Bloggers are Shaking Up the Beauty Industry

(http://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/interns.jpg)

Beauty lovers, this one’s for you!

Remember the excitement you used to feel when the newest issue of your go-to fashion publication would hit the stands or your mailbox and you’d flip straight to the beauty section to see what must-have products you needed to add to your makeup arsenal? Well, I do and I can tell you those days are over and the traditional way of advertising in the beauty industry is slowly becoming irrelevant.

Beauty bloggers have become a powerful force in the industry. Their large followings on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat allow for a wider reach resulting in increased engagement with fans and a heavy influence on consumers. From makeup tutorials to product reviews, consumers are increasingly reliant on bloggers for beauty education or to help them determine their next beauty purchase. An example do this was when beauty blogger Arielle Charnas of Something Navy posted a Snapchat of a gel mask. Within 24 hours, the brand sold 502 masks. Crazy right?

Because of this, there has been a shift in the beauty industry’s marketing strategy and the once dominant reliance on magazine editorials and ads has been pushed aside in favor of digital marketing. Today, more and more beauty brands like L’Oréal and Smashbox have reallocated a majority, if not all, of their advertising dollars towards social media ads and partnerships with some of the most popular beauty bloggers.

This change is not sitting well with everyone in the industry though. In the past, bloggers have been considered fake journalists, and to beauty editors that view themselves as real journalists, this digital take over is not a welcomed one. Bloggers have now become the editor’s colleague and a highly paid one as well. Beauty brands have been reported to pay bloggers as much as five figures for both short and long-term partnerships.

Although beauty bloggers have not received the warmest of welcomes from beauty editors, they have proven to be an effective marketing asset for many beauty brands. Research done by Pixability, an advertising firm, shows that the videos created by the most popular beauty bloggers on YouTube have significantly more views than videos produced by the beauty brands themselves.

Ultimately, the digital take over of the beauty industry looks like it’s here to stay and beauty editors will have to learn to adjust and play nice in the proverbial sandbox.

References

Hope, C. (2016, September 28). Beauty bloggers continue their dominion over brands on YouTube. Retrieved from http://jezebel.com/beauty-bloggers-continue-their-dominion-over-brands-on-1787191480

Strugatz, R. (2016, August 10). Bloggers and digital influencers are reshaping the fashion and beauty landscape. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-bloggers-20160809-snap-story.html