4 Makeup Brands That are Nailing Video Right Now
2. Estee Lauder
This piece from Estee Lauder showcases exactly what a high-budget commercial can be when handled by the right team. This promo is technically sound, following many best practices for content in general, as well as adding in components that elevate the piece without it feeling like a gimmick.
Firstly, the product is shown immediately, along with its name and CGI animation of silky-smooth makeup in the air. This is something that makeup companies have done for years, but this one stands out with its light branding that feels pristine. Though this introduction to the product only lasts three seconds, the best practice for commercials at this time — in the age of short attention spans on social media — is to display the product, name, and brand in the first three seconds.
At four seconds, we see the first model with flawless skin, and the frame opens up to the room, then a gorgeous mansion filled with diverse women whose skin is flawless. Whoever you are, whatever you look like, you can see the “best” version of yourself in that mansion and aspire to it.
Finally, elegant long-standing brands have no need to use trendy or modern editing tricks, effects, and transitions. For key product details called out in graphics on screen, they made white text in their font come on screen and then just disappear. Nothing fancy, nothing expensive. It’s timeless and effective, just like Estee Lauder’s product.
3. Sephora
Arguably a large part of the cosmetics industry’s rise as a whole is due to beauty influencers on social media, of which there are two types. The first is the makeup enthusiast, who is often just a high school student who knows how to do a few things very well, who picks a look and walks the viewer through every step of the process to create that look for themselves. The second type of beauty influencer is a lot more product-focused, featuring close-up or macro shots of the packaging, then playing with the product in some way.
Sephora is heavily focused on speaking to its community with similar, but elevated, content that speaks back to them in the “same language.” The above promo from Sephora does a beautiful job of just that. This piece is entirely focused on eliciting a feeling of calm and ease by moving the bottles for different Fenty Beauty products through the actual liquid product on a hard surface.
This creates a variety of different textures as the product smears across the table, pools around and sticks to the bottle, glistening in the light. This type of content resonates so well within the cosmetics industry because the satisfying sensation of playing with the product so closely mirrors the feeling of applying the product to your skin, rubbing in the makeup as you watch yourself become more and more flawless in the mirror.
Therefore, the content gives the viewer a preview of what it would be like to use the product, thus making the viewer desire it more. In your own content, try and figure out exactly what feeling your product gives your customer upon successful use. Find ways to elicit that same emotion through your advertising.
