When you are a fairly young brand in the ever-crowded cosmetics marketplace, differentiating oneself needs to be strategic and well targeted. Purple Lab Cosmetics a New York based glamour company could have taken the traditional method of advertising their brand through traditional media outlets. However instead Purple Lab decided to tap into a fan base of already existing cosmetics fans online and co-created a brand campaign with a selection of die-hard beauty bloggers.
Rather than being direct about asking bloggers to try the product in hopes of garnering postings, Purple Lab identified top beauty bloggers and invited them to model for the new brand Look Book.
Establishing relationships with the top influencers is becoming increasingly important to brands. Blogger endorsements help instigate viral distribution across the web and provide a seemingly authentic endorsement of the brand.
But it’s not just the blogger campaign that makes this brand special. Karen Robinovitz the founder and CEO of Purple Lab Cosmetics is pioneering her brand on full transparency mode. Everything from blogging about her own life, to behind the scenes of photo shoots, fans have full access to Purple Lab Cosmetics. Fashion’s Collective inquires with Mrs. Robinovitz into the life and operations of her brand.
Q. Some brands would hold off on making such a bold move such as allowing their audience to take full creative direction in branding, what inspired you to undertake this campaign?
The models in this look book are online muses, the girls I look at every day and find inspiration. I think they’re all aspirational yet relatable at once with amazing platforms that express their personal style. They’re the perfect faces for Purple Lab and they represent our energy inside and out.
Q. How did you determine that incorporating bloggers into your campaign was the right move for Purple Lab?
Purple Lab has been a blog loving brand from day one – when we launched, our first event was for bloggers only and it’s been a primary focus from the start. I think it’s modern, fresh, real and fun and those are key elements of our brand DNA.
Q. With the blogger collaboration what impact this campaign create for Purple Lab?
This was, for us, a brand awareness buzz generator and we definitely achieved that. We wanted to show makeup looks in a new way – and go from au natural to extreme high fashion runway style. We saw a great spike in our site traffic and we did a lot to promote it, from streaming via Twitcam as it happened to a behind-the-scenes video to a Facebook album. The interface on the site really represents it and we did a Q&A with each of the models so that readers could get to know them in a new way. We will definitely do this again!
Q. What are Purple Lab’s future plans in continuing the dialogue with the bloggers? Any new exciting campaigns on the horizon that we should be aware of?
We are working on something now but still keeping it under wraps at the moment. So be on the look out because we have lots of exciting plans to come!
Q. What is your stance on blogger outreach vs. celebrity endorsement for beauty brands? What do you think is more relevant and makes the most impact today?
I think it’s vital to include bloggers to any and all marketing and outreach but everything should be holistic with whatever traditional plans you have. The bloggers are super relevant and, I believe, the future – they’re not going anywhere but up. But that doesn’t mean to discount celebrities all together. I think each have a place and a unique impact.
Photo Credits: Image courtesy of Purple Lab Cosmetics
Written by: Agata Seidel
All articles are copy-edited by Gina Conforti
