CEW – Beauty in the age of assistance and influence.

CEW never fail when deciding the topic of their conferences and this one was no exception. Beside being held in the fabulous Google offices, CEW and Google shared with us the priceless information we are all wanting these days…how beauty brands can build and thrive in a society where the consumer has unlimited information at the touch of a screen.

Part 1 – Beauty in the Age of Assistance

Consumerism has changed massively over the years. Consumers now expect to be assisted everywhere, at every stage of the consumer cycle. Jacqui Owens, Google’s Head of Beauty reveals her thoughts on the new consumer. Consumers are now so used to getting what they want, their needs must not just be met anymore, but anticipated. She mentions how the new consumer is now curious, impatient and demanding.

Consumers are becoming increasingly curious, to the point that the searches for the ‘best umbrella’ has increased by 150%. Our searches for beauty related products are also becoming more specific, for example searches for ‘doll lashes’ has increased by 609%, just showing how much the consumer is becoming more aware about the product they specifically want/need. Demanding. The new consumer is also becoming more demanding. We expect things to be tailored to ourselves without giving any information over. For example, there has been a rise in the searches for ‘best eye makeup remover for me’. Although the consumer hasn’t actually given any information over about who they are i.e. their skin type, they still expect to find the best product for ‘them’. It makes the shopping experience more personal. Finally, Jacqui touches on how consumers are more impatient. If a website doesn’t load in 3 seconds, the majority of people will leave. In order to stop this happening, she suggests brands make their website smart phone friendly, ensuring the purchase is quick and there isn’t any friction.

Show up, wise up, speed up.

Show up – Expect to assist everywhere. Measure and understand particular touchpoints of the consumer journey. Ensure you are there for the consumer at these points. For example, Estee Lauder have just bought out their newest PA, ‘Liv’. Liv works with Alexa; a consumer will ask Google ‘Can I talk to Liv at Estee Lauder’ and she will be there to assist you with all your skin care and beauty needs. Estee Lauder has hit the nail on the head with assisting the consumer during their journey. Liv is there for them when the consumer really needs it.

Wise up – Be relevant. Think of all the different signals we have today to make the shopping experience more personal to the target audience for example, Ulta have personalised offers, they use their data to increase sales.

Speed up – The speed of your page loading must be quicker than 3 seconds otherwise 53% of the consumers will leave the page. There is now a page speed ranking tool released by Google – Think Google, Mobile speed tool.

Part 2 – Beauty in the Age of Influence

Beauty is one of the fastest growing low consideration categories, for example, on YouTube, 7.8 million of the views come from the beauty category.Vaso Kanistra, YouTube’s Strategic Partner Manager speaks on creating a successful YouTube Channel which focuses on beauty and lifestyle. How to maximise engagement and audience in order to take your YouTube channel to the next level. Vaso gives 10 fundamentals of a creative strategy.

  • Shareability – Your content must be shareable. It has to be topical and relatable. It is very important that the consumer can follow and gain value from the content. She mentions that in order for the content to stand out it has to be new and original, something people haven’t seen before. People must to be able to describe your content in 10 words.
  • Conversation – By maintaining and initiating conversation, creators are establishing a different relationship with fans. Talking directly to the audience through the video or comments, breaks down the glass wall, the audience don’t feel like they are in another room. It makes them feel more like brother, sisters or best-friends. A lot of creators tend to film in their bedrooms or house which creates a connection between them both.
  • Interactivity – This is a great way to include and engage the audience as it brings them into the conversation. It allows them to be involved in the creative process for example getting the audience to vote for the next video or vote for the winner allows them to direct the outcome.
  • Consistency – Consistency isn’t just about when you upload. Although having an upload schedule is extremely important as it allows the audience to
    know when the next video is and when they should tune in, there are other ways a creator must be consistent. For
    example, when you go onto a creator’s channel, the
    colour scheme, the banner and the person must all be consistent to each other. The creators face
    should be everywhere on the channel. If the audience loves the creator, they will only have to see
    his/her face on the thumbnail to click on it regardless of what the video is
    about. She then goes on to mentions how important episodic content is. When there is a video, e.g. ‘tip Tuesday #37’
    the audience will immediately know that this video is part of a series, they
    can click back to watch previous videos and also anticipate number 38,39 and so
    on. This brings people back to the channel.

 

  • Targeting – A creator must identify their target audience and make sure they stay true to them. Its best to know who you are addressing. There are many ways to target a particular audience for example, a female creator titling her video ‘hair tutorial for curly hair’. She has targeted 3 times in this one video, 1st females – by her self being a female. 2nd hair – anyone wanting to watch a video on hair and 3rd girls with curly hair. This means this specific audience will know exactly where to go when looking for a video like this.
  • Sustainability – Linking back to episodic content, she mentions how it’s helpful to label videos that are in playlist mode the same. For example, ’10 things I love with no makeup’ ’10 things I love with my kids’. By putting this in playlist mode will keep up the watch time. Creators must have strong constant action, speaking to the audience directly though the comments or indirectly though the video e.g. ‘if you like this video, check out my other video’. By doing this you are directing them to another series of content. The audience must be able to connect each video in a playlist, so she recommends the creators to use an intro and outro of each video. This also teases the audience and entices them to come back and watch the next one. Finally, the last tip she gives on sustainability is to try and film 3 videos for the series in one day. If you can’t it’s probably not a good series, it may be more suited to be a singular video.
  • Discoverability – There are many ways to go about making your content more discoverable. For example, one of the main ways to do this is by tying the content to big trends that are out there right now. Make the content relate to something people are searching for, e.g. the world cup. Always make sure you are aware of the new upcoming trends as well and the present ones.
  • Accessibly – Not only do you have to make sure your content is what people are searching for and anticipating but you also have to make sure you enjoy it. The audience can tell if you are not genuinely having fun when creating the content. They want to be break the glass between the creator and themselves so if the creator’s personality is accessible and genuine this will make it easier for the audience to do.
  • Collaborations – Creators can either collaborate with each other or brands. Both will be a win win situation to each party. Vaso goes on to mention the 3 ways creators can combine forces;
  • Inspiration – The audience needs to see that the creators are truly passionate and inspired. If this is not happening, the audience will be able to see through this. Without passion and inspiration, the creator will not be able to stay engaging in the long term. The more you love your content the easier and more enjoyable it will be.

 

The conference then went over to the beauty influencer panel – Emily Norris, Sophie Shohet and Eltoria, sharing their own stories, tips and advice surrounding the beauty and social media community.