The Physique Store’s Built-in Worldwide Model Communications Director, Charlotte Amouy Adjchavanich, explains how the beauty firm harnesses influencer advertising at scale to each promote its 1,000 merchandise and push for a worldwide ban on animal testing in cosmetics.
Traackr has partnered with Scott Guthrie for the next interview. This kinds a part of our new international collection “Influencer Advertising at Scale”. Different firms featured within the collection embody How Meliá Resorts Worldwide Scales Influencer Advertising Throughout 7 Manufacturers and 4 Continents.
Dame Anita Roddick opened her first The Physique Store in Brighton, on the south coast of England in 1976. Right this moment the British cosmetics, skincare and fragrance firm operates from 3,049 shops throughout 66 international locations.
Final 12 months the corporate was acquired by Brazil’s premier cosmetics firm Natura after 11 years throughout the L’Oréal secure. Nonetheless, The Physique Store retains its distinctive id and values and continues to be primarily based in the UK.
Although at present promoting a spread of 1,000 merchandise the pioneering firm is as well-known for its good-cause campaigning as it’s for its cosmetics and skincare merchandise.
Its Towards Animal Testing marketing campaign led to a UK-wide ban on animal testing of beauty merchandise and substances in November 1998, and the most important ever petition (4 million signatures) being delivered to the European Fee in 1996.
In 1997, The Physique Store was the primary worldwide cosmetics firm to enroll to the Humane Cosmetics Normal, supported by main worldwide animal safety teams. And in 2007 The Physique Store joined forces with MTV to lift funds and consciousness about HIV and AIDS.
I spoke with Charlotte Amouy Adjchavanich, the Built-in Worldwide Model Communications Director for The Physique Store about influencer advertising at scale and the way The Physique Store works with influencers to drive social change in addition to to drive product gross sales.
[SG] What’s The Physique Store strategy to influencer advertising?
[CAA] The Physique Store has grown via word-of-mouth advertising. Anita Roddick actually knew mobilize folks whether or not it was British clothier Katharine Hamnett or US rock musician Chrissie Hynde on selling the ban of animal testing in cosmetics. To The Physique Store everyone seems to be an influencer. Our retailer workers are influencers. Peer-to-peer communication is essential. Individuals look to their pals for recommendation.
We’ve got very strict standards relating to working with influencers to advertise our manufacturers or social causes. We all the time say it’s not nearly one other fairly face it’s about discovering somebody who stands for one thing.
We undertake plenty of due diligence on potential influencers. We’ll all the time test they haven’t worn fur prior to now, for instance. That’s an enormous factor. We additionally need to know whether or not they’re vegetarian or vegan. In the event that they’re not that’s okay so long as they’ve a robust moral fame and so they’re fully authentic. We take influencer advertising very significantly. We’re so discerning about who we work with.
We harness various kinds of influencer for various conditions. For our Endlessly Towards Animal Testing marketing campaign as an illustration we’ve labored with excessive profile influencers and celebrities. Maisie Williams from Sport of Thrones posted an image to her Instagram feed utilizing the hashtag #foreveragainstanimaltesting. It generated 479,000 likes. Equally Ariel Winter from US sitcom, Trendy Household, used the hashtag when she posted a picture for our trigger. Ariel’s picture prompted 240,000 likes together with hundreds of constructive feedback.
Should you have a look at our Dare to Masks program which was all about selling our face masks we used plenty of vegan influencers.
There we tried to get individuals who had extra of a way of life focus slightly than simply pure magnificence.
[SG] Which staff at The Physique Store is finally liable for influencer advertising?
[CAA] The model staff owns influencer advertising. We’ve got a digital staff, too. Model works with digital on social media amplification. So if we need to do a giant push and put some paid media behind a sure venture we’ll go to the digital staff.
The model staff is often extra ‘owned media’ biased. The digital staff is extra ‘paid media’ centered. However we work collectively. Digital gained’t have interaction with an influencer; they’ll ask the model staff to try this for them as a result of we often have the connection already. It’s the model staff which owns the influencer funds, too.
The influencer component is the most important spend of my advertising funds, we see that’s the place we get much more engagement, visibility and consciousness than different advertising techniques.
Our insights staff has achieved plenty of model well being research displaying there’s a necessity for influencer advertising. It’s positively a model builder.
We’re one central model at head workplace right here within the UK. We then have international zones: the Americas (the US, Canada and Latin America) EMEA and APAC. By way of influencers we work very intently with the heads of every zone. Their jobs are to work very intently inside their markets.
We don’t look to pure magnificence influencers per se. We empower our native markets to pick out their very own influencers who’re the best match for his or her market. We realise that you simply by no means profit from a one-size matches all strategy. You would possibly get somebody who’s completely superb however she’s solely recognized in a sure a part of the world. And that’s excellent for that specific zone.
If we’re going to work with big-named influencers we’ll work very intently with our zones and ask them to appoint individuals who in addition they like. This strategy helps type a worldwide tribe. So, once more with Endlessly in opposition to Animal Testing not solely did we have now Kelly Osbourne, who’s primarily based within the US however who’s a Brit and recognized all world wide, we additionally had Dalal: a vegan blogger. She’s big within the Center East with 2.2 million Instagram followers however not extensively recognized elsewhere.
[SG] How do you arrange the influencer advertising strategy globally? Is the operate managed internally, outsourced or is there a mix?
[CAA] We oversee and set the agenda for all influencer advertising packages in home. We used to succeed in out to influencers and interact with them both immediately or through their brokers. Nonetheless, the admin aspect of issues could be very difficult when it comes to onboarding them and paying them – that’s the boring aspect – so we have now began working with businesses. It’s loads simpler to funnel the whole lot via them.
We see our key function in-house as constructing the relationships with influencers. At a worldwide perspective we search to take care of a private contact in order that there’s a real, genuine partnership.
We’ve got constructed an influencer advertising toolkit that we give to our businesses and native zones. In it we lay out our influencer priorities. It’s often achieved on the model degree of what’s necessary to us.
[SG] How does The Physique Store share greatest apply about influencer advertising throughout its manufacturers, businesses and international zones?
[CAA] We use our influencer software package. We share concepts via common convention calls and video calls. We even have market visits the place a zone will come right here to go workplace.
The pinnacle of EMEA is predicated in Paris, so he’s right here loads. I’m visiting the US subsequent month to spend time with them. And I’ve just lately returned from Nepal visiting with our APAC staff. We spend plenty of time speaking with the totally different zones and dealing very intently with the groups. We talk day by day about influencer tasks.
[SG] How does The Physique Store measure its influencer advertising success?
[CAA] On the Physique Store we observe two issues. Clearly we need to observe gross sales. We’re nonetheless studying on a regular basis about observe the metrics via to buy. However our greatest marketing campaign is Endlessly Towards Animal Testing which we launched final June with the ambition to get 8 million signatures and so get the United Nations to maneuver to a worldwide ban on animal testing.
We put plenty of effort behind pushing for extra signatures in all of our markets. It’s not nearly gross sales, it’s about getting folks concerned in our marketing campaign. So signing the petition is a key metric we’re monitoring.
We set KPIs for every program. Usually we search for an uplift in followers to our The Physique Store Instagram account. We additionally have a look at engagement, model recall and model sentiment. We’re looking for individuals who, maybe, had forgotten about us and who now love us once more. Optimistic sentiment is a giant factor for us.
About Scott Guthrie
Scott is an unbiased influencer advertising advisor. Earlier roles embody overseeing influencer relations at main company, Ketchum, and serving because the newswire product supervisor, EMEA at PR Newswire. Comply with him on Twitter. Learn his influencer advertising weblog, or watch “My Influencer Advertising Philosophy”.
