The Background
Beauty buyers were totally changing how they engaged with the premium Beauty category and essencemediacom had to completely rethink how they used media to connect with them – taking Broadcast media and turning it on its head with an unmissable, shoppable first of its kind Live social and TV takeover! This campaign won Best Use of Innovation and the overall Grand Prix award at the 2024 TAMI Awards
The Challenge
Premium Beauty in Ireland had changed, and Boots was no longer being seen by many as their first port of call for the most desirable Beauty products.
A shifting purchasing dynamic had reshaped the category as more buyer behaviour was taking place online, further propelled by new beauty ‘tribe’ culture that had formed driven by social platforms like Insta, Snap and Tik Tok and influential social content creators all talking to eager beauty shoppers about the products they used.
Alongside this, Boots, despite making progress on enhancing the range of products available in-store/ online were seeing erosion in sales performance of premium beauty lines driven by new category entrants with direct to customer online ecommerce platforms and also the specialist department stores – where switched on category Buyers believed they could get the newest ‘must have’ products, more quickly.
To successfully protect + drive sales, we had to quickly engage this new ‘tribe’ of Beauty buyers and convince them that Boots is a credible destination for the latest brands, and that they could get their hands on the products as quickly as they could possibly want with fast (and even free) delivery from the Boots online commerce platform Boots.ie
The Strategy
essencemediacom had already seen that the power and role of digital influencers had grown at pace in Ireland, almost 50% of 18-34 Beauty Buyers in Ireland recently admitting their general online purchase behaviour was readily impacted by social influencers (source Audience Origin ROI, 2024).
essencemediacom have worked hard with Boots over time to harmonise their use of TV – which econometrics had shown remained critical
as a driver of ROI – with an increased adoption of sophisticated digital activity but it was evident that simply showing ‘more ads’ wasn’t going to be enough on its own.
They needed to move the dial from functional to culturally relevance with a solution to persuade younger audiences to engage and see Boots differently, but also continue to deliver successful campaign presence across TV and AV which still had a significant role to play in reaching all Boots shoppers.
With TikTok being Gen Z’s favoured platform, it thrives on authentic, relatable, and candid content. With creators talking directly to their audience the format has been likened to Face timing a best friend while they share beauty secrets and routines. This made it the ideal trend to tap into to drive cultural relevance through trusted content creators and beauty influencer, positioning Boots as the go to destination for all things premium beauty, skincare and haircare.
So, the team connected with one of Ireland’s highest profile broadcast production providers Virgin Media Television to get Ireland Getting Ready live on TV!
The Plan
In an Irish media first, essencemediacom took the TikTok #GRWM phenomenon to Irelands TV screens with a simultaneous live broadcast across both TikTok and Virgin TV!
Boots in partnership with carefully selected and highly trusted Irish Beauty influencers and content creators would showcase a range of the latest must have products from cleansers to primers lipsticks and even fragrances, through GRWM events taking place over a series of Ad-break dominations in high attention ‘appointment to view’ peak TV programming.
Working with the creative Invention @GroupM team and Virgin TVs own production studios, with 4 diverse content creators – Ayo Fierce, Lauren Whelan, Devina Devine and Ben Sun – they produced high quality, authentic ‘TikTok’ style, content that was as much at home on the nations TV screens as it would be on a phone handset!
They produced 2-minute live ads that aired consecutively throughout the course of a carefully curated programme selection showing the full 8-minute GRWM look as it took shape over the course of the show, whether it was getting ready for a Halloween night out or preparing for party season.
The placement of these live ads was going to be critical; as it would need to be in TV content that itself drove attention and conversations amongst viewers – younger and older! So, working with Virgin Media they carefully curated a selection of ad break takeovers that would ensure the Live content would get the attention and reach it deserved using shows from Big Brother to Emmerdale!
With sales the ultimate goal – and knowing the importance of appealing to the growing demand for immediacy and availability – all of this new Boots GRWM Live TV content activity was shoppable with QR codes embedded within the TV advert frames, and all social cutdown content was instantly shoppable at every point!
The Results
- The GRWM Live activation delivered well over 4.5 times the original budget in revenue!
- The campaign delivered a 280% increase in premium beauty sales at Boots.ie YOY – impact directly attributable to the actual products being featured within each of the 4 weeks Live GRWM content, this brilliant campaign was the ONLY point of difference within the Beauty category plan at Boots vs the previous year!
- The TV end frame made a real difference to viewers who wanted to buy there and then! with the QR code scans alone delivering almost 10% of all campaign attributed revenue!
- The TikTok element of the campaign resulted in the highest ever ROAS on TikTok for Boots!
- Increased online Beauty sales amongst 18-34s by a staggering +744% in the campaign period YOY!
The campaign was a resounding success, we found the perfect way to marry the scale, reach and effectiveness of TV with the cultural immediacy of a growing social media trend – by creating eye catching, entertaining content that busted the norms of how TV ad breaks work.
“GRWM Live’ provided an unparalleled stage for us. Moreover, the event allowed viewers to shop their favourites instantly – and led to impressive sales results!”
Linda Nolan, Head of Marketing, Boots Ireland.
Credits
Brand:
Boots
Media Agency:
essencemediacom
Supporting agencies/teams:
Invention @ GroupM
Virgin Media Television
Award:
TAMI Awards Grand Prix 2024
TAMI Awards Best Use of Innovation 2024