Time for beauty brands to step into the digital age
The New York-based agency has just launched its latest Digital IQ Index: Personal Care which attempts to quantify the digital performance of 75 US Personal Care brands, diagnosing strengths and weaknesses.
Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern, and L2 Founder, states that whilst many Consumer Goods sectors and taking advantage of digital media, Cosmetics and Personal Care are not one of them and this needs to change.
Time to step up
Euromonitor figures show just four percent of Beauty and Personal Care sales take place via e-commerce, bolstered by the Skin care and Fragrance categories.
Alexa data suggests that a third of Personal Care sites suffer from broken links, 69 percent have not updated their home pages in more than a month, and 12 percent link to out-of-date promotions and contests, resulting in category bounce rates of 54 percent.
Galloway also highlights that digital media investments across the category lack a cohesive strategy as the majority of display ads do not have a clear call-to-action.
According to the digital marketing expert, this can also be improved by utilising email communication better and also optimizing search terms and content for mobile devices, given their increase in popularity.
‘Genius’ examples
Galloway calls upon L2’s ‘genius’ examples from two companies, Procter and Gamble and Unilever, to show how effective digital marketing can be beneficial.
In 2010, P&G’s Old Spice became the category’s digital role model with its “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” video campaign, and still leads the category today with nearly 260 million views on its YouTube channel.
More recently, L2’s chief also draws upon Unilever’s Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches”, which joined the viral video hall of fame with more than 163 million views to become the most-watched online video advertisement ever.
“While the success of these, and other digitally-led initiatives, are inspiring, most category programs to date are points of light—characterized by brilliant creative and nimble execution—and not part of a larger integrated effort supporting a business strategy,” says Galloway.
