Best Campaign Generating Brand Awareness
Agency: A Squared Group
Campaign: Bare Escentuals Tour of America
Client: Bare Escentuals
Cosmetics retailer Bare Escentuals uses all-natural mineral-based ingredients in its make-up. Its bareMinerals product line creates a glowing less-is-more look that matches a full spectrum of skin tones.
BE built its business through direct channels such as QVC and infomercials. Now, the retailer needed to break through to new consumers, increase market share and drive traffic to its flagship Bare Escentuals boutiques and channel partner stores such as Sephora and Ulta.
Educating women who haven’t learned how to “swirl, tap and buff” would be a top priority. Even when discovering bareMinerals in stores, the brand reports that the consumer is often confused on how to apply the product. To achieve meaningful growth, it was necessary for BE’s target market to understand how to apply the make-up for optimal results.
They decided to educate potential customers on the brand philosophy and application process using a mobile program.
Target consumers – women between the ages of 18-35 – are on-the-go, students and professionals whose personal time is a commodity, so there was a small window in which to create a key educational takeaway about the product line. Also, the target audience needed to be intercepted to open their minds to the concept of a ‘makeunder’.
They decided to distill the trial application down to a ‘bite-size quickie’ experience. They developed the Bare Escentuals Tour of America: a three-legged, 28-week mobile tour bringing quick, transformative ‘makeunders’ to busy women across America.
A fleet of hot pink vans were transformed into mobile, compact beauty salons emulating the look and feel of Bare Escentuals boutiques. The support team carried iPads for easy sales without pressure. A select group of most committed and influential customers were present at key locations and tapped into their networks for support. Giveaways and samples were distributed on location.
Local bloggers, radio DJs and other media staff were invited on ride-alongs. Team Leaders sent Facebook updates and teaser tweets from the road to pique interest. The microsite offered route details, fan photos from each city, virtual postcards and video clips of happy fans.
The tour traveled 261 days across 33 states and did 40,000 makeunders. More than 7,500 email addresses were captured, 350,000 samples distributed and 600,000 coupons handed out, that were redeemed at five times greater than any previous Bare Escentuals coupon.
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