Essence Makeup’s #UnoriginalSongs campaign channels nostalgia
Essence Makeup is making waves across TikTok with a brand new, and very nostalgic campaign.
The #UnoriginalSongs campaign, which was created through a partnership with Movers+Shakers, features beauty-inspired parodies of top hits from the ‘90s and 2000s.
Creators on the popular social media platform has joined the challenge, including Ryan Vita, Scarlet May and Makeup by Analiza, who have used the brand’s Baby Got Brow Eyebrow Pencil and I Like To Mauve It Eyeshadow Palette to the beat of essence’s “Baby Got Brow” and “I Like To Mauve It” songs.
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To get a better understanding of what went into creating the unique campaign, Drug Store News spoke with Jill Krakowski, the chief marketing officer at Cosnova, the parent company of essence.
When it came to figuring out how to connect the world of beauty with social media, TikTok came to be the right platform for the brand.
“TikTok intrigued us when exploring ways to connect with influencers and watchers alike. essence’s The Black Sheep Lipstick organically went viral in March of 2020. We saw a huge spike in sales immediately - and that’s when we realized not only is TikTok a fun and entertaining way to connect with consumers, it can drive sales,” Krakowski said. “The essence brand is all about fun, so we wanted to make sure the campaign delivered on that theme. Since the names of some of our products were our “unoriginal” take on popular songs, we loved the idea of “unoriginal songs” as a fit for the parodies we were making!”
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Channeling the growing popularity of nostalgia and trends from the late ‘90s and early 2000s clearly worked for the brand, as website traffic not only increased, but an eyeshadow palette also sold out.
“After about two days of running the initial advertising, most of the website traffic was coming from TikTok. One of the top-three-viewed products on our website was the Baby Got Brow! Eyebrow Pencil. In terms of the traffic that came to the site, it increased two-and-a-half times in the first week of the campaign,” Krakowski said. “That tells us that, even though we were just trying to build awareness, people were interested and they were engaged enough to leave the TT platform to come to our website and explore the brand. The eyeshadow palettes also sold out on the essencemakeup.com website!”
On the heels of having a popular item sell out thanks to the campaign going viral, Krakowski also shared several new innovations the brand has in the works for 2022, including essence’s Shine, Shine, Shine Lipgloss’ upgrade to an Extra Shine Volume Lipgloss, which will come in various shade and be sold at Ulta Beauty, essence.com, Amazon.com and Target.com.