The marketing world is changing, and the problem is that brands have lost control of their messaging due to a highly fragmented audience. Brands have to reconnect with their consumers turn them into ambassadors eg. micro-influencers. The Direct-to-Consumer revolution is reaching all industries and we offer you this playbook, helping you identify the best practices in the industry. Head over https://go.octoly.com/resources for more resources to help you take your influencer marketing strategy to the next level. We can help. Contact us at success@octoly.com

1. The Direct-To-Consumers Playbook
Beauty and Fashion Disruption Insights

2. The marketing world is changing…

3. …and The problem is HER
And the millions of other passionate people like her who post videos & photos
Brands
have a major
problem…

4. Brands have lost control of their messaging
due to a highly fragmented audience
Creators Networks Audience
Online retailers
Direct to consumers

5. Top Tier creators are hard to reach,
long and expensive to activate.
41%
of views
Top
25
YouTubers
Mid / Long Tail
59%
of views
700+
YouTubers
Octoly© Beauty FR
Mid & Long Tail creators
are a great opportunity for
brands to reach creators
and audience at scale
MicroInfluencing is the Future
of brands on Social Media

6. Content watched on social
media is micro
Digital celebrities are as
powerful as people not known
personally.
Bloggers and vloggers create
strong and effective content
for brands and are more
reachable than most of the
celebrities you may find on
social networks.

7. We are already living in a
Post-Advertising World

8. Jean-Paul Agon
CEO L’Oréal
8
“Our brands that grew the most were also very
low [advertising and promotion] intensive,[…]
Kiehl’s has no media. Urban Decay has no
media. Many of these brands have no media.”

9. Influencers are More Relevant than Brand Pages
As organic social reach
is increasingly limited,
social influencers offer
a more authentic voice,
leading to more
engaged audiences.

10. Influence has quickly changed hands
43%
47% 49%
62% 63% 62%
13 y.o. 14-17 y.o. 18-24 y.o.
Millennials would try a product or a brand
suggested by:
TV / Movie star YouTuber

11. Influencers drive sales
…of beauty consumers indicate that YouTube
influenced their purchasing decisions by
helping them to visualize how the products
would fit their lifestyle
Pure players give incentives to creators'
audiences through promotional codes
66%
Source YouTube

12. 12
Micro-influencers really
matter
Mid- and long-tail creators usually:
• Have a greater freedom of speech
• Create more engagement
• Won’t request $$$ to collaborate
• Have a clearer schedule
Smart brands will leverage their combined
power and higher engagement
8
4
2
2
2
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
<1K
1K-10K
10K-100K
100K-1M
1M-10M
>10M
Instagram: like&comment rate by followership
Like rate Comment rate
Source: Markerly stats, 2016

13. The rise of Indie Brands
The Direct-to-Consumer revolution in a social media environment:

14. Direct to Consumer revolution is
reaching all industries
5
Years old
$200M
Revenues
www.bloomberg.co
m
2
Years old
$75M
Revenues
http://
fortune.com/
2
Years old
$60M
Revenues
http://
www.inc.com/

15. What’s an Indie Brand?
Any beauty addict can tell you they love top brands
such as M.A.C Cosmetics BUT they believe their
prices are too high. They’re generally endorsed by
celebrities or models.
Indie brands are taking off rapidly offering great
products at an affordable price. They’re generally
endorsed by Beauty blogger/vloggers.
All these endorsements have the ability to generate engaging content but beauty bloggers do it better

16. “I sell directly to customers. With other brands, they are
putting their stuff in Sephora, and Sephora takes their cut, so
they have to mark up their prices to cover overhead and
staffing, and all that. But because we sell online—directly
from the warehouse to the customer—we can kind of cut out
that middle portion and save a lot of money in costs.”
How are you able to provide the same quality as high-end makeup brands and
keep prices low?
Marlena Stell, YouTuber

17. Retailers are also disrupted
5
Years old
$150M
Revenues
fortune.com
5
Years old
$50M
Raised
forbes.com
6
Years old
$125M
Revenues

18. Key Lessons from
Indie Makeup Brands

19. 3
Years old
$32.4m
Total Funding
434k
Instagram followers
#beauty #blog #referral #influencer founded

20. Overview
Having big ambitions, Weiss launched in 2014
the New-York-based skincare and makeup
brand Glossier as an outgrowth of the site ‘Into
the Gloss”. The move from Into the Gloss to
Glossier was a “total evolution of the same
mission, but with tactile content”.
The brand counts loyal beauty junkies and Into
The Gloss fans; it inspires itself from comments
on Into the Gloss and its growing community on
Glossier. They have smart feedback that
Glossier is putting to work in their products, from
development to marketing.
CEO Emily Weiss spent some time looking for a
beauty brand that engaged with its consumers
beyond mass marketing. While conversing with
customers on a daily basis, she noticed there
was a lack of brands made for women like her
and her blog readers in the industry.
Back in 2010 on IntoTheGloss website, the blog
created a loyal following with more than 1 million
unique visitors per month. Then came the idea
of creating the “Glossier” brand, distilled from
years of recommendations from ‘the coolest
girls on the planet’.
Creation
#beauty #blog #referral #influencer founded
Vision

21. A makeup empire #beauty #blog #referral #influencer founded
Influencers are essential
At Glossier, the influencers are regular people —
customers who engage with the brand on Instagram
and at pop-up events.
Around 150 of the brand’s most active consumers chat
online using Glossier-provided, city-specific Slack
channels.
In the Glossier world, cosmetics aren’t just cosmetics:
they’re content. Every product is an opportunity for
engagement.
The influencers’ Instagram accounts may not have
hundreds of thousands of followers but they ensure
real-talk and honesty.
From their social accounts, we’re led towards a
personalised page on Glossier where we can buy
these influencers’ top-favourite products.

22. Empower
consumers
New advertising strategy
Weiss flips the way they usually advertise a product:
instead of creating a product and then creating
content, Emily Weiss decided to first create the
content, get feedback and finally create the product.
Using social media content to gain consumer
feedback from the beginning, Glossier ensures that
there is stricly no time-loss while creating a product.
Three pillars of social commerce
Weiss spent the first 6 months listening to what
consumers really wanted from a skincare and
cosmetics brand, hoping to break down barriers in
what she calls the three pillars that help brands:
content, community, commerce.
3 key lessons from Glossier
Create direct lines of communication
with your consumers
Advertise a
product before its
creation
#beauty #blog #referral #influencer founded
Key lessons

23. 3
Years old
$600k
Estimated Revenue
4.1m
Instagram followers
#beauty #collaborations #instagram

24. Owners, Laura and John Nelson grew up with
Spatz Labs, Oxnard, CA, came up with a plan
to cut out the middleman within the beauty
industry as a small side project.
They realised that what was missing was the
ability to give customers the products they
want while they STILL want them!
Very quiet and discreet, the founders don’t
want to be direct reps of the brands. They let
social media and their collaborators do the
work.
Overview #beauty
They created Seed Beauty in 2014. The idea is
to create a one-stop shop for creating new
beauty brands. Colour Pop is a sister company
with Kylie Cosmetics.
ColourPop is a fun brand that empowers
people to be playful and experiment with
products in a way that isn’t intimidating and
makes them feel good about themselves.
The brand is part of the
beauty startups to watch in 2017.
#collaborations #instagram
Vision Seed Beauty

25. The power of collaboration
Trend and innovation is nurtured internally and
externally; Colour Pop is inspired directly from
its customers and their chemists work with the
social media and customer service teams to
develop and create new products.
What do Kathleen Lights and Karrueche have
in common?
Both have collaborated with the brand and
have created their own collection of products.
ColourPop now boasts 4.1 million followers on
its Instagram account and gets daily mentions
by makeup enthusiasts, vloggers and models.
#beauty #collaborations #instagram
x Collabs

26. Influencers post their looks on Instagram or on
YouTube adding hashtags to be recognised by
ColourPop.
The brand ‘regrams’ the influencers looks on
Instagram and shares them. It’s a mutual
beneficial system, where the influencer is more
publically exposed - the brand shows interest in its
consumers, which is very appreciated by all online
communities.
#beauty #collaborations #instagram
An Instagram strategy
Search trends on Google: ColourPop (in blue, launched in 2014)
vs. Urban Decay (in red, launched in 1996)

27. 8
Years old
25
countries distribute KVD
5.7m
Instagram followers
#individuality #fan-curated #repost#influence

28. After her reality show debut, Kat Von D got
approached by beauty bosses at Sephora, in
2008, to start her own makeup line. Famous for
her mastery of all things ink, Kat Von D is
breaking the mould of traditional beauty.
Having a rebellious, individualistic and artistic
approach to makeup, she created a makeup
brand that specializes in long-wear, high
pigment, and full-coverage collections.
The all-vegan collection features Kat's own
designs and personal touches with products
she swears by and uses on herself everyday.
Overview
Launched in 2010, the company became
independent of Sephora, and joined LVMH. Kat
Von D Beauty was the original seed brand that
later turned into Kendo.
KENDO is dedicated to quality, innovation and
authentic storytelling collaborating with global
beauty powerhouses. Kat Von D is a sister
company with Marc Jacobs Beauty, Formula X
Nail, OleHenriksen and Bite.
Beloved for both her artistry and authenticity,
Kat Von D is now one of the fastest-growing
global beauty brands in the beauty industry.
Vision Kendo
#individuality #fan-curated #repost#influence

29. Fan-curated content is a win for everyone: Customers get to be in the spotlight, and Kat Von D brand
gets a break from creating totally original content.
Kat Von D invites her fans to tag their Instagram photos showing her products on themselves with the
hashtag #KatVonDBeauty.
The beauty brand then uploads the pictures to Kat Von D Beauty’s website.
This tactic shows future customers new ways to use products and suggests products they may not yet
have, without wasting time with photo shoots for every new released item or color.
A fan-curated strategy #individuality #fan-curated #repost#influence

30. Search trends on Google: Kat Von D (in blue, launched in 2008)
vs. Hourglass (in red, launched in 2004)
Her brand is doing two things well:
Accommodating consumers’ insatiable thirst for
visually stunning reposts from Instagramers and
YouTubers and collaborating lately with the Kat
Von D Makeup Artistry Collective.
The Artistry Collective is brought together by four
makeup artists using Kat Von D’s makeup
promoting individuality and posting one video
per week on Kat’s YouTube channel generating
interesting content for her community.
Encouraging diversity #individuality #fan-curated #repost#influence
Made for the beauty obsessed
KatVonDBeauty website is the destination to discover exciting new features such as tutorials, limited-edition
products, and exclusive content by Kat Von D.

31. 10
different brands
5
years old
£70M
estimated revenue
#beauty #word-of-mouth #innovative skincare

32. Overview
Truaxe and his team focused on many brands in
many segments at the same time letting his team
constantly dedicated and excited. The multitude of
brands and processes from manufacturing to
marketing are done in-house. Combined together,
they’re doing more for each and every one of their
brands. The Ordinary brand translates an
ingredient-led strategy and a masstige price point
into outsized buzz and organic visibility. Thanks to
this type of strategy, DECIEM positions itself as an
outsider of the beauty industry. The brand riots
against color, long ingredient descriptions and self-
deprecation. It is now a an umbrella of beauty
brands, including Fountain, Hand Chemistry, HIF
(Hair is Fabric), NIOD (Non-Invasive Options in
Dermal science) and The Ordinary.
Brandon Truaxe founder of DECIEM, ex-computer
science student, and having a 20-year old
background co-working with various beauty
brands, was told he couldn’t work on more than
one thing at a time, but he proved everyone wrong.
Truaxe refers to himself as “screwed up”,
admittedly hates the beauty business and
considers the industry is a scam : “That’s why I
decided not to hire anyone who has ever worked in
beauty before.”
He branded Deciem as “The Abnormal Beauty
Company” with the goal of making medical-grade
products that work and don’t cost a fortune. Their
most expensive product rings in at $200, but the
majority of their offerings fall under $10.
CreationVision
#beauty #word-of-mouth #innovative skincare

33. “The scenery of beauty is going to be entirely disrupted over the next five years” - Brandon Truaxe
DECIEM believes that there is a lack of loyalty to functional beauty -
especially anti-ageing- which will increase and that is welcoming
innovation. Nevertheless, brand loyalty to colour cosmetics will likely
grow as this category is largely fashion led. DECIEM knows that the
current mentality is “How do I look best immediately” and that the
mentality of consumers will evolve to “How do I maximize my skin health
so I age better?”.
Truaxe is observing from a close-distance consumers’ expectations and
is jumping on every single opportunity.
By being more knowledgeable about what’s in their products and what
they apply on their skin, Truaxe is making his consumers
‘Skintellectuals’.
Customers are so pleased with the results that they’re all recommending
DECIEM’S brands via social networks, blogs and vlogs without being
sponsored by the brand.
#beauty #word-of-mouth #innovative skincareBreaking the rules

34. The Ordinary is the third skincare concept to be launched under the DECIEM umbrella, following Hylamide and
NIOD. The Ordinary exists because DECIEM believes that there should be a choice in all things and they also
believe in delivering simple messages.
The Ordinary’s goal is to bring familiar and often overpriced ingredients to the consumer at an honest and
affordable price. That way, consumers can test certain buzzy products and ingredients before committing
hundreds of dollars to products that might not work for their skin.
The Ordinary takes the basic research from its sister brands and uses simpler formulas and more generic
ingredients to create products that are more wallet-friend. The Ordinary’s sister brands like NIOD and
Hylamide have much more advanced formulas, and therefore higher price points, but research and
development for all of DECIEM brands are the same.
Search trends on Google: The Ordinary (in blue, launched in 2016)
vs. Elizabeth Arden (in red, launched in 1910)
#beauty #word-of-mouth #innovative skincareAffordable and innovative

35. 20
Years old
$46.5m
EMV on Instagram
13.4m
Instagram followers
#beauty #instagram#regrams

36. Anastasia Soare came to America and in 1997,
built an empire out of eyebrows.
Popularized through her customer relationships
with many of the world’s most recognizable faces
- Oprah, Naomi Campbell, Kim Kardashian, to
name a few, the “brow revolution” she ignited,
became a landmark contribution to beauty
history.
Soares has always wanted to educate women
and teach them which makeup suited them the
most.
Unlike most top brands at the time, she wanted to
create a brand for all skin tones.
Overview
Launched in the late 1990s by mother-daughter
duo Anastasia and Claudia Soare began as a line
for eyebrow pencils, gels and pigments.
Claudia wanted to expand the collection starting
off with a contour kit which sold out within hours.
Based on that, they developed many other
products in the makeup line: the brand now
features lip and eye products -but is still best
known for its brow products.
Claudia suggested to link Anastasia Beverly Hills to
Instagram and suddenly, everything blew up:
dubbed the “people’s make-up brand,” ABH has
grown cultivating an industry-unique relationship
with its core customer via social media.
Vision Creation
#beauty #instagram#regrams

37. Instagram skyrocketed Anastasia Beverly Hills
Anastasia Soare and her brand are the undisputed beauty queens of Instagram. Anastasia Beverly Hills went
from a brow powerhouse to one of beauty’s fastest-growing makeup brands- all thanks to Instagram.
The key to attracting a huge group of followers on the social platform is: Frequent updates, fan love and a
strong brow game.
#beauty #instagram#regrams
x Instagram
They have the highest engagement
Averaging 62 posts per week, Anastasia’s account also sees
the highest engagement - measured by gathering number of
likes, shares and comments, with an average of 68,000
interactions per post.
The brand has the highest EMV on Instagram. To put this
into perspective, ABH has almost double the earned media
value of MAC - which dominates every other social media
platform, on Instagram.

38. Influencers post their looks on Instagram or
on YouTube adding hashtags to be
recognised by the brand.
In exchange, the brand constantly ‘regrams’
on Instagram, retweets on Twitter and
reposts on Facebook at least once every
three hours and tags each and every
content creator.
By engaging with makeup enthusiasts,
Anastasia Beverly Hills has created a
personal connection with its followers and
now works with more than 600 influencers.
The brand has outdone others with its dedication and frequency
#beauty #instagram#regrams
A highly dedicated brand

39. 5
Years old
$30m
in Revenue
77,4K
Instagram followers
#skincare #beauty#word of mouth

40. Looking year after year for products that would
suit her sensitive skin, Tiffany Masterson decided
that she‘d like to create her own products.
She had an intoxicatingly straightforward
approach to skin care and her ethos was clear :
If there‘s any doubt, it‘s out!
Realising that she‘d never make anything that
she wouldn‘t put on her face, her vision was
simple: provide non-toxic and efficacious
products andas being entirely transparent about
the ingredients.
Naming it Drunk Elephant after a myth that says
that elephants love to eat the fruit that has fallen
from the Marula trees. Once eaten, fermentation
occurs inside their very large tummies and the
elephants become drunk.
Overview
After years of listening, learning and months of
studying ingredients, her brand was born.
Drunk Elephant, based out of LA, California, was
started in 2012.
Masterson developed the brand out of a desire
to create natural-themed formulas that were
truly effective.
Beyond effectiveness, she wanted to leave out
what wasn’t effective and create products with
toxic-free formulas.
All with zero endorsements or ads, sales went
up 400% in 2016.
Top companies are now battling to invest in
what is considered as one of the fastest-growing
skin care companies in Sephora history.
Vision Creation
#skincare #beauty#word of mouth

41. Staying independant and growing strong
This notion of expanding and building a business without the goal of immediately selling it to one of the
beauty-industry giants is becoming somewhat of a trend: The strategy of remaining independent until the
brand has become established as a major industry player is essential for Drunk Elephant’s creator.
It’s all about word of mouth
Always inspired by the “less is more” expression,
Masterson delivers top-of-the-line products with
no bad fragrances, chemicals or allergic
sensitizers . Thanks to this, she says that the
brand has never paid an influencer to date and
doesn’t advertise at this time. She believes and
relies entirely on people who carry good news to
others because it’s the most authentic value for a
brand and that buyers really know what’s best for
their skin so only they, can deliver an honest
review about the products today.
Building a beauty empire #skincare #beauty#word of mouth

42. Small but mighty!
Drunk Elephant line is a small line, but tends to make
each product count, or at least puts an
unconventional twist on the norm. They work on
impressive products and extremely smart and
minimal styled packaging.
An involved brand
They get over a thousand likes on most of their
posts and dozens of comments, praise and
questions that come in daily - many of these
questions, if not most, receive individualized replies.
The brand is highly requested worldwide and their
social media team is on top of it all.
And most of all, they inform and educate people
about ingredients used in their product line. A brand
that talks is a brand that works.
A solid -though limited array of well-crafted skincare formulas and committed to fragrance-free products.
A great philosophy #skincare #beauty#word of mouth

43. 4
Years old
$20m
revenues
697k
Instagram followers
#packaging #skincare #word of mouth#regrams

44. Overview
Jess Hatzis, Bree Johnson, Erika Geraerts, Alex
Boffa and Steve Rowley created Frank Body
after customers began asking Steve for coffee
grinds to take home from his café in Melbourne.
When they first launched, they sent their product
to a bunch of people they considered influential –
makeup artists and beauty bloggers. They knew
how important and valuable customers and
ambassadors were and what kind of role they
could play in their marketing.
Six months after they launched, people started
sending them before/after pictures when they had
incorporated the scrub into their routine.
Vision Creation
With Alex looking to move into product
development and Jess, Bree and Erika searching
for a new project in social media strategy, the
team came together to create the original coffee
scrub.
The Uni friends had no formal beauty training
before launching Frank Body but had spent a
decade of their adult lives trying different products
out and like a lot of people, the founders were
disenchanted with their current exfoliators: Big
promises, price tags, chemical components and
brands with no personality. That’s when Jess and
Bree started their company with just $5000.
#packaging #skincare #word of mouth#regrams

45. Real skincare: The Frank effect
Frank Body intrigues: with substantial user-feedback via the
#thefrankeffect and #letsbefrank hashtags on Instagram, people are
showing positive reviews about the products that target problem areas on
skin such as stretch marks, cellulite, eczema, psoriasis, acne, scarring and
dry skin. They have a second account, @frankfeedback where they repost
before and after pictures or comments on various types of skin. Its
“Frankfurts” - the consumers, post pictures of them covered with coffee to
give honest feedback on Instagram or on YouTube. They add hashtags to
be recognized by the brand and incite others to buy the products. Word of
mouth is the cheapest form of marketing and the most genuine for the
brand.
Getting to the core
The team worked hard over two years on establishing a solid user-
generated content strategy with a strong tone of voice. Today, Frank Body
has deep values, unique selling points, and a personality that customers
connect with. The brand works with bloggers and influencers to increase
brand awareness and educate people.
x social #packaging #skincare #word of mouth#regrams

46. Add to that, a good dose of Aussie humour
As other (larger) beauty companies have struggled to get younger
consumers interested in buying skin-care products in recent years,
Frank Body is winning out.
The team believes digital marketing is much more than an Instagram
account: it’s a connected approach to a brand’s communication:
website, social, packaging, and printed collateral.
They create micro interactions between the customers and the easy
going Frank persona: Frank is a humble laid-back Aussie guy and
doesn’t take himself too seriously. He communicates on all the
packaging and talks “dirty” – obviously relating to the coffee scrub!
The Aussie owners wanted to adapt the brand’s tone of voice to their
image. Frank’s marketing is aimed at each stage of the buyer’s
journey.
The branding is consistent and covers all the packaging from the box
sent off, to the product received at home.
The more they’ve expanded overseas, the more they’ve pushed the
Australian humour, and buyers have been loving it ever since the day
Frank Body launched.
Marketing coffee #packaging #skincare #word of mouth#regrams
Marketing through packaging

47. 8
Years old
6.8 bn
Total organic potential
impressions on IG
250
retailers
#accessories #instagram#affiliates

48. With no previous experience in the beauty
industry, Rene Xavier Filho, a civil engineer and
his wife, Simone Xavier, a veterinarian became
entrepreneurs from one day to the next. Rene
designed his first set of makeup brushes after
friends in Brazil asked him to send American
makeup brushes as many brands didn’t export
to their country. The couple went online to learn
about brushes, shapes, prices and preferences
and realized there was a real gap in the industry
regarding distribution, quality and price for
brushes. In 2009 they started their business
and disrupted the brush industry.
Overview
The couple sent TiffanyD, a popular beauty
vlogger, some of their brushes hoping for some
kind of feedback. Instead, they got a YouTube
video in which TiffanyD gushed about the new
brushes by Sigma Beauty. This endorsement
led to other ones, making Sigma one of the
most recognized, celebrated and fastest
growing companies in the the beauty
industry. Research is also heavily employed on
development of new revolutionary products.
With 250+ retailers in more than 70 countries,
Sigma Beauty is a global company with a
marked presence on all continents.
Vision Creation
#accessories #instagram#affiliation

49. Sigma Beauty Gurus
The brand says its followers on Instagram are 5 times more likely to click on
an image or convert when they see makeup on a person as opposed to an
image of the physical product in someone’s hand. As a result, Sigma has
created an affiliation section on their website for their “Beauty gurus”. The
company now counts thousands of affiliates, like TiffanyD, who get a 10%
commission on products sold through links they post to Sigma Beauty’s
website.
Sigma’s strenghts
Sigma has a robust social media following where they post instructional
videos. The brand has maintained its status as one of the top social media
beauty brands, with its largest community on Instagram where 2.8 million
users follow the cult beauty brand. Sigma Beauty utilizes science and
engineering to constantly challenge the beauty industry status quo and
present its clients with state-of-the-art products.
#accessories #instagram#affiliation
Collaborating with influencers

50. To get featured on Sigma Beauty’s Instagram, next to reposts of famous beauty vloggers bloggers,
consumers post their best looks on Instagram and add the hashtags #sigmabeauty or
#sigmabrushes. Forward solutions, function, and quality are what have secured Sigma Beauty's
position as a leader in innovation, are the cornerstones of Sigma’s products and what sets them apart
from traditional cosmetic companies. Their motto “Innovating beauty” makes sense as they are
constantly on the lookout for the latest trends.
Client behavior constantly defines Sigma’s objectives and the “what’s next” products to launch. For
instance, if consumers request the comeback of a limited edition product, the brand takes the
information into consideration and creates countdowns to drum up the attention around the product.
A brand that meets consumers demands
#accessories #instagram#affiliation
Connecting with consumers

51. 2
Years old
120
products in the collection
243k
Instagram followers
#makeup #community #social

52. Milk stands at the crossroads of the fashion,
music, photography and film worlds in NY and LA
and is a cultural hub nurturing brands and
creativity. Milk Makeup was founded in 2015 by
Mazdack Rassi, along with his wife Zanna Roberts
Rassi and co-founders Dianna Ruth & Georgie
Greville. Having little experience in the
cosmetics industry, Sephora helped and acted as
a sort of unofficial mentor to the fledgling brand,
advising them from production to scale.
In order to appeal to the millennial generation,
Rassi’s tried to become part of it, spending
nights reading blogs, watching vloggers talk shop
and monitored how these reviews affect sales.
Overview
Milk Makeup focuses today on cool and trendy
products, is environmentally conscious and
cruelty free. The multi-use products are designed
for self-expression and are created with the best
possible multifunctional and high-tech formulas
built for the cool girl on the go.
When debating on ideas, it became clear that the
ethos of the line could be about highlighting who
you are, as opposed to covering you up. From
then on, in just six months, Milk Makeup tripled its
doors, expanding to 50 Urban Outfitters as well
as 150 Sephoras by Spring 2017. Milk is now
planning its international expansion starting with
Canada in 2018.
Vision Creation
#makeup #community #social

53. x Culture of art-chic-cool #makeup #community #social
The Milk Girl
This “girl” is the kind of person who takes five minutes to put on her makeup in the
back seat of a cab as she’s being ferried between chic events. She’s too cool to
want a full makeup mask.
The founders focused on three points : Milk girls and guys prefer to do their makeup
on the fly, they don’t have the time nor the desire to weigh their face with makeup
and they care about what goes into their products.
Milk defines the brand as encompassing “punk fashion,” “art kids,” and “the next
generation”—or “Gen Milk” for short.
As for the “it” Milk Girl, she certainly doesn’t adhere to binary definitions of gender.
A minimalistic back-to-school packaging
All their products are recyclable, and their packaging
is made from recycled materials with soy-based ink.
They created an easy-to-apply collection with high-
quality and lasting ingredients and made a packaging
infused with antimicrobial silver “in case it drops on
the bathroom floor so it stays safe and doesn’t
discolor.”

54. The cosmetics brand lets its vast community mention the brand on social networks such as
Instagram, Facebook and YouTube and Milk Makeup community is growing day by day thanks to word
of mouth. Like many makeup brands, Milk is wise not to ignore influencers; their “Holographic stick”
got a huge bump in exposure and sales when YouTuber Jeffree Star featured it. Ditto with Thomas
Halbert and the Blur stick. they are currently vividly working with all-level influencers
#BlurTheLines Campaign
Milk Makeup’s YouTube channel embraces individuality and creates inspirational videos linked to its
makeup. It gives power to voices that are generally unheard and discuss the gender spectrum
exploring what individuality truly means today through campaigns like #BlurTheLines. Several LGBTQ+
models discuss how they feel about their gender identities, their fashion choices, and how they
believe that “blurring the lines” between masculinity and femininity is beneficial.
Taking it a step further, Milk gave a chance to some fans to feature in their upcoming
#LiveYourLook campaign during the Beautycon festival in New York. where they were asked to visit
Milk's multimedia studio and got glamed up and posed for portraits taken by Milk Studios
photographer. The initiative aimed at inspiring people to break boundaries and celebrate diversity and
individuality in the beauty space.
Promoting individuality #makeup #community #social

55. 18
Years old
$148m
Estimated annual revenue
11.3m
Instagram followers
#community #social #makeup

56. Overview
Vision Creation
Nascent videos on YouTube about NYX made by
young people conducting makeup tutorials and
reviewing cosmetics made a quick appearance
after NYX’s first successes. Realizing this was the
future, Ko sent freebies to social media stars. By
2009, Ko had 6 feet of space in each store and
now the brand is globally available in over 70
countries in thousands of retail shops.
In 2014, L'Oréal acquired NYX and is expanding it
worldwide. NYX is today one of the most exposed
beauty brands on YouTube generating nearly
138m views (2014). End 2016, the global rollout of NYX
was a highlight for the consumer-products unit,
which posted like-for-like sales growth of 4.7%.
Growing up in a hard-working family, Toni Ko
created what is today one of the biggest and
fastest growing beauty brands in the US. Her vision
was to create a line of high quality, on-trend
professional beauty products at drugstore prices.
At the age of 25, she invested the $250K seed
money her parents gave her for her project, dealt
with all the R&D by herself, pushed her suppliers to
create each product to her exact specifications and
sold her brand through her parents’ beauty supply.
The economic crash in 2008 encouraged people
usually spending hundreds, to discover drugstore
alternatives such as NYX.
#community #social #makeup

57. x Face Awards
The beauty community awarded
The power of NYX comes mostly from the FACE Awards initiative – the
Fine Artistry of Cosmetic Elites Awards - for which beauty vloggers
create themed challenge videos and compete for a $50,000 award
determined from votes by the public.
In 2013, the FACE Awards generated 120 m views of videos mentioning
NYX, creating free exposure for the brand on YouTube.
The awards have helped catapult many talented makeup artists into the
spotlight. Many mainstream vloggers join in on the fun but most of the
best tutorials come from indie makeup artists that barely have 10K
subscribers to their channels.
NYX has a large portfolio of products counting up to 2500 different products and an
exceptional range of colours, which led L’Oréal to acquire the brand. NYX fans are extremely
passionate and the brand listens very closely to their requirements and expectations.
Both beauty bloggers and professional makeup artists
rave about the brand's innovative products and love
that the company has kept its prices low, even as its
range has expanded.
#community #social #makeup

58. Mastering social media
“NYX is a dynamic company that has done a tremendous job of harnessing the power of social
media, digital marketing and multi-channel distribution” Frédéric Rozé, President and CEO of L’Oréal USA
NYX’s DNA: Cultivating relationships
NYX considers its fans to be the first port of call. Before something is even a finished product or a finished
idea in their minds, they share it via social media to see how the fans react because they know how
powerful they are.
Most of the content that NYX uses is generated by its consumers and in exchange they give them the tools
enabling the fans to makeup and create content by themselves.
They consider that building a relationship and making their fans feel invested in the brand is an essential
element which leads to success.
Their main focus is to get the brand out there, make it visible and let the fans touch and feel the products.
They work in close cooperation with online partners such as YouTubers, bloggers and vloggers and continue
working with consumers to see where they see the brand fitting best.
#community #social #makeup

59. 10
Years old
$20m
Estimated annual revenue
109k
Instagram followers
#community #makeup #social

60. Overview
Vision Creation
The whole idea of Julep was to create beauty
products that give women a voice and help them
explore outside their comfort zones.
With highly engaged fans swapping nail art
designs and doing “nail swatches,” Julep’s social
media community has been a strong substitute for
brand building via traditional print marketing.
Julep has no limit in the number of product
creations each month: they operate with a lot of
freedom and have infinite physical shelf space. The
brand has released many other products other
than nail polish such as mascara, skincare etc. and
delivers up to 300 products each year.
Jane Park started Julep in 2007, a chain of nail
salons in Seattle but she began rethinking her
model when the great recession hit in 2008 and
many of her salon customers vanished. She
decided to focus on e-commerce after seeing a
strong interest in the brand arise thanks to people
following Julep on social media such as Facebook,
Pinterest and Instagram. Realizing that beauty is a
business where women talk to each other about
products they try encouraged her to create online
forums in order to have a stronger understanding of
her customers expectations and requirements. Her
vision was about making beauty a fun and fearless
experience for all women.
#community #makeup #social

61. x the Mavens
#Bravepretty
Monthly Beauty Box Subscribers
The company's first-line “beta testers” are the Julep Mavens. These subscribers pay a
minimum of $19.99 a month to receive a custom-selected box of nail colors and other
makeup at a discount off retail price (nail polish bottles go for $14 apiece).
The social media chat begins, as buyers comment and submit photos of their products,
allowing Julep to see how their products are used and appreciated. This phase allows them
to be in line with their customers’ expectations before products are mass-produced.
#community #makeup #social
Julep’s wish is to empower women when it
comes to makeup. They asked them about
their typical makeup routines and challenged
them to step outside of their beauty comfort
zones by posting on various social networks
their own definition of being brave as a
woman today.
This initiative was immensely appreciated by Instagram and Facebook users and followed up with the hashtag
#bravepretty creating and unifying a community around Julep’s brand.

62. The Julep Beauty Lab:
Where beauty and social opinion merges
Customer feedback
After launching the e-commerce site in 2011, Julep expanded its « lab » to enable fans to try out makeup
concepts prior to their release. Julep’s Mavens are several thousands of customers that interact with Julep’s
conceptors and actors to give their opinion and precious feedback.
Jane Park sees this as an essential element of the brand’s DNA as the beauty industry is trending towards
creating products consumers actually want .
The feedback can be relatively harsh at some times but it saves a lot of time and money: only about a third of
the concepts Julep initiates make it to market.
This co-creation is not only about product development but also marketing and brand loyalty. Julep
communicates with its Mavens through social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, enabling them to
create free exposure of content online and gain access to more fans.
For instance, the company developed a lip mousse and sent off 80,000 prototypes to Mavens, who were
asked for their opinions on two types of applicators and four formulas -feedback on colors was solicited via
Instagram with the hashtag #julepbeautylab.
#community #makeup #social

63. 9
Years old
$3m
Estimated annual revenue
554k
Instagram followers
#beauty #instagram#packaging

64. Launched in 2008, Jouer Cosmetics offers a playful
approach to beauty with simple colors to wear and
an ingenious design. Christina wanted her
cosmetics line to fulfill two functions: contain
excellent care ingredients and improve the
appearance of the skin with each use. Customers
enjoy the nourishing formulas and timeless colors
and discussing with the brand to share their opinion
on the way the brand has changed their skin. The
now award-winning brand, is a line of makeup for
people who have exceptionally high standards in
regards to quality in makeup and want a more
modern approach to beauty: simple and easy to
wear colors with the best ingredients.
Vision Creation
As a model, Christina Zilber used to sit in the hair
and makeup chair and analyze what artists where
doing on set. She was constantly on the lookout
for new kinds of products that would represent the
ideal makeup for the working woman.
One day when she was on set, one of the artists
put together a palette and gave her the idea to
compose her own products and stick them
together.
Not finding anything like it in the beauty industry,
she decided to create it herself, envisioning a line
of easy, fun, and portable colors you could
combine to create customizable palettes.
#beauty #instagram#packaging
Overview

65. For women on-the-go
Christina is the definition of a busy workingwoman. Juggling
between her life as an entrepreneur, mother and wife she creates
cosmetics for women who just like her, throw makeup on in very
little time.
She spends a lot of time with her daughter on their YouTube
channel to discuss the products they each enjoy using- enabling
Jouer to reach out to two generations. The cruelty-free brand offers
today over 200 products ranging across face, lips, cheeks and
eyes.
Marketing through packaging – don’t forget to play
With compacts that connect “Lego-like” to create customized
makeup palettes, Jouer allows women to carry around what they
want, when they want. Christina Zilber believes in the actual fun
you gain out of composing your own products. The workingwoman
-and now younger generation, has less time to apply too many
products, which is why Jouer is an amazing solution to click a few
products together and hop off to work or… school!
x makeup on-the-go #beauty #instagram#packaging

66. A powerful social brand #beauty #instagram#packaging
Influencers are talking authentically and engaging with their
audiences
Jouer Cosmetics encourages its customers to create and post their
looks with the hashtag #JouerCosmetics or #AwayWithJouer on
Instagram in order to share, gain and give a maximum of visibility to
the brand.
In return, the looks are reposted on Instagram and on Jouer’s
website in the section “social looks” – If the website user likes a look,
he/ she can click on it and discover which product the Instagrammer
has used.
Top influencers are helping the brand gain exposure
Bigger influencers such as Jeffree Star (bottom right) are helping the
brand gain more exposure as well as celebrating beauty and diversity.
Jeffree Star recently created a buzz around the brand for collaborating
with Jouer and giving away promo codes – something the celebrity
rarely does. In return, all the profits he gains from the brand are
donated directly to LGBT Centers to create more awareness.

67. 8
Years old
$22m
Revenue
2,6m
Instagram
followers
#beauty #instagram#social native

68. Marlena Stell – at the time a high school
music teacher, created her YouTube beauty
channel in 2008 and established a very
personal connection with her fan base.
Considering top brands raise their prices with
unnecessary ad-ons, and drugstore brands
aren’t of amazing quality, she decided she
wanted to create her own brand. She did a
lot of research before starting her own
cosmetics line, and in 2009 launched the
website, makeupgeek.com to educate about
beauty and teach about enhancing people’s
own unique beauty.
Overview
She partnered with other cosmetics brands,
and did a revenue share for any products
she sold from her site, and sales rose to
$200,000 monthly. Today, Makeup Geek is
composed of a beauty-passionate team with
a desire to give the very best of makeup
education and products and is named to the
Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies list.
The brand is committed to sharing useful
beauty tips, supporting positive beauty
messaging and selling exceptional products
at affordable prices.
Vision Creation
#beauty #instagram#social native

69. A dedicated space for beauty fans
There is a dedicated space for influencers and beauty mavens on the
website www.makeupgeek.com. They can upload video tutorials or
pictures and tag the products on the side to show what they have used
to create their looks. This helps the brands create a very searchable
and shoppable eco system of user and influencer generated content.
Makeup Geek curates their submissions by adding their favorite looks
on the first page and repost on Twitter and Instagram. This is a win-win
for both parties as influencers can add a link to their Instagram and
YouTube accounts from Makeup Geek’s website leading them to gain
more followers and Makeup Geek in return gains a lot of visibility in front
of their artists’ Instagrams and YouTube channels.
Collaborating with influencers
#beauty #instagram#social native
Co-branded products and limited-editions
Marlena Stell didn’t want to be in the constant spotlight of her brand which is
why she reached out to other famous vloggers like Kathleen Lights. The
brand truly came to the forefront with its collaboration with the
vlogger Manny MUA and its amazing, pigment-rich eye shadows. This has
helped the brand create major visibility and reach out to audiences that have
never heard of the brand before.

70. She crowdsources products and ideas with her audience, and in exchange sends
off gifts of the product line to those who participated in contests for names or color
preferences.
Powerful advocacy thanks to micro-influencers
Influencers are media platforms
#beauty #instagram#social native
The fan base created from Stell’s YouTube channel definitely helped propel her business
early on, but social media was able to take it to the next level.
Makeup Geek has curated a vlogger
centric eco-system leveraging both top
and micro-influencers with beauty-
specific credibility.
Marlena Stell refuses to neglect
smaller influencers who generate great
user generated content especially on
Instagram these days.
Thanks to this, Makeup Geek is one of
the buzziest color cosmetics in terms
of visibility and mentions.
source : L2 Digital IQ index beauty, November 2016

71. The magic formula

72. #AdaptorDie to #SocialCommerce
Harnessing the power of Influencers
INDIE BRANDS MAGIC FORMULA
Data & insights
from Influencers
Word of Mouth
by giving FREE products
Online Tupperware sales
by giving incentive
to creators’ audience
+ +
CREATE
MARKET
NO MEDIA
SELLING WORLDWIDE

73. How to play the #TupperwareMillennials phenomenon?
Software, organisation, mindset & scale
SOFTWARE PEOPLE
Customer Excellence
Products Creators
CREATIVE ASSETS + AUDIENCE CONNECT, EDUCATE & DRIVE SALES
by creating a unique relationship with influencers
E-COMMERCE x COUNTRIES

74. Our solution:
The Octoly Free Store
#1 Marketplace for product reviews
Hundreds of brands -
willing to give away free
products to boost their
social media presence
Thousands of
influencers - eager to
test new products and
speak with brandsContact us at success@octoly.com