Following Benefit’s success using influencers while relaunching their Brow Collection in 2016, the cosmetics giant is using the influencer formula again.
This time around they’re tapping into the social media power of YouTube beauty bloggers Meridith Foster and Teala Dunn - who have a combined YouTube and Instagram reach of 12 million. The duo will be fronting Benefit’s Hippie Cheek campaign as they launch a new blush, Galifornia, and a lighter version of their cult bronzer Hoola, Hoola Lite.
Benefit’s senior director of creative and content strategy, Claudia Allwood, says the pair “Both have a fan frenzy in YouTube, they blog daily, they are content creators. They have an engaged consumer who might not be entirely beauty endemic, but again, still passionate about makeup and trends and might want to get to know our brand more.
“There is no confidentiality, which leads to the excitement of the product going live. We learned that if we allowed them to freely communicate what was happening it drove excitement for the launch, versus just a shoot they can’t talk about until it’s done. They get excited and ask if they can capture content and Snapchat and blog. We realize that there’s no secret.”
The use of influencers fronting cosmetics campaigns is becoming an increasingly common trend, with social media stars and vloggers trumping models and celebrities for pride of place in advertising.
Benefit’s new Hippie Cheek products will be in stores from April.
