brands build lasting followers and, ultimately, increase sales.
Aside from user-generated content, micro and macro influencers have also played their part in developing these online communities. Micro-influencers create captivating content that reaches larger and more engaged audiences and macro-influencers gain ground through their long-term relationships with brands, creating trust and ultimately strengthening the message brands convey to consumers. By taking advantage of the various levels of engagement from these online communities, beauty brands are better placed to provide highly tailored messages that meet specific consumer needs. Further solidifying online communities' position in the beauty industry.
THE RISE OF INFLUENCER MARKETING
THE POWER OF COMMUNITIES
THE FUTURE OF THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY
The beauty industry has come a long way, and the rise of social media has transformed it in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. The influence of influencers on social media has given individuals a greater voice in determining what products are popular and successful, allowing for more diverse perspectives to be heard. This shift from traditional advertising campaigns to influencer marketing has enabled beauty brands to build more personal relationships with their customers. Through tools, such as Instagram lives, it creates a deeper connection between the brand and consumer, building trust and sales.
The industry and influencers will become ever more intertwined. Influencer marketing will continue to grow as consumers continue to spend more time on social apps and brands will consequently rely more upon influencers to reach wider audiences whilst shaping consumer trends.
Moreover, technology has allowed beauty brands to track consumer behaviour across different platforms in real time, allowing them to push marketing campaigns relevant to the individual consumer whilst measuring their success rate more accurately. This data can also be used to innovate new products and services with greater accuracy than ever before, enabling beauty brands to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Overall, social media will continue to dramatically transform the beauty industry by providing more access and control over product recommendations and treatments as well as enabling brands to build deeper relationships with their customers through influencer marketing initiatives and advanced analytics tools.
Influencers are the new celebrity endorsers. Their command over their followers has become a powerful and essential tool for beauty brands wanting to keep ahead in a saturated market full of competitors. Specifically, celebrity competitors already have huge social media followings of their own. And a huge following translates into a huge consumer base for those celebrity brands.
The beauty industry is infiltrated with celebrity skincare and beauty brands - recently, Hailey Beiber launched Rhode skin, and just last month John Legend (who knew he was into skincare) launched Loved01. Celebrities bringing new products to the market are a thorn in the side of beauty brands and no better example is Kylie Jenner with her Kylie Cosmetics lines. Whilst she sold a 51% stake to Coty for a cool $600 million in 2020, she remains the lead on the brand’s marketing initiatives, namely social media. Kylie Cosmetics is one of the most followed beauty brands on the platform, second only to Huda Beauty. But with her combined accounts - including her personal brand page which boasts over 379 million followers - she can credit her sell-out lines to her social media dominance.
We’ve seen beauty brands mimic this by employing influencers to utilise their unique pull over their followers, with 82% of Gen Z & Millennials trusting the opinion of influencers and 78% following influencers purely to discover new brands (Morning Consult). Influencers’ followers trust them and it pays for beauty brands.
By leveraging this power shift and securing influencers to promote their products, a report by Tribe Dynamics found that in Q1 2021, beauty brands earned $1.6 billion in earned media value from influencer content. With the influencer economy growing by 335% in the past five years (Statista, 2022), for brands wanting the edge over celebrity skincare followings, influencer marketing seems like the clear choice.
The rise of TikTok and the rise of beauty videos on TikTok - #beauty had over 82 billion views and was one of the most popular categories on the platform in 2020 - has encouraged brands to embrace user-generated content through community-driven marketing strategies.
HOW WE CAN HELP
Our Studio specialises in providing comprehensive social media services, including social strategy and content creation. On learning our client's forever values, we seek to tell their unique stories and create an on-brand visual narrative, capturing their essence. We collaborate with PR agencies that specialise in the beauty industry and have access to an extensive network of micro and macro influencers. We leverage our expertise in strategy and design and integrate PR techniques to deliver effective results for our clients. We are committed to elevating clients’ digital presence through engaging content, that resonates with their target audience.
The beauty industry dates back centuries; with research showing that materials used for beauty tools go back over millennia. Manoeuvring its way through cultural changes and evolving with technological advancements, the industry has enjoyed huge growth, driven primarily by big business advertising through the 20th and early 21st centuries. The industry, dominated by traditional advertising, has recently experienced a shift in how beauty brands advertise and engage with their consumers.
Perhaps the most significant change in recent times has been social media and how consumers engage with social media. Americans spent on average 1,300 hours on social media throughout 2020, that’s 6.7 days, according to Forbes. With this amount of consumption, it’s no surprise brands have made the leap to social media advertising from traditional advertising companies. However, one thing remains unexplained. Whilst there has been an increase in using paid ads on social media, there has been an even bigger surge in paid influencer marketing by individuals on social media.
Social media has heralded a new era of advertising; one where influencers and communities are now the industry heavyweights, and print advertising is no longer king. A new era has evolved in the industry and here’s how…
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