Elizabeth Arden wanted to launch its Skin Illuminating Line and increase its brand awareness to a new audience — Chinese Canadian women. 3 segments were targeted: 24-60 year old achievers, fashionistas, and settlers.
How does Elizabeth Arden get to play and stand out with Chinese women in the cosmetic playground?
If you can't beat them… let them join you!
The campaign's strategy was to open a new platform for beauty and skincare advocacy that will serve as a backdoor for Elizabeth Arden to shine through.
Our research showed that Chinese women were very specific to the cosmetic brands they tried and used. European brands were preferred for their perceived premium quality and fashion influence. Korean and Japanese cosmetics also appealed to them due to these brands' expertise on the Asian skin type. Conventional marketing wisdom has determined that brands do well when their customers are in the sandbox they have made for them to play in. Attracting new and biased players into Elizabeth Arden's corner though required an unconventional approach. Why not create a new playground for everyone, where Elizabeth Arden played too?
We created "The Beauty Channel," an unbranded microsite that became the new sandbox for beauty, skincare, and lifestyle content for Chinese Canadian women.
It featured European, Asian, and American brands. Since the Chinese are convinced with facts, the channel provided them with the necessary information. For added credibility, the content of The Beauty Channel was written and curated by 2 Chinese beauty editors from 2 trusted publications. They tested branded products and shared their experience for others to learn.
The channel also put a spotlight on Elizabeth Arden's proven effectiveness with the 6-Week Challenge! We invited 3 Chinese women — each from a different identified segment: the fashion-conscious, the career professional, and the well-to-do homemaker — to use the Skin Illuminating Skincare Line every day for 6 weeks, and share their journey, feedback, and results online!
This sandbox also created opportunities for product trials by raffling off Elizabeth Arden gift basket prizes.
The Beauty Channel was promoted on media where Chinese women searched for beauty products — on WeChat, Facebook, YouTube, beauty and fashion magazines.
The results were truly illuminating for Elizabeth Arden! Online video views of the 6-week challenge exceeded its target by 104%. 2,043 raffle entries were received and sales saw a glowing increase of 108%!
