2016 Winners & Shortlists

SEPHORA BEAUTY JOURNEY

BrandSEPHORA MIDDLE EAST
Product/ServiceBEAUTY BRAND AND RETAILER
EntrantOMD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryNon-Fiction: Series or Film
Media Agency 2 OMD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Entrant Company OMD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Media Agency OMD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The Campaign

Sephora has been steadily growing faster than competition with double digit growth in terms of sales and volumes, however awareness levels still needed to be strengthened in UAE/KSA and Sephora's uniqueness needed to be established among consumers. With the rising efforts of the competition in our priority markets in 2015, Sephora needed to build loyalty with its consumers and establish itself as the preferred retailer and beauty brand of choice. Interest in beauty online is vast with 170 million interests on Facebook, >8 million beauty fans on Instagram, & +42% increase in beauty searches in 2014 in the GCC. There is no shortage of English make-up videos featuring western models. However, Middle Eastern women were hungry for authentic and relevant Arab beauty content that is not “Photoshoped”. They wanted to bring out their unique beauty and were looking for guidance which suited their complexions. Sephora decided to allow beauty fans the chance to direct their own beauty journey by putting their expertise in their hands, so that they have access to real and applicable beauty content. Models were shelved in preference of real people reflecting various Middle Eastern features. In partnership with regional beauty influencers : Huda Al Kattan & Dalal AlDoub, fans were given self-application workshops which were produced into tutorials catering to the requirements of Middle Eastern women. Realness was the most important element throughout our campaign, as winners were taught to apply their own make up which was then transferred into 6 Do-It-Yourself lessons which online audiences could self-apply. The content lived on YouTube and was supported online on video/Women platforms, influencers' pages as well as Sephora’s social platforms.

The campaign achieved 2.176 Million views over a period of 1 month. Our localized approach through the Arabic videos gained momentum whereby a fan’s Arabic video tutorial exceeded that of our influencer partner: Dalal al Doub herself, who is the 2nd biggest beauty blogger in the region. Interest in the content was high with Facebook achieving 20% Engagement rate which is 10 times more than market benchmarks, 96% of which were positive comments. On Instagram, the account grew by 120% with 21,000 followers (18,000 of which were directly recruited upon the announcement of the campaign by Houda & Dalal). During the period of the campaign, love on Sephora’s Instagram account was apparent with 100% increase in hearts from our fans. Word of mouth from the campaign was extended to Twitter, where regardless of Sephora’s lack of presence on that platform, 910 tweets were registered of fans tweeting about our content & encouraging their friends to watch it. Interest in the products used within the tutorials was highlighted with +34% increase in product enquiry on Social media during the campaign period. (Source: Google analytics, Sysomus, Facebook, youtube analytics)

Credits

Name Company Role
Maya Bou Ajram Omd Mena Senior Director Planning
Naim Younis Omd Mena Associate Director Planning
Rami Salame Omd Mena Director of Creative Strategy
Dana Al Husseini Omd Mena Associate Director Social
Suhda Amali Omd Mena Senior Executive Social
Ines Sebiane Omd Mena Branded Content Specialist