The global market for beauty and personal care products is worth about US$450bn annually, and includes some of the world’s most iconic brands. As in all categories, beauty brands are having to adapt to rapid changes in technology and consumer behaviour, which are forcing them to change the way they communicate with consumers.

Consumers’ experience of beauty brands has changed rapidly over the last three years. Beauty is still more dependent on offline media than most categories: offline touchpoints contributed 76% of beauty brand experience in 2016, compared to 64% of brand experience across all categories. (A touchpoint’s brand experience score measures how much it contributes to consumers’ overall experience of brands.) Image and glamour are at the heart of the category, and beauty brands have traditionally turned to high-impact media like television and magazines to convey these qualities. But online media are rapidly becoming a lot more important – their share of brand experience increased by six percentage points between 2013 and 2016.

Television and magazines have lost none of their power to display brand values – in fact, their influence on consumer behaviour has increased over the last three years. Television ads are still the most influential form of beauty advertising, followed by in-store and magazine ads. But online video is rapidly increasing its influence, which increased by 14.4 points between 2013 and 2016. (The influence score is a measure of how likely a touchpoint is to influence consumer behaviour.) 

Over this time online video changed from something consumers encountered occasionally to a regular and expected part of their daily media diet. Most video is now viewed on smartphones, the consumers’ most personal device. Thanks to advances in connection speeds and displays, video is becoming integral to the internet experience. This is giving beauty brands the opportunity to display their qualities and values to best effect online.