Content Marketing. Short Description:
L’Oréal USA is expanding its participation on Pinterest with a new campaign involving content creators on the platform, according to an email sent to Marketing Dive. The campaign launches this week and will run through mid-September.
More than 20 Pinterest creators will develop branded content for seven L’Oréal personal care subsidiaries using Idea Pins’ short video feature. The content will cover beauty lessons and trends for consumers looking to get back into social activism amid the pandemic.
The campaign is L’Oréal’s latest attempt to enter the digital space, and the company is expanding its content marketing efforts for its consumer-facing brands.
Dive Insight:
L’Oréal hopes to create memorable consumer experiences through content creators on a platform that is becoming increasingly important to the digital shopping space. Pinterest ideas allow creators to post interactive, short videos that users can interact closely with. This feature also has potential for brands looking to attract the site’s 475 million subscribers. L’Oréal’s new campaign aims to do just that, bringing in a diverse group of more than 20 creators to create educational videos and discuss beauty trends related to Maybelline New York, Cerave, Redken, L’Oréal Paris, Lancôme, YSL Beauty and Urban Decay brands.
By using creators to promote these brands, L’Oréal can be seen as incorporating its consumer-focused portfolio into its content marketing efforts. Last month, L’Oréal tried its hand at content marketing for the first time with a series of online videos aimed specifically at hairdressers who buy the company’s professional products. The new campaign has a broader reach, featuring brands from the classic consumer and luxury consumer divisions. The effort is consistent with the results of a recent Advertiser Perceptions survey, which found that marketers are directing more of their digital advertising budgets to branded content and influencer marketing.
The new campaign comes at a time when Pinterest is reporting an increase in beauty searches on its platform, with queries such as “soft makeup” and “white eyeliner” reaching record highs, according to the report. L’Oréal is also experiencing a surge in interest in its products, especially from countries where vaccination programs have made significant progress, as L’Oréal’s CEO told CNBC. This growth comes after L’Oréal’s annual sales fell 4.1 percent in 2020 due to the economic impact of the pandemic.
L’Oréal has been active in the digital space since the pandemic prevented in-person shopping. In April 2020, the company unveiled its first augmented reality (AR) lenses in the Snap desktop app, allowing fans to virtually wear its products. A few months later, the company released its first line of virtual makeup, which was available on a wider range of social media platforms.
The collaboration between L’Oréal and Pinterest is not the first for the two companies. L’Oréal had previously used immersive content offered by Ceros, an experiential content platform that became a creative partner of Pinterest last year, and these activations took the form of “fragrance finders” that consumers could use to identify their favorite spray. Earlier this year, Pinterest also announced that it would debut the AR Try on tool exclusively with eyeshadows from L’Oréal brands. Featuring AR technology, the feature allows consumers to try on beauty products using an iPhone or Android.
As Pinterest seeks to continue last year’s growth in online shopping, it is partnering with various new brands to test its promotional offerings. In March, the platform partnered with Anthropologie to develop the brand’s first digital catalog. Last week, it partnered with Volkswagen to offer a virtual test drive of that automaker’s electric car. And earlier this month, Pinterest launched Shopping List, another feature that, like Idea Pins, is for both consumers and advertisers.
