L'Oréal

The Objective

Dominating #beautytok

#Beautytok is one of the biggest beauty hashtags in Latin America. So, for a brand in the beauty sector, creating content by associating with this community could be the way to win the hearts of consumers – and, of course, make their products sell out on the shelves. This was exactly what L'Oréal was looking for.

In periods between hot dates for commerce, the company wanted to create some kind of "off-season" shopping season in 8 markets across the region. But to do that, they needed a way to further strengthen their connection with potential customers. And what better way to do this than by taking over one of the most relevant hashtags on TikTok?

The Solution

Covering the journey from start to finish

To dominate #beautytok, L'Oréal developed a complete strategy with TikTok, which combined native content with our solutions that cover the purchasing journey from start to finish – the full funnel. The idea was to co-create with creators, so the brand would speak the same language as the community, and lead potential customers to conversion on a partner e-commerce platform.

The campaign videos focused on products from each brand advertised in each country, always within the premise of "The Best of #Beautytok". The content creators selected by L'Oréal had complete freedom to do what they know best and show, in their own way, the items in use. That included react-style content, #grwm, vlog, among others.

The media strategy for all 8 markets covered was designed to create a spike in awareness in the first week of the campaign. To achieve this, the brand used a high-impact solution: TopView. It's that ad that appears as soon as you open TikTok. L'Oréal reserved one whole day for the format, which helped to quickly generate awareness.

But even before TopView came into action, the company was already starting to promote creators' videos with Top Feed and Standard In-Feed Ads. The content was promoted directly from their profiles via Spark Ads, and was optimized for views or traffic. The plan was to keep this sustain rolling throughout the campaign, with one optimization complementing the other, to guarantee frequency.

The ads optimized for video views were targeted to a wide audience. That way, L'Oréal maximized its reach. Meanwhile, traffic-optimized ads reached custom or lookalike audiences, so the brand could speak again to those who had already interacted with the campaign or to people similar to that audience. Video Shopping Ads also came into play to reach people most likely to buy.

This content optimized for clicks took potential customers to a landing page on TikTok, where they found links to buy products in L'Oréal's partner e-commerce stores. And to attract even more attention, the videos could also come with interactive add-ons like Gift Code (which guarantees a discount on the purchase), Super Like (a "like" that leads directly to a landing page) or Display Card (which adds a larger CTA in the ad).

The Results

Full funnel that brings more sales

The plan was ready, but was it enough to create an off-season shopping season? Using a research methodology called Causal Impact, we were able to show that yes: L'Oréal's plan to cover the shopping journey and dominate one of the most popular hashtags on TikTok was very successful.

This type of analysis uses the brand's sales history to project how much it would normally sell during the period in which the strategy was put into action. Then, we compare this projection with what the brand actually achieved. This way, we discover the impact on sales generated by ads.

In L'Oréal's case, each of the 8 countries involved in the #beautytok campaign brought data from their respective e-commerce partners. The Causal Impact study measured the increase in sales of products advertised on these platforms during the campaign period.

In Mexico, the full-funnel strategy yielded +68% incremental sales for L'Oréal's Infallible Pressed Powder. In other words, if the study's projection indicated that the company would sell, say, an average of 100 units of the product per day to partners, the ads on TikTok made it sell 168.

Throughout South America, the results were also great. In Argentina, there were +75% of incremental sales considering all activated products, while in Ecuador the percentage reached 92% and in Brazil and Peru, the increase was equal to +43%. In Uruguay and Chile, the highlights were specific products: +136% sales of Maybelline's Sky High Eyelash Mascara in the first and +94% for Elvive Extraordinary Oil in the second.

See how a full-funnel strategy with native content can work really well for brands?