The power of YouTube: skin care brand sponsors blogger following viral success
Beauty blogging on YouTube has become a popular platform in the cosmetics industry as consumers can post their own beauty tips as well as review products and interact with one another.
It is not the first time a cosmetics company has used this tactic as part of its marketing strategy, and Kyoku believes that by sponsoring YouTube star, Emily Hartridge, it will reach a broader audience.
Six month deal
As part of a six month deal, Hartridge will create a video for the Kyoku For Me website each week, with the first focusing on why men should take skin care seriously.
Hartridge shot to viral fame with her ’10 reasons…’ videos, which deal with a wide range of topics in a tongue-in-cheek manner, and has attracted 14,077 subscribers on the video sharing site.
Kyoku approached Hartridge with the idea via her agent Pasa Mustafa, who has explained that the value of the deal is small but the sponsorship model was more profitable than relying solely on income from YouTube.
“Sponsorship deals like these prove there is an economy that exists on YouTube and an opportunity to earn more than the minimal amounts generated from sharing advertising revenues with Google,” he said.
In order to offer visitors to its site exclusive content, Kyoku will host the videos directly rather than distributing them through Hartridge’s YouTube channel, with hopes that Hartridge’s following will click through from the Google-owned site.
Proven platform for cosmetics
Back in 2010, L’Oréal-owned Lancôme signed up Youtube blogger Michelle Phan as its first video make-up artist.
Two years on the Phan/Lancôme partnership remains one of the most successful digital partnerships in the industry, with Phan’s Youtube channel boasting over 2.1 million subscribers, demonstrating the power of such a platform and how lucrative it can be for a cosmetics firm.
The monthly videos that Phan creates for Lancôme attract over 2 million views a month and are known for the easy-to-follow voice over instructions.
As an added e-commerce feature, a sidebar on the video viewer on Lancôme’s website features all the products used in the video with the option to add them directly to a shopping cart.
