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This is one of the four chapters comprising the Vogue Business 2023 Beauty Index and should be read in conjunction with the others. Please use the table of contents below to navigate between the chapters of the Vogue Business Beauty Index.
Key takeaways
- More than a third (38 per cent) of consumers surveyed cite social media as their primary discovery channel for beauty products, with peer-to-peer content reigning.
- A strong fanbase augments a brand’s reach, with founders functioning as influencers, which enabled Fenty to take the lead for digital. User-generated content, such as recommendations and reviews, is also essential to building trust.
- Global beauty brands are increasingly finding success in China, yet social impact remains low. Brands engaging with key local labels, artists and celebrities are gaining the most traction, while those leaning into their luxury and niche propositions are succeeding in fragrance.
- Paying attention to trending ideas, such as “skin cycling” and “latte makeup”, to tap into microtrends that help drive social commerce sales.
Maximising beauty’s social search engine
A deep dive into digital behaviour reveals key differences in the way beauty and luxury fashion consumers discover brands. For beauty, social media emerges as the number one way to find out about brands — with 38 per cent of luxury beauty consumers utilising social channels for product discovery (versus 32 per cent for luxury fashion consumers). In comparison, for fashion, more traditional media, such as magazines and newspapers, rank first for discovery, with a much wider gap of 20 per cent of beauty consumers relying on these channels for inspiration in comparison to 40 per cent of luxury fashion consumers. This emphasises the stark difference in tastemakers found across both sectors, as well as the nature of content driving engagement. While fashion is still more often dictated by established authorities, including magazine writers and editors, beauty is driven more by peer-to-peer and influencer content, providing a more democratised landscape in which brands can emerge.
This shift is affecting ambassador strategies, too. Armani Beauty’s* latest set of ambassadors, which includes Gen Z favourites such as actors Camila Mendes and Maude Apatow, focuses less on campaigns across billboards and magazines, instead looking at digital marketing via e-commerce and social platforms as well as brand representation at global events.
Recommendations, whether online or offline, have become a vital currency of engagement for brands, with a third (33 per cent) of beauty consumers turning to friends and family and a fifth (20 per cent) seeking out reviews online. As consumers continue to use social media for product recommendations, reviews and tutorials, these platforms increasingly function as search engines and, in turn, become a tool for beauty brands to educate consumers. Skincare brand Cerave rose to TikTok fame in 2020, as dermatologists on the company’s roster became advocates for its products on social media during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Since then, the brand has continued to focus its efforts on education, with best-performing posts during the data collection period featuring Dr Shah, known as the DermDoctor, interviewing members of the public. Meanwhile, Makeup by Mario’s best-performing posts are makeup tutorials from the brand’s Mini Masterclass series.
This change in discovery channels contributes to the faster transmission of trend cycles within the beauty industry, with terms like “slugging” (slathering the skin in an occlusive or heavy moisturiser) and “skin cycling” (rotating skin-care products) rapidly becoming common in the digital skincare landscape, while “strawberry girl” makeup (rosy tones) and “latte makeup” (browns and nudes) are now popular in the world of colour cosmetics. As such, brands increasingly have to be on the pulse of emerging trends and react to them in ways that complement brand strategy but also tap into the expectations of highly engaged digital beauty audiences. This should be combined with informative content, for example, tips on what active ingredients can and cannot be layered within a slugging routine or product and shade advice on the latest makeup trends.
Entering beauty’s entertainment economy
Entertainment continues to converge with all industries through the digital landscape, with beauty being no exception to this trend. Film and television company A24 launched its proprietary beauty brand Half Magic* in 2022, while NYX* collaborated with Warner Bros in June 2023 to celebrate the release of the Barbie movie. This is part of a wider movement in which beauty brands are becoming entertainers and content creators in their own right.
Lancome*, for example, has appointed content creators as ambassadors, with the brand launching the YouTube series How do you say beauty in French with Emma Chamberlain. Meanwhile, influencer and celebrity brands outperform the index average on critical platforms such as TikTok. Brands such as Rare Beauty, founded by Selena Gomez, and Makeup by Mario, founded by Kim Kardashian’s long-standing makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic, outperformed expectations on the platform for a brand of their size, with founder-based content in particular driving engagement. Rare Beauty emerged as the top index brand on TikTok and Instagram, with a combined media impact value of $313,198,657 on the two platforms alone, according to software and data analytics company Launchmetrics, which uses an algorithm designed to measure the impact of marketing strategies across print, online and social media.
Whether fans of a founder or fans of a cultural phenomenon, such as Barbie, engaging with fandoms and pop culture can expand the reach of a brand's content. This, however, does not necessarily translate into widespread awareness or even increased purchase intent for a brand. Just half (50 per cent) of luxury beauty consumers overall were aware of Rare Beauty despite its strong social performance, while 40 per cent were aware of Makeup by Mario. Meanwhile, just one of the seven influencer- or celebrity-founded brands scored higher for purchase intent than the index average, despite a strong standing on global social platforms. This means that while platforms like TikTok can help to build engagement with a specific (usually younger) audience segment, a strategy that takes a mixed-media approach to discovery pathways will have a stronger effect on commercial performance.
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Sustaining impact in China
Global brands are increasingly competitive in China, while C-beauty brands are beginning to attract an international audience. Tmall’s top 10 list for the shopping festival 618 in June 2023 saw just one domestic brand in the list, while other C-beauty brands have found success overseas, including Perfect Diary*, which has expanded within the APAC region, and Hangzhou-born Florasis*, which has gained an online presence in the US. Historically, global beauty brands have had limited physical presence in China due to post-market animal testing regulations, eased in 2021, with many brands relying on cross-border commerce to sell in China while retaining their cruelty-free status. This means for global brands, social media has been increasingly important in building a presence within the market as well as conveying brand storytelling and messaging.
Despite this, Chinese social platforms still appear to be less of a focus than global platforms. Combined media impact value is 78 per cent more on global platforms made up of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Youtube, in comparison to Chinese social media platforms, made up of Wechat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu and Douyin, according to Launchmetrics. However, for some brands, China represents a boon compared to global performance. Aesop and Byredo see only a minor difference in media impact value between Chinese and global platforms, yet La Mer, Kiehl’s and Shiseido generate more on Chinese platforms.
For these brands, success in the market is multifaceted. Aesop and Byredo both have product offerings that tap into a local trend towards niche premium fragrances. This is a category which, historically, received limited interest from Chinese consumers, with many more traditional shoppers finding scents incompatible with the spiritual concept of Qi, which relates to balancing energy within the body. Yet, the appetite for personal fragrances has exploded in the last five years, with younger consumers turning to premium niche fragrances to help them stand out, complemented by a rising appetite for home fragrances, too. Now, fragrance is purchased much more frequently by Chinese consumers than any other consumer market within the study. Nearly 40 per cent (39.4 per cent) of Chinese beauty consumers have purchased three or more luxury fragrances in the past six months, compared to a global average of 32.5 per cent.
The top five brands for media impact value on Chinese platforms — Aesop, Byredo, La Mer, Kiehl’s and Shiseido — have been focusing on utilising local talent and expanding in the most popular luxury hubs. In April 2023, La Mer opened a store on Hainan island, a territory set to be duty-free by 2025, working with Chinese actor Qin Lan for live streams across Wechat and Weibo. Byredo launched scarves designed by Chinese artist Zhang Zipiao alongside its No Man’s Land fragrance in July 2023. Meanwhile, Kiehl’s has utilised in-person interactive experiences across 2022 and 2023, such as scavenger hunts, whack-a-mole and claw machines at pop-ups in Shanghai and Hainan. Following the activations, Kiehl’s campaign hashtag #LetsChill for the event in Shanghai garnered over 10 million views within 24 hours on China’s largest microblogging site Weibo, according to Dao Insights.
Case study: Fenty Beauty’s social success
Fenty Beauty leads in the digital category for the Beauty Index, with consistent performance across all platforms, as well as a particularly strong performance on YouTube. The brand utilises a combination of celebrity status, educational tutorials and market localisation in China to drive engagement with content. Polished campaigns, archives and behind-the-scenes images and videos regularly feature celebrity founder Rihanna. The brand additionally leverages key moments from the singer’s illustrious career, such as the Super Bowl and Golden Globes, to cross-fertilise high-interest opportunities. These have garnered 7.2 million and 2.6 million views on YouTube Shorts, respectively. The brand helps cultivate a sense of community through its reposting of user-generated content and stays true to its founding principles of diversity and representation in its choice of models and ambassadors.
The road to success in China has been challenging for the brand since its cross-border launch in 2019. However, Fenty now comes in fourth in the Index in terms of its success on Douyin, with above-average growth on the platform in the past 12 months. In particular, the brand has worked with Chinese and Japanese stars such as singers Lu Keran and Caelan Moriarty as ambassadors.
Expert interview: Alison Bringé, CMO, Launchmetrics
Why do you think social media is so much more impactful for beauty brands than traditional modes of discovery?
Due to its inherently visual nature, social media has emerged as the dominant channel for consumers to discover new beauty brands and products. Influencer marketing thrives on these platforms as beauty influencers can authentically showcase product effectiveness, which can be more convincing to potential customers than traditional advertising. User-generated content, including reviews and tutorials, offers unbiased insights, encouraging consumers to explore and embrace new brands. With its widespread accessibility, real-time engagement and potential for content to go viral, social media offers beauty brands unparalleled reach and customer interaction, making it the go-to channel for beauty discovery in today’s competitive market.
What does Launchmetrics see as being one of the most impactful or exciting beauty campaigns from the past year, and why do you think this resonated?
Rihanna’s Super Bowl performance was not just a musical comeback; it was a masterclass in strategic brand promotion. As the world awaited her return to the stage, Rihanna cleverly seized this opportunity to seamlessly integrate Fenty Beauty by featuring a branded product in her performance, generating a buzz worth over $11 million in media impact value. Rihanna’s Super Bowl performance also served as a platform to unveil her pregnancy, a deeply personal moment that resonated with fans and the public alike. This strategic synergy of music, business and personal life built momentum in the public eye brilliantly. Her performance at the Super Bowl was a perfect example of how one can skillfully leverage the global stage to promote and empower a brand, all while captivating the world’s attention.
*Not included in the index ranking
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