With Sephora having just opened (to record breaking sales!), the beauty wars here in Australia are just about to really heat up. It’s clear there is a certain ‘buzz’ around makeup products at the moment, and we, as consumers, can’t get enough highlighters, lippies and serums into our lives and onto our faces/bodies/hair.
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The market is opening up, local retailers are changing their game plans and there is more on offer than ever before. But what are the beauty brands that really captured our attention in 2014 on social media? With a plethora of contenders, there can only be one to come out on top…
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It was beauty powerhouse MAC who ended up taking out the number 1 spot in the fierce battle, with a total “earned media value” at $110,576,016. MAC has been a stalwart in the beauty department for many years and has established an obsessive and dedicated fan base. Their social media is littered with celebrity collaborations, up-close stills of editorials featuring their makeup, and product flat lays, making it a colourful explosion of filtered beauty. The MAC brand is all about selling an attitude, and their social media reflects this, hitting you hard with the transforming qualities of the product. It also helped that partnerships with Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and Lorde (all frequent and vocal social media users), further allowed them to expand to wider audiences. A worthy winner.
Second place went to NARS, valued at approximately $71,485,358, which is a noticeably smaller amount earned compared to the clear winner, MAC. Stocked in Australia within Mecca Cosmetica stores, the brand is gaining cult status here in Oz, and it’s easy to see why, with a clean, controlled social media presence that lets the product shine. NARS is obviously all about quality of stock and customer care, and their social media caters to that, ensuring customers are well informed on all aspects of the makeup, products on offer, and with competitions or giveaways thrown in to keep the attention and brand interaction strong.
The brands to follow included L’Oreal, Urban Decay, Too Faced, Revlon and Rimmel London, all familiar faces on the beauty scene. The inclusion of Revlon, L’Oreal and Rimmel London is telling as it seems to allude that having a celebrity ‘face’ of the brand (e.g. Georgia May Jagger and Kate Moss for Rimmel London) or a catchy slogan (L’Oreal’s ‘Because you’re worth it’), are vital in cementing a brands public awareness and recognition, thus resulting in stronger social media traffic.
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(Noticeably) missing out on high rankings were beauty queens Maybelline, Benefit and Clinique, all well known, widely distributed and highly respected brands. It just goes to show that a long-running, respected and trusted connection with customers doesn’t directly translate to social media support and activity. Another ranking surprise was classic beauty brand Estee Lauder crawling in at number twenty on the list. Considering they have just named Kendall Jenner (a high profile social media user) as their latest brand ambassador, we sense the tables could be about to turn, and a spot in next years top ten wouldn’t be out of the question.
What ultimately matters most though, is that we are benefiting. Social media is a great tool to communicate with customers, create better brand understanding and really highlight the best makeup products on the market. So if that means an extra five mascara’s to choose from, or Kendall Jenner trying to woo us via Instagram with a bronzer, then may the best beauty brand win.
images via: mtv.com, nikkitutorials.com, sephora.com, zarzarmodels, hollywoodlife.com
