MAYBELLINE NEW YORK

HYPER SHARP LINER RELAUNCH

The success of a milestone campaign for Maybelline was powered by social media insights.

THE BRAND

THE PRODUCT

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVE

Maybelline New York is an American cosmetic brand, which markets its products internationally.

In July 2011, Maybelline launched its Hyper Sharp Liner in Hong Kong and the product quickly became the brand’s No.1 liner. By 2013, the cosmetics market in Hong Kong had become increasingly competitive, with the emergence of new players with comparable products as well as competition from many other international cosmetics brands.

Maybelline decided to relaunch the Hyper Sharp Liner with a one-month integrated campaign, which leveraged the increasing use of social media by the product’s target audience (15- to 25-year-old females). The goals of the campaign were to push further Hyper Sharp’s position as a “star liner”; encourage more consumers to use the product; and promote the Liner Art Trend in Hong Kong.

Maybelline New York approached iSentia Brandtology to help it to:

UNDERSTAND the launch effectiveness and clearly identify Maybelline’s position by gauging the changes in the amount of buzz in social media about the Hyper Sharp Liner.

EVALUATE Maybelline’s buzz share before and after the product’s launch, and in comparison to competitors’ buzz shares.

IDENTIFY the sources of buzz about the Hyper Sharp Liner during the campaign and the level of online influence of these sources.

MEASURE brand awareness and product perception across different promotional channels.

STRATEGY

To ensure that the campaign’s objectives were specific, measureable, attainable, and relevant, Maybelline’s digital team undertook traditional research (offline) and social media research (online) deciding on its approach.

PRIMARY RESEARCH (OFFLINE) – At the start of the communication planning, Maybelline conducted focus groups with potential candidates about their perceptions, opinions and beliefs about eyeliner. The Maybelline team brainstormed a list of questions and collected responses about issues such as liner design, usage and knowledge.

SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH (ONLINE) – Maybelline engaged iSentia Brandtology to monitor 380 online channels, including major forums, blogs, Social Network Services, microblogs, and video and review sites, for discussions about cosmetic products. This research was used to refine the questions that came out of Maybelline’s team brainstorming and help the team with its decisions about campaign strategy. Among other things, it revealed that ‘eye liner’ had been a consistently hot topic not only in conversations related to Maybelline, but also its competitors, confirming the markets interest in and potential openness to Maybelline’s product.

ISENTIA BRANDTOLOGY MONITORED 380 ONLINE CHANNELS.

‘EYE LINER’ HAD BEEN A CONSISTENTLY HOT TOPIC.

MAYBELLINE CONDUCTED FOCUS GROUPS WITH POTENTIAL CANDIDATES.

eye liner

#loveit

STRATEGY

380 ONLINE CHANNELS

From the online and offline research evolved the three major insights around which the campaign was anchored:

INSPIRATION – Consumers are conservative and reluctant to try dramatic makeup looks, but they want to be inspired and to learn.

EDUCATION – Consumers are not knowledgeable about how to create a personalised liner look without references and education.

ACTIVATION – Consumers like to follow trends but are reluctant to try them, because they don’t see a lot of people wearing liner art. They want to be unique but are afraid of getting too much attention when they look different.

CONSUMER INSIGHTS

Channel Research – iSentia Brandtology then filtered the credible sources from various social media channels, using Alexa ranking and preliminary research on each channel’s buzz volume, to locate the most influential platforms for Maybelline to leverage.

A list of bloggers was compiled by searching for keywords such as ‘eye liner’ and ‘cosmetic review’ on various blogs and video channels, such as She.com, theZtyle.com and YouTube. iSentia Brandtology then created a number of social KPIs, which included post engagement, post views, comments, and number of followers, in order to measure the bloggers who received the highest engagement from their recent blogs or vlogs. Maybelline then invited these top-ranking bloggers to an exclusive product launch. After the event, all candidates were encouraged to share about the launch of the Hyper Sharp Liner on their blogs in detail and to actively interact with the social audience.

CHANNEL RESEARCH

A LIST OF BLOGGERS WAS COMPILED.

MAYBELLINE THEN INVITED THESE TOP-RANKING BLOGGERS TO AN EXCLUSIVE PRODUCT LAUNCH.

AFTER THE EVENT, ALL CANDIDATES WERE ENCOURAGED TO SHARE ABOUT THE LAUNCH OF THE HYPER SHARP LINER ON THEIR BLOGS.

PUTTING INSIGHTS INTO ACTION

With the resulting insights gleaned from the research and the blogger event, Maybelline used Facebook to promote a “Liner Art Show” featuring 15 different liner art looks, ranging in complexity from easy to sophisticated. The company also added tutorial posts and videos that stepped consumers through creating Liner Art to a Facebook tab and to YouTube alongside the Blogger events. These aimed to inspire consumers and create all-round communications with Maybelline’s target audiences.

FACEBOOK POST OF LINER ART TIPS FACEBOOK COMMENTS, LIKES AND SHARES

BLOGGER EVENT COMMENTS AND VIEW COUNTS UNDER BLOG

YOUTUBE TUTORIAL VIDEOS TOTAL VIEWS

FACEBOOK LINER ART SUBMISSION BUZZ AROUND LINER ART TOPIC WITHIN AND OUTSIDE FACEBOOK

PR RELEASE NUMBER OF PRINT CLIPS AND NUMBER OF POST FROM ONLINE NEWS

KPIs Used to Measure Key Activities (PR and social media):

CAMPAIGN RESULTS

The campaign was tremendously successful and a milestone for Maybelline.

THROUGH THE ONE-MONTH COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN, MAYBELLINE ACHIEVED A RECORD-BREAKING PROJECTED SELL OUT OF UNITS.

AFTER THE HYPER SHARP INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN, 78% OF RESEARCH CANDIDATES DECLARED THEY HAD A PREFERENCE OR INTENTION TO PURCHASE THE PRODUCT.

THIS WAS MORE THAN 80% THE NUMBER OF UNITS SOLD AT THE FIRST LAUNCH OF THE HYPER SHARP LINER. Source: Brandtology)

OVER 30% OF MAYBELLINE’S BUZZ ON SOCIAL MEDIA RELATED TO HYPER SHARP LINER, WITH THE PRODUCT POSITIVELY DESCRIBED AS “EASY TO USE” AND “WATERPROOF”. Source: Brandtology)

THE VOLUME OF CONSUMER POSTS ABOUT THE PRODUCT ON SOCIAL MEDIA OBSERVED INCREASED FROM 10% TO 64.2% IN MAYBELLINE’S EYE CATEGORY. Source: Brandtology)

Record-breaking sales:

Strong Purchase Intent: Strong Campaign Awareness:

Strong Consumer Receptiveness:

RECORD BROKEN +80%

78% 30% 10% 64.2%

THE COMPANY’S SHARE OF VOICE INCREASED, AS DID INTEREST IN THE PRODUCT, DEMONSTRATING HOW SOCIAL MEDIA MEASUREMENT CAN BE LEVERAGED TO OPTIMISE A CAMPAIGN. THE QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE OUTCOMES INCLUDED:

ACHIEVED SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT AND ONLINE COVERAGE

ONLINE NEWS: +26 ONLINE EVENT NEWS

BLOGGER EVENT: +40 BLOGGERS ATTENDED LINER ART EVENT AND SHARED ON THEIR OWN BLOGS

FACEBOOK: +1.3M IMPRESSION WITH +80 LINER ART PIECES SUBMITTED, +2,288 (7.15%) FANS, +9263 TOTAL LIKES, +9671 TOTAL INTERACTIONS INCREASED IN A MONTH

+26

+9263

+40

SOCIAL MEDIA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Social media has had enormous uptake across Southeast Asia, reflecting the importance of community ties traditionally in the region. It captures the largest percentage of consumers’ screen time across all countries, with percentages of Internet users who regularly visit social media sites ranging from 85.4% in Singapore to 96.1% in the Philippines.

FACEBOOK CONTINUES TO BE THE NO. 1 SOCIAL NETWORK, WITH 3 OF ITS BIGGEST MARKETS BY REACH LOCATED IN THE REGION: THAILAND, MALAYSIA AND THE PHILIPPINES.

VIETNAM IS THE LARGEST AUDIENCE IN THE REGION, ADDING 2 MILLION INTERNET USERS IN 2013, THEREBY GROWING BY 14%.

THE ONLINE VIDEO MARKET IN SOUTHEAST ASIA GREW 8% IN 2013.

42 MILLION SOUTHEAST ASIANS WATCH VIDEOS ONLINE.

ALL SEA COUNTRIES INDEX HIGHER THAN WORLDWIDE AVERAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA REACH*.

8%

42M

#1

14%

*SOURCE: comScore: Southeast Asia Digital Future in Focus 2013.

SEA

With the use of social media evolving at an increasing pace, iSentia Brandtology’s monitoring on verified social media channels significantly contributed to the evolution of Maybelline’s communication plan. The sales records achieved through the campaign proved the success of transitioning consumers from online to offline. The cosmetic industry will become even more challenging in the near future, and this methodology has created opportunities for Maybelline’s ongoing branding activities.

CONCLUSIONS

70 Bendemeer Rd #04-02, Luzerne, Singapore 339940

contact@brandtology.com

Tel: +65 6593 9888

Fax: +65 6542 0888