Top 9 Beauty Brand Campaign Ideas & Why They Work

The global beauty industry is likely to be worth $558.12 billion by 2026, all thanks to increased awareness and demand for personal care products and services. If you are a small beauty brand owner, this is good news, but you’ll need clever and engaging marketing strategies to get going in this competitive industry.

Read this blog to learn about the best marketing campaign ideas from some of the top beauty brands, note down important takeaways from each one, and identify the ones that suit you the best. 

But first, here are three important points to remember.

1. Don’t focus on the age factor in your promo campaigns because now people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities use personal care products and services. Rather, focus on how your products can help everyone care for their skin, hair, health, and so on.

2. New emerging audiences include more men and teenagers who are not shying away from spending more on beauty products and services.

3. And finally, social media is a critical part of the cosmetology marketing strategy, so be sure to include it. 

Not every beauty brand can collaborate with a celebrity. Thankfully, several budget-friendly marketing techniques can be more effective in boosting your brand awareness and sales.

Here are a few ad campaign ideas from some of the top beauty brands that may inspire you to get creative.

Top 9 Inspiring Beauty Brand Campaign Ideas

1. Inclusivity Matters (Fenty Beauty)

Many brands feature models of different skin tones to promote their products, but no one does it like the company founded by Rihanna in 2017.

Fenty Beauty is so popular because it stands for the cause of inclusivity and not just because Rihanna owns the brand. Its flagship product, Pro Filt’r Foundation, available in 50 shades, was built on this idea of inclusivity. 

The brand also wanted to eliminate the need to mix different shades of foundations to get the perfect shade match for your skin tone.

Fenty Skin is always trying its best to improve its product line, so the brand’s best-selling products are even more closely tied to its mission: Beauty for all.

It shows potential customers and reassures the existing ones that the brand really cares about offering tailor-made experiences to each one.

2. All Beauty Stands Out (CoverGirl)

It takes courage to do something bold and unique as CoverGirl, a brand that has always pushed past stale beauty definitions. By teaming up with Amy Deanna, a popular Texan model with vitiligo, CoverGirl displayed its brave approach to seeing beauty in all its variety.

The brand used TruBlend foundation on the model to amplify her different skin tones. CoverGirl’s ad embodied the definition of all is beautiful by flipping one-dimensional beauty standards.

3. The Use Of Augmented Reality (L’Oreal)

This seasoned beauty brand knows how to leverage technology to its advantage. L’Oreal acquired ModiFace in 2018, a market leader in augmented reality, also known as AR. This strategic move has allowed the beauty brand to offer an immersive experience to its customers.

Other than offering try-on mirrors at their physical stores, L’Oreal now offers AR options on social media for users to explore and try on various products before purchasing them, especially helpful for products like hair colors.

Additionally, L’Oreal introduced virtual makeup, also known as filters, for people to use on social media and other platforms such as Google Meet, Zoom, and Skype. 

It may not be viable for all beauty brands to invest in a technology like this, but it doesn’t hurt to know that a year after L’Oreal acquired ModiFace, its sales grew by 8%. 

4. Own Your Individuality (Rimmel)

Rimmel’s Live The London Look campaign’s message was loud and clear, Be bold, be you! Its dynamic content touched all the necessary points of being proud of oneself and trying every look one wants.

The video shows several influencers telling why it’s necessary to be YOU! No matter the situation, owning up to your individuality is everything to stand out from the crowd.

5. Anyone Can Be An Influencer (Glossier)

Although everyone uses social media, it can be quite challenging to stand out and attract users’ attention. Where big beauty brands can easily afford to hire renowned beauty influencers who charge a lot of money, it’s not viable for small businesses to do the same. 

It’s interesting to see that top-tier influencers don’t necessarily translate into higher sales. Instead, micro-influencers with at least 10k followers have the highest user engagement rates. What’s interesting to know is that 70% of millennials’ purchasing decisions are influenced by someone they know.

This beauty brand sees its customers as influencers. User-generated content does really well on social media, which is why Glossier regularly features content (mostly on Instagram) created by its customers, which has helped it build a strong community of supporters.

This brand is also known for its social listening skills. It listens to what its clients say and develops products based on those findings.

Make note that before launching Glossier in 2014, the owner Emily Weiss worked on a beauty website that helped her understand more about her target audience, the challenges involved, and techniques to offer something different and better than other brands.

Ensure you know about your customers before attempting to use Glossier’s marketing tactic, or else you may miss the mark.

6. Fun Competition For Makeup Artists (NYX)

Contests are great to boost engagement on social media. They create a buzz around your brand and a sense of eagerness within the community. One of the longest-standing contests in the beauty industry is NYX Face Awards, held annually since 2012.

NYX invites beauty bloggers, encourages them to create the best makeup looks and records the entire process. The winner receives a huge cash prize. This contest is so popular since it showcases the incredible skills of various talented artists and engages a sheer volume of viewers.

Social media plays an important role here since NYX asks users to shortlist finalists for its contest. This clever move also helps NYX to create more brand awareness online. 

NYX Face Awards is a great example of a marketing campaign that targets a specific audience and helps the brand position itself as a prestigious industry leader.

7. Empowerment (Dove)

Back in 2004, Dove launched a campaign known as Real Beauty. It intended to rebuild women’s confidence in their natural looks after facing pressure for decades to fit into the beauty industry’s unrealistic standards. 

This campaign increased Dove’s sales by $1.5 billion in the first ten years, making Dove Soaps the most popular soap brand in the US.

From billboards to Real Beauty Sketches, the most-watched video ad of all time, Dove’s campaign’s powerful messages have stood the test of time.

This marketing campaign by Dove shows that a clear mission, vision, and ethics are an integral part of a brand’s identity. Instead of simply selling a mundane product like soap, Dove spread the timeless message about seeing beauty in yourself and celebrating it.

8. Designed To The Nines (Aēsop)

Most people usually focus on the ingredients in beauty products, but sometimes the exterior and packaging are just as important.

The Australian beauty brand, Aēsop, knows how important packaging is to earn customers’ attention and favor. The brand offers a unique shopping experience to its customers because its shops often resemble art galleries. Aēsop perfectly incorporates its recognizable product packaging style, which is minimalistic, elegant, and focused on the actual content inside.

The brand understands well that customers enjoy shopping in physical stores, so it launched a website called Taxonomy of Design that allows people to explore Aēsop’s gorgeous stores around the world and learn about the architectural story behind them.

The aesthetic appeal of your project matters in the beauty industry which helps you create a strong brand identity in this competitive industry, just like Aēsop did.

9. The Joy Of A Freebie (ColourPop Cosmetics)

Giveaway is the oldest marketing hack in the beauty industry, and Colourpop sure knows how to step up its game in this arena.

This beauty brand sells products at affordable prices and is best known for its range of eyeshadows and lipsticks. Colourpop is clearly geared towards the younger audience, with much of its focus turned towards social media, which helps it outperform other major celebrity-run brands like Kylie Cosmetics.

But how does it do that? Colourpop steps up its giveaways because it maintains a strong connection with its community of clients who show enthusiastic participation. The brand regularly prioritizes its partnerships with micro-influencers, who promote its products and campaigns. 

One of its giveaway posts in October 2019 generated more than 75,000 comments, where the reward was an eyeshadow palette and a $50 gift card for 20 lucky winners.

This marketing strategy seems easy but organizes your next giveaways carefully after weighing in the dos and don’ts around running them.

Final thoughts

Whether your target is to create more brand awareness or boost sales, remember to keep it authentic and address your audience’s concerns. Hopefully, the ideas shared above will help you with your campaigns in the future. 

What more can help you is a social media automation tool like Practina. You can launch entire ad campaigns in a few clicks and connect with your ideal target audiences right away.

Sign up with Practina today and level up the digital media marketing of your business.