The ‘House of Lux’ launch show was the first FMCG event to be live streamed in the region through a masthead on the YouTube homepage, according to the company, attracting 32 million views in total.
"The challenge for us is to take House of Lux to new heights every year," said Asad Rehman, director of media, Unilever North Africa and Middle East, who states digital will be a cornerstone of their expansion plan.
"It has come to be recognized as a great franchise in the region and one that lands our digital efforts marvellously. We hope we will continue to define how brands exploit digital in this market."
MENA growth
MENA (Middle East and North Africa) is emerging as a new focal point for the beauty industry, and market research firm Euromonitor International reckons it is a key emerging region for upcoming growth.
Beauty in the region is “relatively a smaller market in comparison to some of the other regional markets, but it’s been recording strong growth,” Oru Mohiuddin, senior beauty and personal care market analyst, told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com.
The firm’s new research pinpoints it as one region which has not let up with growth, despite the slight global slowdown of the beauty and personal care market in the last year, from 5.8% to 5.4%.
Unilever’s strategy
The consumer goods multinational, whose brands include Axe and Dove, has said that it hopes for 10–15% of its growth over the next 15–20 years to come from the region.
“We are investing more [in the region] than what the company in total is investing,” Paul Polman, Unilever’s global chief executive has said, noting that the companyis looking to invest a reported €60-100 million over the two decade period up ahead.