To fête its newest product, the Early Defence Glow Activating Serum, the skin-care and makeup brand No7 is rolling out its largest influencer marketing campaign to date. But more than just product placement, the campaign aims to showcase concrete product results.
That concept is trending in the beauty industry right now, with successful brands ranging from Rodan & Fields to Deciem relying on results-based lingo and creative to drive impressive sales.
The digital campaign, which involves a combination of paid social and programmatic advertising, centers around three influencers: actress Meghan Rienks, beauty vlogger Iris Beilin and the husband-and-wife YouTube duo Kate Albrecht and Joey Zehr, of Mr. Kate. Together, they have over 2.2 million followers on Instagram.
The group, which is being paid, was tasked with participating in a seven-day challenge of sorts, dubbed #Glowin7: Use the serum every day for a week and chronicle the results with their respective followers on Instagram and YouTube.
No7’s new Early Defence Glow Activating Serum
Rienks kicked off her challenge on Wednesday with a post on Instagram. The other influencers will announce their challenge participation over the course of the next two weeks. According to Iris Beilin, No7 was explicit about the fact that she was to truly use the product for a full week and provide honest results to her audience. “It was important to stay committed to the daily routine to get the best results,” she said. Altogether, it required two weeks of her time, with one week for planning.
For those ads rolling out across social platforms and the web, each influencer also created a separate, short testimonial film with the brand, documenting their daily progress.
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“We were specifically looking for people who embodied the millennial mindset, and they fit the bill,” said Hillary Hutcheson, No7’s senior brand director.
Crucially, the influencers chosen for the campaign will also be encouraging their myriad followers to try out the challenge for themselves. Each of them, as well as No7’s own social media team, will be hosting serum giveaways to help promote the product.
No7 held a party with Coveteur to celebrate its latest launch
With hundreds of product mailings also having gone out in the last few weeks, the company has engaged over 500 influencers for the launch. Data from the influencer marketing companies Octoly and Tribe Dyamics helped the brand whittle down who to target that would trend well with millennials.
According to Hutcheson, No7 has recently moved to focus on long-term influencer partnerships, a strategy increasingly shared by other brands, from Sephora to Alala. The brand has worked with Mr. Kate before, and hopes to continue working with BeilIn and Rienks.
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“Longer-term partnerships are ideal for raising awareness among [millennials] and, ultimately, for driving steady sales,” she said. “It adds authenticity to the endorsement, which is, of course, important to our consumer.”
Of course, that’s only the case if the initial partnership pays off. No7 will be tracking the engagement rate and impressions garnered from these influencers’ posts, as well as how many followers clicked through from their channels to learn about and purchase the serum.
To drive extra buzz around the launch and cement it in the influencer community, the brand also held an exclusive VIP event in Los Angeles last week hosted by Stephanie Mark, co-founder of the popular site Coveteur. Over 150 fashion, beauty and lifestyle influencers were in attendance, and Coveteur featured it on their site.
“They are a highly respected, elevated media brand,” said Hutcheson. “Partnering with them allowed us to engage a new set of tastemakers and industry insiders.”
