Last night was, what I like to describe as the annual beauty industry reunion with a U-Haul-worthy swag bag, the CEW Beauty Award Product Demonstrations. It’s the best mix of old and new: a room filled with old beauty friends and some of the best new beauty products that have hit the market.
For those not familiar, the product demonstrations give CEW members an opportunity to review the nominations so that we may place our well-informed votes. Sponsored by Allure, the Beauty Bible, A CEW Award is one of the highest recognitions a product can receive in the industry because, well, it’s voted on by the people who know the industry the best.
But besides the air kisses and the beauty cabinet restock, the CEW Awards offer a great perspective on industry trends of 2010:
Anti-Aging Defines The Category
While there were plenty of skincare brands showcasing their latest innovation in anti-aging, there was a tremendous presence of anti-aging products beyond the skincare category. In hair we saw anti-aging permanent hair color and now the body is getting equal attention as face was in years past; Olay was present with Total Effects 7-in-1 Advanced Anti-Aging Body Wash, which was a major breakthrough at launch.
Wow, I Could Use That
You couldn’t help but notice the numerous small, never-before-heard-of brands (and I consider myself pretty plugged in) showing some pretty innovative, novel products that will surely delight the consumer. One in particular stood out: Kenra’s Blow-Dry Spray promises to decrease blow-drying time by 50% – while I’m an air-dry girl myself, I bet a lot of you might think, “Wow, I could use that!”
Men Get Groomed – and then some
Men’s grooming has had a steady rise in the last few years, but 2010 catapulted the category with launches beyond the traditional male-friendly scented body wash. Men are exfoliating now thanks to Gillette Fusion ProSeries Thermal Scrub and now women are not the only ones obsessing over the nifty eye rollers. Nivea for Men launched the Revitalizing Q10 Eye Roller to keep those bags in check; although if you ask me, I don’t mind a little crow’s feet à la Clooney.
If you had the chance to attend, share with us what you discovered in the comments below.
Each year thousands of beauty products are launched and services introduced. Many of these barely get an eyebrow raise, some get a “What were they thinking??,” but the successful launches are the ones that truly solve a beauty problem; albeit one you might never have known you had. These are the ones that get a “Why didn’t I think of that??”
In WWD’s [subscription needed] most recent beauty issue, Andrea Nagel covered eight new products recognized as Game Changers for the beauty industry launching in the first quarter of 2011. Each provides a beauty solution: from long-lasting hand sanitizer, sunblock for wet skin (why didn’t I think of that?), to hairbrushes infused with frizz-fighting product.
And now as I write this issue of What JT Sees, I’m on the fence about whether or not I should actually put this out into the blogosphere but… I see an opportunity!
In August The New York Times covered the topic of UV nail lamps – yes August, we’re late on this already! – and the evidence that those tiny tanning beds for your hands could be a risk for skin cancer. This article popped into my head the other weekend while I was quickening the aging process on my hands drying my nails post-manicure, and it occurred to me that this was a beauty problem not yet formally addressed.
So salon-owners, suppliers, ladies who BYONT (bring your own nail tools) – listen up! SPF protection should soon be a regular conversation with you and your nail technician. There is an opportunity to market the lovely scented lotion that’s so wonderfully massaged into your hands as New, Now With SPF.
What about nail polish with SPF? Are there beauty benefits to be found there? I don’t know that’s for R&D to tell us. But I do know that there is an opportunity for the SPF-inclined to find new reason to lather up.
And what does this tell us as PR professionals? Find a solution; you’ve got your story. Find an opportunity; you might have a game changer.
These days it seems like everyone’s a curator. The idea of editing and organizing content is not new but the concept is taken to an elite place when put forth as “curation.” However the ability to demonstrate expertise and influential opinion (however valuable or invaluable it is, because who can really tell anyway?) has been democratized with the power of UGC.
The concept of curation has quickly expanded from museums and galleries to retail, to menus, to tumblr, to pinterest and now to paper.li. It’s a content aggregate program still in alpha – that comes before beta so it’s brand-spanking new – and it offers the tools to publish your own digital newspaper with personally curatted content pulled from Twitter users, lists or #tags.
Like any new endeavor in social media, the evolution and purpose of paper.li will ultimately be dictated by the user but I see it as a great resource for daily “RSS-type” reading as well as a hub for short-term or event based content.
Take a look at some different ways paper.li is being used:
Check out The Standard’s paper.li for Art Basel Miami, happening now.
Twitter user, @Go_Getter has curated a paper.li called The PR Daily that aggregates news from 108 publicists on her Twitter list.
Beauty influencer, Lianne Farbes has one too; want to know what she deems newsworthy? Check it out here.
Similar in concept to The Standard’s, what kind of content might our brands curate? How about a COVERGIRL paper.li of award season red carpet coverage? Terlato’s “vino vault” of wine industry news? An education destination for doctors brought to you by Merck?
What do you think? The possibilities to publish are endless.
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the music video as we know it. Video killed the radio star, MTV killed the music video, YouTube in a way resurrected it, but video as we know it is dead.
On November 17 OK Go, the band known for their viral music videos, have planned to one-up themselves with a “psycho-spatial-geo-musical-techno-sonic parade-party” in partnership with the launch of the Range Rover Evoque and the Pulse of the City Project. The band set plans to perform in the streets of Los Angeles, forming a giant geo-art OK Go sign. The project encourages fans to use the Pulse of the City app to submit their own designs formed in the streets of their towns. OK Go will then pick the best ones to accompany the video launching in January 2011.
Viewer engagement and customization is not new but it’s becoming ever more key in a successful video, website or campaign.
Arcade Fire did it with their video for “The Wilderness Downtown” by Chris Milk. If you haven’t seen this yet it’s pretty cool, just put in your home address and watch — music video made for you.
Chris Milk also put together The Johnny Cash Project, which essentially crowdsources an ever-evolving music video to Cash’s final studio recording “Ain’t No Grave.” And for another example of a crowdsourced video check out OneFrameofFame.com.
Let’s call this the “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better”-technique. Let the consumer viewer user generate the content and it just might better than if the band brand created it itself.
Recently a MMC colleague shared this “create your own adventure” music video for unknown singer-songwriter, Andy Grammer. “Keep Your Head Up” allows a viewer to steer the plot of the video, creating a handful of different endings and encouraging the viewer to watch again and again.
On the flipside, Kanye West sought to engage the viewer with a 35 minute cinematic short film for “Runaway.” Seems a little counterintuitive to lengthen a typical music video when you think about the decrease in viewers’ attention spans, however this really isn’t a music video anymore is it?
Imogen Heap did it too with her 30 minute Love the Earth film.
And now that Lady Gaga has received 1 billion YouTube views, MTV is back on board! The wild wild web has expanded the notion of what a video could be in length, concept and platform and now MTV wants back in. MTV will now be financing music videos but my question is, with a lineup of Jersey Shore back-to-back with Teen Mom, when will these videos ever hit the air?
No matter… Vevo’s got it covered.
JT
You’d have to imagine that Gap has been doing some serious soul searching after the logo debacle of 2010. At the very least it got me thinking about the brands that are not only committed to a core purpose but can also effectively market a soulful, emotional trigger without “selling out.”
I’ve been inspired by two recent campaigns from Converse and Levi’s, both of which leverage the soul of the brand in ways that authentically connect with, and support the core consumer.
P&G calls it Purpose-Driven Marketing, but I think what Cornerstone and Wieden & Kennedy have done for Converse and Levi’s respectively is more like “Soul Purpose Marketing.”
In 2011 Converse will open Rubber Tracks studio in Brooklyn where new and emerging bands of all genres can record music for free. No strings attached. And wherever these bands end up, Converse was there from the beginning. Converse’s CMO explained to the New York Times:
“Think of a cul-de-sac with four garages, and in those garages are four bands,” Mr. Cottrill said. “On the street are all the big brands of the world — Coke, Apple, the car companies — standing there waiting for the garage door to open and the cool band to step out so they can tell them they’re going to make them famous. But I would venture to say that inside those garages those kids are already wearing our shoes.”
In 2009 Levi’s launched the Go Forth campaign, resting its laurels on the optimism that comes from working out of a recession. The “blue collar” soul of the brand was woven throughout the entire campaign but what made it stronger and more authentic was when Levi’s teamed up with the citizens of Braddock, PA in year two of the campaign.
Braddock is town that was built on the steel mills outside of Pittsburgh. Since the mills have closed, the town has basically been brought to ruins. With the “Ready To Work” campaign, Levi’s is supporting Braddock’s community center, library and urban farm, and at the crux, puts the optimistic soul of the brand into action.
I encourage you to watch some of the “Ready To Work” videos here. Like Converse, Levi’s marketing campaign is built from the soul up.
Have you seen other examples of “Soul Purpose Marketing” in effect?
How might we connect with consumers and effectively communicate the inherent soul of the brands we represent?
JT
It used to be said that “50 is the new 40,” “40 is the new 30,” and so on. Well, something’s going on that looks a lot like “15 is the new … 35.”
I call it the force of the Pint-Size Power Players. There are a few super successful teens making a name for themselves before they’ve even had an internship.
Take a look at some of the youngsters giving Anna Wintour, Donna Karan, Rihanna, Roger Ebert and Jamie Oliver a run for their money.
And next time you’re evaluating influencers and potential spokespeople for your brand, you might want to widen the consideration set to skew younger. When the adorable speak, people listen!
JT
Fashion
Tavi Gevinson, 14, has been making waves in the fashion world since she started her blog The Style Rookie at age 11. She’s since collaborated with Rodarte as muse and marketing vehicle for the brand’s line for Target, styled the Alice & Olivia SS2011 presentation and was #85 in Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2010. All before her sweet sixteen.
Arabelle Sicardi, 17 has been writing her sophisticated blog, Fashion Pirates, for four years and has been featured on esteemed industry panels including Teen Vogue seminars and Asian Americans in the Fashion Industry presented by Columbia University, where she shared the podium with Phillip Lim and Joe Zee.
Get ready to cringe. 10 year old, Cecilia Cassini has dubbed herself the “world’s youngest fashion designer;” she sits front row at New York Fashion Week, has been featured on The Today Show and has Glamour.com wondering if she’s the next Donna Karan. Without the innovation that Tavi has, you have to think that this girl has a serious marketing machine behind her.
Music & Style
The offspring of Will and Jada, 9 year old Willow Smith has signed a record deal with Jay-Z and is creating a sound and a look well beyond her years. Her single has already been viewed on YouTube over half a million times.
Film
Jackson Murphy, 11, is known as Lights Camera Jackson and he began his career as a movie critic at the age of 7. He’s the youngest winner of the NY Emmy for “On Camera Talent,” makes regular TV appearances and has given his Oscar predictions on FOX and Friends.
Food
You might know him from iCarly, but 15 year old Reed Alexander is a Renaissance Man (or Renaissance Boy?). Besides being a successful child actor, Reed is championing healthy eating and fighting the childhood obesity epidemic. He started the website KewlBites with recipes and tips for delicious, healthy kid snacking. He also makes regular appearances on the Today Show – Kathie and Hoda can’t get enough!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve all heard about Mario Batali’s new culinary megaplex, Eataly. When I visited Eataly last weekend, it was like nothing I’ve ever seen – Dean & DeLuca on steroids, a posh Pike Place Market … it was hard to describe. It’s essentially a gorgeous supermarket with individual restaurants throughout; it’s a gastronomic mall.
Well, looks like this concept is blossoming into a true trend. Melrose Market just opened in Seattle and Jeffery Chodorow will be opening FoodParc, in competition with Eataly, in the Eventi Hotel next week.
With the food hall at the Plaza and the Limelight Marketplace, high-end food courts are taking off and there’s no room for a Panda Express!
JT
