Best Beauty Marketing Campaigns in 2024 (So Far)

August 5th 2024

To my readers:

I'm so excited to be making my very first blog post on this website! I hope you're all looking forward to reading about all things fashion and beauty. Feel free to leave all your comments and questions down below. Without further ado, I present my favorite marketing campaigns in beauty 2024.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Rhode Skin: Lip Craze

Rhode Skin, a beauty and skincare brand launched by Hailey Bieber, has seen tremendous popularity and craze since its launch. Started in 2022, Hailey wanted to create a line that had affordable and sustainable products, thus Rhode Skin was born. Her products exuded a simplistic yet luxurious feeling, with minimal design and a straightforward sans serif font. The aesthetic of the brand reflected on Haileys own personal lifestyle and taste, as she had recently gained popularity for her "clean girl aesthetic", which emphasizes simple makeup and fashion. This same aesthetic had put her in hot water earlier in 2022 for popularizing the term "brownie glazed lips" which many POC women found offensive, as that same makeup technique was favored by Latinas and Black women since the '90s.

Due to these controversies, I was pretty skeptical at first. I thought the brand could've been overhyped for such simple products. However, I can admit when someone has the creative genius and vision to successfully put their brand on the map like Hailey. It all started this year, shortly after the launch of the Peptide Lip Treatment/Tint, that Rhode's team created a phone case that went viral. The silicone phone case was designed to be simplistic and stylish, with a mold to hold different types of lip products on the go. Their marketing team showed stylish young people with the phone case holding Rhode's lip product.

Rhode Beauty Cases with Lip Tint

Knowing how to cater to their Gen-Z market, this phone case blew up on TikTok and Instagram with almost every influencer having one in their possession. This product sparked interest with many people who hadn't previously shopped at Rhode and sold out instantly. Many people made jokes online about what you could fit inside the silicone mold which became a big trend, further pushing the popularity of the brand.

Rhode Case Going Viral

This changes the way that we approach marketing in the beauty and skincare world, as creating products like the phone case, though not directly related to skincare, can create more discussion and attention around your existing products. In my opinion this was a strategic move to make from the Rhode team and I hope to see more things like this in the future with different companies.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Fenty Skin: Skincare is Masculine Too

Robyn Rihanna Fenty aka Rihanna is a woman who needs no introduction. A musician, fashion icon, and entrepreneur, Rihanna has seen massive success with her businesses, including Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty. It's no secret that Rihanna was born to be a business woman, her successful marketing campaigns and product launches like the Savage X Fenty Fashion Show and recent launch of Fenty Skin proves she knows how to appeal to fans and customers.

Many fans have been in support of her relationship with ASAP Rocky and their children, calling it couple goals and gushing over the singers happiness. It would only be smart to move this support and attention towards her business, which is exactly what she did. With Rihanna's recent launch of Fenty Skin, she released a lip balm with her iconic purple packaging and font. Not particularly different or extraordinary from an average lip balm you could purchase from a store, Rihanna marketed this balm as luxurious and used none other than ASAP Rocky to promote the product.

Fenty Skin x ASAP Rocky Collab

In the video he raps, "Nah bitch this ain't lipgloss, lip balm up in my palm, new collab with my baby mom". This sent the internet into a craze, his flow allowed the short clip to be extremely catchy and memorable. The reason why this worked so well can be credited to a couple of things. The first being that he mentions, Rihanna (his baby mom) which made many fans of both celebrities excited. Secondly, ASAP is known for his effortlessly cool rap style and streetwear/retro inspired fashion, which many of his fans are inspired by. Using ASAP allowed Fenty Skin to break into a new male demographic. A lot of the times we see the men shy away from investing in higher end skincare or beauty products, some having the fear of being seen as too feminine. This ad however started an entire trend of men purchasing the Fenty Lip Balm and creating reviews/videos about it.

The Lip Balm Craze

This ad was able to turn Rihanna's lip balm into an entire trend and have more people creating dialogue about her brand and products. This move was extremely smart and allowed more men to enter her consumer demographic, which means more people purchasing the product. When I first watched the ad I thought it was so creative and actually engaging to watch. I hope that Rihanna continues to entertain us time and time again, and if not with a new album (please girl can you get in the studio) then with her future business endeavors.

Rihanna holding a Fenty Beauty Mirror

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Milk Makeup: Jelly Tint

Milk Makeup has been around since 2016 and has proved itself to be an established giant in the industry. Their brand is sold in Sephora's across the globe and are loved for their multipurpose and easy to use products. In February Milk launched their Cooling Water Jelly Tint, a long-lasting lip and cheek stain that has a hydrating bouncy "jelly-like" texture. Naturally, the Gen-Z and Millennial fanbase went crazy over it, with the product being sold out in stores and online rapidly.

Video Showcasing Jelly Tint

The secret to this? Milk fed into the "edible" appeal of their product and made that the focus in their marketing strategy. Campaign pictures like the one above shows the product surrounded by different colorful gelatin candies. Milk also features models eating gummy candy and dressed in vibrant clothing and hairstyles in their video advertisements. Many Gen-Z consumers loved this idea, due to the popular trend on TikTok titled "Inedible Things I would eat if they were Edible" featuring items like marbles, kinetic sand, and fish tank rocks.

I'm a big fan of their brand and own several of their products in my makeup collection but haven't had the chance to try the new product due to it being wiped out completely in every Sephora I go to. I believe that Milk Makeup left a lasting impression on their current and new consumers with the launch of their Jelly Tint and I'm super excited to see what else they create.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.Maybelline: CGI Meets Reality

Maybelline, a long standing L'Oreal company, put the internet in a frenzy in July with their viral mascara videos. A popular and affordable brand that has been around for a long time, Maybelline works to keep true to their brand image while also staying up to date with current trends and consumers. When companies fail to do this they could fade into oblivion with newer brands being pushed to the spotlight. Maybelline does a good job of keeping true to their products that consumers love and know, while including aspects of digital marketing that is popular today.

Maybelline posted two videos, the first being a train rushing down the subway in New York City, with a lash on the top and a giant mascara wand combing through it, which garnered 12.7 million views. The second video had a double decker bus in London with lashes on the top of it, getting combed by the mascara wand, similar to the first video. These videos were supposed to be a fun way to emphasize their mascara wand applicator which is supposed to be flexible.

Adidas TikTok CGI Video, Showcases Giant Shoes

I believe that CGI advertisements are the future of marketing, with companies like Ikea and Adidas utilizing CGI. These videos are creative and engaging, with a new type of content a lot of audiences haven't seen before. These advertisements usually showcase CGI being used in real-world scenarios or places, with the product being enlarged or animated.

As someone who doesn't really own Maybelline products or have a huge interest in their brand, I thought this was something that was funny and creative when I came across it, making me do a double take watching it. I'm really looking forward to see how these advertisements will improve as technology continues to evolve and grow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.Summer Fridays: Cosmetics Meets Cappuccinos?

Summer Fridays, a relatively new makeup brand, is a huge favorite of mine. Launched in 2018, their brand blew up online for their different scented and tinted lip balms. Personally speaking, I own three shades myself and have gone through multiple tubes. Summer Fridays was able to market themselves to stand out from an oversaturated market of lip products and beauty by utilizing social media and digital marketing.

Recently this year their brand launched a pop up cafe in Soho New York, where people could purchase their Iced Coffee Lip Butter Balm, bagels, and limited-edition merchandise. Summer Fridays printed their logo on everything in the cafe, including napkins and coffee sleeves. People could order a Lip Butter Balm Iced Coffee and purchase a limited edition shirt or reusable coffee cup. Their brand also donated 100% of the profits from bagels and iced coffee to Girls Inc., a nonprofit that provides mentorship and safe spaces for girls to succeed.

A look at the Summer Fridays Cafe

This has to be my absolute favorite marketing campaign in this entire list, I truly wish I was in New York to experience this. There's multiple reasons why this cafe is such a genius idea, the first being that it incorporates lifestyle aspects that appeal to the Gen-Z and Millennial target market. Many young people like to go café's or other aesthetic places to take photos for social media with their friends. This is exactly what Summer Fridays prepared for, down to the matching baby blue furniture and merchandise to photograph. The next reason why this campaign did so well is that they were able to create a sense of urgency, making it a limited time pop up and providing rewards to the first 25 people in line everyday. Incorporating a cause to donate to (Girls Inc.) makes their brand seem more personable and genuine as well, bringing in more customers.

I've seen other brands start to do this with pop up stores or trucks which I find really fun and out of the box, and I hope more of my favorite brands do things like this in the future. I like the idea of incorporating two things that seem totally unrelated, in this case makeup and coffee, and using it as an opportunity to create more buzz about your brand. Props to the employee behind this and I hope Summer Fridays continues to do events similar to this soon.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you to my readers who got this far! I hope this was as fun for you to read as it was for me to write. I was really nervous to start something like this but I'm really proud of getting my first story out. I appreciate your support and time and please look forward to a new article every other Monday! See you then my fashion and beauty baddies. <3

☆Rain☆