Each year, Launchmetrics surveys hundreds of fashion, luxury and beauty professionals to understand how influencer marketing is impacting our industry. More and more brands are re-allocating advertising dollars and converting them into Influencer Marketing budgets (nearly 25% in the last three years alone). In our latest edition of The State of Influencer Marketing, we found that in 2018, 80% of professionals in fashion, luxury and beauty activated campaigns with Influencers – almost 76% obtaining better sales thanks to their collaborations with these digital creators.
Influencers have transformed the way that brands approach consumers with their products - the beauty industry has seen a large increase in the number of direct to consumer brands such as Glossier that have continued to go from strength to strength. However, this influence goes beyond just customer contact, as brands are also reconsidering their values, image, and digital marketing strategies. Influencers have the ability to foster a special, authentic relationship with the customer, helping companies understand what they want and how to give it to them.
With fashion, luxury and beauty brands investing heavily in Influencer Marketing, one of the challenges that remain is calculating ROI. Specialized measurement metrics such as Media Impact Value™ are essential when it comes to estimating an accurate picture of the ROI of newer forms of marketing. Media Impact Value considers coverage across all channels (online, social, print) as well as Share of Voice (Owned Media, Influencers, Celebrities, Media and Partners) to measure the impact of these campaigns.
Across the 5 main Voices highlighted above, Influencers are at the center point of today’s winning beauty marketing strategies, representing the largest share of Voice today for the beauty industry. For this sector alone, Influencers were the largest contributor when it came to driving buzz and MIV® for brands, with 55% of the value coming from them (compared to approximately 17 & 23% in fashion & luxury respectively).
There’s no doubt that social is the key when it comes to unlocking success as a beauty brand. This channel dominates the industry accounting for over 85% of the MIV, compared to a mere 42% in fashion and luxury. And, when looking at all social platforms, YouTube emerges as the star channel, driving nearly 20% of global MIV compared to approximately 2% for fashion and luxury.
This is exemplified by the influencer-favourite brand, Morphe Cosmetics – whose collaboration with James Charles generated an impressive $45.8M in MIV due to his following of around 30M across Instagram and YouTube.
So, to stay competitive in the beauty landscape, the question is no longer if you should use influencers, but how. Remember, they are the secret ingredient to connecting with a digitally native customer and maintaining a relationship on social over the long-term. With all of the different types of collaboration formats available, adjustable to every budget, beauty brands will undoubtedly see ROI.
Throughout our Cosmotalks session at Cosmoprof Asia, we will be taking a look at key insights around today’s winning beauty marketing strategies and what brands are doing to connect with today’s consumers and accelerate their path to purchase. The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with industry leaders on the traits and values of today’s consumer and how to leverage new Voices to shape the buying journey.
MIV® is a registered trademark in the European Union.
By Jessica MichaultSVP of Industry Relations
Jessica Michault is the Senior Vice President of industry relations at GPS Radar by Launchmetrics. She is also the editor-at-large for ODDA magazine and contributes to publications like the New York Times, the Business of Fashion, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Mixte magazine.
