In this #BBMoment we take a look at the beauty brand that is currently dominating social media - Huda Beauty. Their 38.6m followers, make them the most followed beauty brand on Instagram, so it comes as no surprise that Huda Beauty's digital strategy is on point. The brand was founded by financier-turned-makeup artist, Huda Kattan where what started out as a premium lash brand, has now turned in to a billion-dollar business. With influencers representing the top source of Media Impact Value™ for the brand, and Instagram proving to be the highest value-generating channel, we take an analytical look at the digital strategy behind Huda Beauty’s Instagram empire.
#BBMoment: The Success Behind Huda Beauty's Instagram Empire
Which Voices does Huda Beauty Activate?
Huda Beauty generated a total MIV® of $54.4M in the month of June - with a $52M share of this coming from social media alone. The brand utilizes their Instagram channel in a multi-faceted way, sharing user-generated content, insider beauty tips from Huda herself, as well as memes and press shoutouts around three to five times a day. On their channel, they also invest heavily in video content, which receives a 38% higher engagement rate than static posts, whether it be through Instagram stories, or on the main feed.
The strict content strategy means that the brand is heavily active on the platform, but still achieves a balance of product promotion and authenticity by consistently mixing up the content featured on the channel.
While influencers represent the largest Share of Voice, the brand’s Owned Media is also crucial when it comes to the value that the brand generates. This is demonstrated by the fact that the top-performing individual Voice for Huda beauty, is in fact, Huda Beauty. The tone of voice that the brand has cultivated on Instagram, has created a personality for the brand, as the captions feel authentic and genuine as if there is a person behind the screen, rather than a brand. Huda Beauty leverages their digital strategy by speaking directly to their followers as if they were friends, establishing a trusting, but also engaging brand-consumer relationship online.
How does Huda Beauty leverage influencers?
As established, influencers are hands down the top Voice overall when it comes to generating Media Impact Value for Huda Beauty - this group accounted for 81% of the total MIV accumulated in June. The brand uses a mix of influencer tiers, usually highlighting either Mid Tier-All Star Influencers on their social media channels.
Here’s a look at the top influencers driving value for Huda Beauty:
Taking a closer look at the types of post that generate the most brand value also provide an insight into the successful digital strategy behind Huda Beauty.
The highest generating influencer in terms of MIV was @sadaf_beauty, who is a Mega Influencer with a following of 2m on her Instagram channel specifically and frequently features the brand in her how-to videos. Her posts represented three of the five top influencer posts for the brand overall.
This post generated a MIV of $811K. The influencer made sure to tag all of the brands featured in the post, and received 403K likes, and 82K comments.
@marimaria also came out on top and was featured on Huda Beauty’s Instagram page - an example of successful repurposing of influencer content the brand frequently publishes.
This post was the top post overall for Huda Beauty by an influencer. The piece of video content racked up a MIV of $1M and a view count of 4.4M.
Leveraging the right influencers works well for Huda Beauty as they showcase and partner with influencers that authentically represent their brand values. Just by scrolling through the brand’s page, you can see a consistency between the types of influencers they work with, but also a high volume. This stamp of approval from well-known influencers that represent a network outside of just their Owned Media profile on Instagram helps increase the brand’s media impact by the tenfold.
Do you want to understand how to find the right influencers for your beauty campaign?
MIV®: This mark is registered in the European Union.
By Launchmetrics Content Team
The Launchmetrics content team is always on the lookout for new trends in the fashion and technology sector. We are geeks with style and lovers of good stories!
