Beauty marketing has long seen celebrities and supermodels sit at its forefront, but a new face is taking over: the consumer.
Brands are breaking all the rules and throwing out the playbook by placing their customers in the spotlight through community-led campaigns.
It comes at a time when consumers are more sceptical than ever, clued up as to how advertising tactics and a celebrity endorsement can pull their wool over their eyes.
“Today’s consumer has developed a filter for traditional advertising,” explains Daniella Lee, founder and Creative Director of brand-building agency Good Brand Day.
“We are in an era now where it is less about wanting to be like someone else and more about wanting to see yourself reflected.
“Seeing a person just like you sharing their experience adds a weight of lived experience that a paid celebrity, who likely has a full team of facialists, simply cannot replicate.”
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One of the driving factors behind this campaign tactic comes from consumers feeling a disconnect from celebrities and influencers, amplified by a world where the financial gap seems further stretched than ever before.
Lee explains: “It could partially be down to social media and reality TV; we have seen the lives of the rich and famous so ‘up close and personal’ that, by comparison, they have become completely unrelatable.”
A celebrity can leave, get ‘cancelled’, or start a competing line, but a community is an enduring asset.
This has led to a level of mistrust, with Fiona Thompson, Director of Marketing for data-driven loyalty and engagement platform Loyalty Lion, noting: “Trust is one of the most important elements in shopping for beauty products.
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“We each have unique challenges (dry vs greasy hair, wrinkles vs dark circles, age spots vs rosacea etc) and we are looking for evidence that a product can genuinely support our issues and challenges, not just evidence that it is used by a celebrity or influencer.”
Lee noted how taking on celebrity ambassadors is not without an element of risk,and adds: “Choosing a community spotlight is
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