ColourPop’s secrets to social media success (1110 hits)

NEW YORK— Seed Beauty, the incubator that helped launch celebrity megabrands Kylie Cosmetics and KKW Beauty, is sitting on a much quieter social media success story.

ColourPop, Seed’s first cosmetics label, consistently earns high engagement on social media that outpaces its star-studded competition without the weight of a Kardashian behind it. Founded in 2014, the brand is known for its affordable eyeshadow palettes and liquid lipsticks that sell on average for $7-$12.

In October, ColourPop’s Instagram account received more than 18 million likes and comments – more than Kylie Cosmetics and KKW – according to research from Instascreener, which filters out likes and comments from bots. With over 640,000 comments, the brand also drove the most conversation, trumping runner-up Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty by over 40 per cent.

“ColourPop doesn’t have that single influencer face behind it, but it’s still dominating social media in its own way,” says Instascreener co-founder Sean Spielberg. “There are a few different techniques that every brand uses to succeed with social media engagement and ColourPop combines them all more than any other brand out there right now.”

The brand’s social media engagement is also more consistent than that of celebrity-driven labels, which rely on star power to move product. Such reliance on celebrity founders, who have busy schedules and competing commitments, can make for erratic results. Although Kim Kardashian’s KKW Beauty received the most overall impressions (defined as views of posts that mention the brand) at 321 million last month, a significant chunk of the chatter around her brand was driven by bots, Instascreener says. That left it out of the top 15 for conversation-driving brands. Similarly, Kylie Cosmetics, which had the highest engagement in September, fell out of the top 15 a month later.

ColourPop takes new products from concept to creation in as little as five days.

© ColourPop


ColourPop’s ability to avoid fluctuations and empty noise while still resonating with audiences indicates that brands with celebrity founders don’t necessarily have the once-assumed leg up on Instagram. Its strategy instead comes down to casting a wider net of influence with savvy, ever-changing collaborations and an approach to social media that encourages consumers to engage with them beyond simply hitting “like”.

Constant collaborations
ColourPop, one of the first brands to commit to a “fast beauty” approach, takes new products from concept to creation in as little as five days. Its collaborations follow a similar beat, with two to three limited-edition launches released every month that fuel much of the brand’s online conversations. In October, the brand partnered with beauty influencer Safiya Nygaard on a six-piece lipstick collection and with Disney on a range of products inspired by the entertainment company’s “Midnight Masquerade Series” dolls.

Recurring influencer collaborations drive sales for the brand: Nygaard’s sold out within 24 hours and has since been restocked to meet demand. Her post announcing that the products were live generated the most likes (over 900,000) and impressions (roughly 3 million) of all posts that mentioned ColourPop, including the brand’s own, last month. While its celebrity-driven sister brands follow a similar strategy by launching collections with top makeup artists and other celebrities, the release cadence, dependent on the availability and whims of one brand face, is less consistent overall.

Despite consumers growing savvier about influencer marketing, research shows that these collaborations still pay off. Fifty-two per cent of 13- to 37-year-olds in the US say they’re more likely to purchase a product recommended by their favourite online celebrity, according to data from Ypulse. Fifty-six per cent of this cohort believes that an influencer’s endorsement indicates that they truly like the brand.

Based on the organic influencer mentions that ColourPop receives, the affinity for the brand seems legitimate, says Spielberg. In October, ColourPop received over 4,000 organic influencer mentions, surpassed only by Anastasia Beverly Hills. “The brand is beloved among makeup artists who mention it without being paid because they just genuinely like the makeup.” While organic content indicates that an influencer wasn't paid for a post, that doesn't mean they paid for the products themselves. Though ColourPop declined to comment on its influencer strategy, a source close to the brand says it seeds free products to a host of influencers each month.

ColourPop’s diverse partnerships make it particularly appealing to consumers, says Tamara Gaffney, VP of decision strategy at digital experience agency Quantum Metric. “Buyers want to discover and associate with people [on social media] who look like them,” she says. Nygaard, for example, is half-Indian and stands out from the usual influencer crowd with her goth style, while the brand partnered with Kathleen Lights, a Cuban-American with a feminine style, in September. This month, the brand is working with the Korean beauty YouTuber Pony Park.

Regular giveaways
Beauty brand posts tend to get less engagement than beauty influencer posts, but offering regular giveaways can turn that around, according to Spielberg. ColourPop has baked this into its strategy, running giveaways for a wide variety of new products including those that aren’t limited edition or attached to an influencer.

In October, for example, ColourPop’s Instagram post that drove the most comments (75,000) promoted a giveaway for a new eyeshadow palette and a $50 gift card to 20 winners who had both liked the post and followed the brand. For an extra entry, customers were encouraged to tag a friend in the comments.

Influencers that ColourPop does collaborate with are also tasked with hosting giveaways, a move that helps drive traction from their popular individual accounts to the brand’s. Last month, Nygaard offered her followers the chance to visit the ColourPop factory and create their own lipstick, on top of receiving her collection with the brand. To enter, her fans had to follow ColourPop on Instagram, too. Celebrity brands, meanwhile, tend to rely less on this strategy, garnering most of their hype from the face of the brand alone.

ColourPop’s success with giveaways is now being used to promote other Seed Beauty brands that lack an iconic frontman. In October, the ColourPop account ran a giveaway for Seed’s newest brand, a vegan skincare line called Fourth Ray Beauty, on the ColourPop account. The tactic of asking ColourPop followers to follow Fourth Ray Beauty to enter to win products from each brand racks up more followers and potential fans for the younger brand.

“This brand has social media in its DNA and you can see that it really pays off,” says Spielberg.

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Posted By: Liliana Passalacqua
Monday, December 9th 2019 at 10:17PM
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