Evolution of Beauty Marketing w/ Shannon Otto (Amika)

0:00So for us, it's really about relationship building. I think the stronger the brand's relationship with the creators are, the better partner or creator is going to be back to the brand.

0:13Hey, Shannon, welcome to the show. How are you? Hi, I'm doing well. I'm so glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Absolutely, absolutely. Today we talk about fun things, integration in real life, online to offline, vintage stars and celebrities. getting on. We're going to cover a lot of things. But before we get started on that, I always love to have the guests tell a bit about themselves using the map. Basically, it's divided in three different sections. The first one is the mission. So basically, what do you aim to achieve with your work? The achievements, so anything that you're really proud of.

0:48Could be your life, could be your career, or both. And the last one is the purpose. So why do you do what you do? First of all, I love this framework. It's very helpful. So I'm the senior director of consumer engagement at Amica and I lead an incredible team of 12. And really my mission as a team leader is to foster a super collaborative, trusting environment. And everyone really likes each other on my team. I'm very proud of the team that we've built. We had to have a lot of fun while generating some really incredible results. And then actually on a personal level, the team, the whole marketing team at Amica took a Trace Finder workshop back in a recent offsite.

1:23And I learned that my number one strength is being a relier, which means that I prioritize, you know, kind of deep, meaningful one-on-one connections and friendships, which is very aligned to Amika's mission, the brand's mission of being a friend to all, which I'm sure that we will get more into. Fantastic. And again, if there's anything else on top of it, like, you know, maybe on the purpose side, it's like, you know, why, why did you want to like to do this is there it was it like in your background uh it was it like something like because you know some people have done that all their life and that is their purpose some others who are like you know what i work in something else then i was like i wanted to join something different so tell me a bit more about that i'm very proud that amica has been named as a 2023 and a 2024 wwd power brands we've been recognized as the favorite brand of teens and we've grown our market share and shampoo and conditioner on the heels of a very successful and very fun campaign called Let's Get Clinical, which was really all about nearing the clinical results of our shampoos and conditioners with the incredible, clean, natural ingredients that make them up.

2:27And then purpose. I have been in the beauty industry for over a decade. I've been in New York for 14 years. I moved here from Georgia. And throughout the years, I think there's a lot of reasons people work in beauty. It's a very fun category and it's only grown throughout my time in the industry. But really, I consider my purpose is to use whatever privilege that I have to make sure the brands that I work for represent the world that we live in in a really positive way. And then for Purvis, I have been in the beauty industry for over a decade. And throughout my time working for different brands comes down to for me is using my privilege to make sure that the brands I work for reflect the world that we live in in a positive way.

3:10And Amika's tagline is all hair is welcome. And we really take that to heart in everything that we do, whether that's, you know, the creators that we work with, the products that we make and the people that we hire. Fantastic. And, you know, we're also going to get into all that, right? Especially also about your activation in person, right? I saw many things happening here in the city, right in New York City, in certain areas. We're going to go into that for sure. And also something I wanted to ask you before we get into the ins and outs of all these activations is the DNA of the brand, right?

3:39Because, I mean, I'm Italian. I know that Amika in Italian, we're friends, right? So it's something that is such a common word for us, right? And so that already said, right? Like, you know, about friendships, they already, like I mentioned before. So I'm curious a bit more about the roots, right, of Amika when it comes to that. You already kind of said that, right? Everyone is upset at the top of here. So I would like to get a bit more also when it comes to the marketing approach, right? If you had to just mention a few of the values of the brands, what would that be? Yeah, I mean, like you said, Amika means friend.

4:08I take that to heart. our values really kind of mirror those that you would probably want in a friend. Being transparent, being supportive, being fearless. And I love that you use the word roots too, which is a hair term. Our brand has been around for about 15 years. And really, it's just making sure that our marketing reflects those values of being transparent, fun, inviting, warm, not talking down to you. So really, it just all comes back to being friends to all hair, hairstylists, people, and the planet too. and so you know because of that right i want to go a bit more in details about all the different activations right so again you know we said it's you know about the inclusion is about like you know getting different type of people with different hairs like you know and products that can work for everyone and again i i saw many videos on tiktok about activations i saw like you know we're going to talk about also like you know outdoor activities you know billboards and so on so it's very also curious to see i'm going to ask you a bit more later about how to integrate right the different type of medium right at the same time what is effective what is not or like how we can you know, combine them all together for the best efficiencies there.

5:11And one of the things that you did, right, it was with the Volume Mega Mix, the campaign on TikTok, right, with Snooki, you know, MTV, Reality Star. How, first of all, like, you know, how did the idea come out with that? How was the execution of it? Have you noticed anything, like, either in the comments or about, like, any feedback from the people? Tell me a bit more about that type of campaign there. This was such a fun campaign to work on. I'm very proud of it. So we, in July this past year, we launched three new products that have the benefit of volume. Big Hit Shampoo and Editioner and Rising Star Volumizing Spray.

5:43So as you can probably surmise from the product's names, the campaign and the visuals and the messaging all kind of tied to music. So we came up with the idea in partnership with an agency to create a kind of faux mock CD infomercial from back in the day. So kind of think, now that's what I call music, right? And we, you know, needed kind of an anchor to lead the campaign. And these products in particular, this campaign really was geared toward, you know, millennials, older millennials, maybe Gen X a little bit. So thinking about who could tab into for to hit that nostalgia factor. And Nuki, I'll refer to her as Nicole going forward.

6:22She, you know, her poof, it's it's it was an icon back then. It's an icon now. I kind of spoke to that that voluminous look. So we enlisted her to create kind of three, she recreated three big hair looks from the 80s and the 90s and the poof representing the 2000s. And she starred in this infomercial. We had custom songs that kind of spoke to each decade. And the campaign was so fun. All of the comments were so positive. She's just, she could really own the campiness and the silliness of the campaign, but not making it too, I don't think it was too over the top or silly, but it was definitely very engaging.

7:00So we were very pleased with how that turned out. She was such a great partner. And yeah, it really, it was very successful. So like, you know, that is typical, like, you know, nostalgic, right, of campaign. Because it's not only like it comes from that MTV reality star era, right? But also the different styles, right? Going through the different ages and eras, right? You know, it's quite common, right, to go and try. I've seen so many videos, right, of people. It's either dancing in different, like, you know, eras, 70, 60, whatever, like you know and then the same also like with hairstyle you know because they represent society and and it's just a fun way to do that and so if on one side right we have the typical you know celebrity reality star on the other side then we have creators right that are similar but very different in many in many other ways right and so for instance you know again talking about New York City I know that there were activation like in Soho area and you know with some also like you know a hand-painted billboard in the city and i saw creators taking pictures right as a background with the billboard some others join also like event uh in in person how do you organize this type of events what is the focus what do you want to get out of it well first of all it's a very functional team effort very collaborative but to take a step back this campaign the billboard was in support of our newest addition to our dry shampoo collection which was perfect ultra up.

8:21The concept for the product actually came from our community themselves. So it's very cool. So our Perk Up dry shampoo is, our original Perk Up dry shampoo is the number one prestige dry shampoo stew in the US. But we had noticed some readings and reviews, people saying, you know, it's not quite strong enough. My hair gets super oily very fast. So just, you know, for people whose hair gets a little oilier faster, they wanted something a little bit stronger. So we developed Perk of Ultra and it has a tapioca starch in it to kind of really absorb that oil once you, you know, if you develop oil very quickly in your hair.

8:56And we put out a community casting call on our social channels to cast for it. So we wanted to find creators, Perk Up fans, or Perk Up franchise is very beloved. So we knew that we wanted to bring the community in when it came to the actual stars of the campaign. So we found four amazing creators and Perk Up fans, And two of them were actually in this billboard. Casey Canavan, who is a Twitch streamer, and she's also a Navy veteran. And Georgia Bridgers, who's a content creator. So the shoot was in San Diego. All the models, you know, captured content on the set. They have tons of fun. And then when the campaign launched in May, we flew Georgia and Casey to New York for another content creation day.

9:34And they saw themselves on this 90-foot hand-pained. That was so very fire. It's huge. It was. and their reactions when they saw the wall were just priceless so they were so excited to see it they saw some of the other out-of-home basements too but it was really impactful and just created this really full circle moment that our community really loved now i mean like this is like also not like you know uncommon to like you know you're in new york city you see yourself in a billboard right i see also other creators with other companies do that in times square right and and And so you see that you go from, you know, like a small screen to a billboard, something new.

10:11So, of course, you want to get that. I'm pretty sure that you also go like, you know, as a company or media, right? Because of that, other people taking videos and everything, right? I'm pretty sure that also it's not that happened. So maybe more about also the community, because in other episodes, we discuss about the importance of reading comments, right? What I call basically a real time, you know, like a focus group, right? And so basically, when that happens, I'm curious, how do you get what actually matters between all the noise? Because there are so many comments all the time happening, right?

10:42So how do you select what is like, okay, this is actually interesting for us to change a product or to do a new line compared to, yeah, this is interesting, but we don't really have the time for this. That insight for PerkUp Ultra came over several years. We've seen a lot of success with our PerkUp original and then we have PerkUp Plus too. But, you know, we just kept kind of seeing these reviews and felt that there was a need for something stronger. So it's not something where, you know, we see one review and go to PD product development. But it's definitely it's over time. And if we're seeing kind of this groundswell on, you know, retailer websites and our own DMs and our comments, we have a very fast paced and collaborative environment at Anika.

11:24So we're able to kind of share these insights pretty quickly with our price development team. Is your brand ready to amplify its reach? Well, the influencer marketing factory is here for you. We are a global influencer marketing agency helping brands ignite their growth. From influencer identification to campaign strategy, handling legalities and agreements to managing shipping and logistics, we got you all covered. We work with hundreds of brands across different verticals, from Fortune 500 companies to direct-to-consumer brands. And we don't just stop there. With detailed ROI analysis will help brands like yours measure success, transforming impressions into conversions.

12:02You can find us at theinfluencermarketingfactory.com or just searching the Influencer Marketing Factory on Google. Fantastic. And something else I also wanted to ask you still on the activation side, right? Because we said about the billboards before, right? And I saw, you know, videos also on TikTok that it's so basically what I like all the time. It is that whenever you have something, you know, outdoor, you can also then take a video, make it like an asset. You can make images, you can make carousels, right? But also you, like, you know, with your team also so that you did pop-up shops, right?

12:31And activations. First of all, like I saw the ones in New York City, but did you also do in other cities in the US? Tell me a bit more also like if there is any strategic place that you usually go to. And when it comes to that also, how do you use any influencers? Like, do you invite them there? They take like typical photos, but are they also, I guess, part of the activation, right? Because I'm pretty sure that they can go there and make like, you know, some hairstyle, anything like that. So tell me a bit more about, How they work and how do you, from the vision to the execution? Well, I'll try to be succinct.

13:01It's definitely a lot to share. It's, again, a huge team effort here. So our first, we've had two pop-up series this year. The first was to support our smooth over frizz fighting treatment. So this launched back in day. It's an in-shower treatment. It works in one minute and it reduces, I believe, up to 73 % of your frizz after one use. So with the timing of March, we decided to kind of take the show on the road and go to some very humid cities, some cities where we know that we have a large community based on some of our retailer and D2C data. So for four consecutive weekends, we went to Nashville, Austin, Houston, and then Miami.

13:37And we had this fully customized, fabricated, trip-out truck that had huge glass windows. and people could literally go inside the truck, see the new product, explore the ingredients, learn about it, take photos. And they got tons of samples. And all the truck, you know, each city was parked outside Sephora doors. So we were capturing consumer, you know, right when she capturing our audience, right when they were back to shop. And I was there all four weekends. It's so fun to talk to people who, to introduce people to the brand, to talk to people who are already fans and tell them about any products, ask how they heard about the brand.

14:13It's really, really fun. And we're working also exhausting, but a very flat. Yeah, I can't imagine that. But I love that you had like this thing about say, let's go with, you know, very like humid city, right? I used to live in Miami, so I know what does it mean, right? If you're in certain specific months, right, of the year, it's hard, right? And also like, you know, when you say about also talking directly with people, right? Because I'm pretty sure that you can have certain, you know, like feedback from influencers. But then when you talk with people that are there for the products, right?

14:41So is there anything else that you learned during this? Again, you said it's very, like, you know, kind of, it's a lot, right? Going different cities, talking with people. But if you learn something as a marketer, as a person in this type of business, what are the things that impress you the most after these conversations? Yeah, it's, I mean, people are so curious about beauty and hair. And hair is such an emotional category. So, you know, when we're in these cities, you're like, oh, but here it reduces frizz. Oh, I need this. Like, I'm so glad you're here. It's, hair, it's just, hair is a very emotional category.

15:11where you think about how you feel when you're walking out of the hair salon and your hair is done. It just puts a pep in your step. So it's really kind of about that emotional connection. So to promote the truck, we did work with influencers, local influencers in each city along the way. They got a preview. They got kind of, we created some content in partnership with them. Then we also posted a brunch for some of them in Miami. Had our consumer engagement team there. He was at brunch. It was very intimate. it and just again it was it actually you know made some people made friends there at this brunch that they still talk to so again kind of linking the brand back to friendship in a really fun way and i i love the mobile truck model because it's basically a mobile billboard people don't have to know you know the address of something if they're they're in this outdoor mall or going to sephora they see this truck they could even see it on the highway as the truck was driving from city to city so i think it's a very effective you know way to do a pop absolutely is there just for like a period of time.

16:07You can talk with people, you can go around. I see many companies do that in a very effective way. And what is also the funny is that this is very like in-person, right? We talk about like a lot of activations, right? So it's either a billboard that is set there with the creators taking a selfie with that in the background to pop up stores, and this is like very in-person. And then you also like did activation in some ways. The total opposite is the metaverse, right? and especially like on Roblox. We already covered Roblox with some other companies in the past on this podcast and always find it fascinating because it's something that, I don't know, maybe I'm getting to an age where it's a bit difficult for me to understand totally how Roblox works.

16:48So why don't you tell us a bit more about how did you use that? How was the approach for the metaverse? And also, what do you think are the pros and cons of it? Because again, there is so much, it's still new, right? For many, many people. So yeah, tell me a bit more as a brand, how to properly approach the Metaverse. I'm very proud of this project. So we know from our internal research that within 18 to 34 are our sweet spot. And as I mentioned, we were named as the favorite brand of teens from a Piper Sandler survey. So looking at the channels that younger audiences use, Rolox popped up as this huge channel where they're spending tons and tons and tons of time.

17:29There's millions of daily active users. So it's crazy, yeah. So that's time that they're not spending on TikTok, on YouTube, on Instagram, these channels that we're already invested in. So, you know, as part of our ethos of being fearless and being risk takers, we decided to actually create our own kind of metaverse world within Roblox as a game. It's called the Amigaverse. And it really brings these like three different pillars of the brand to life. There's a hair salon where users have to choose the best Amiga products to match their clients' concerns. There's a garden where people could, users can grow ingredients like sea buckthorn made of a raspberry.

18:07These are ingredients that we actually use in our products. And then there's a fun game where you can like kind of go throughout the world and collect a recyclable material or you don't call it trash. But then you can take it to a recycling center and recycle this into packaging, which kind of mirrors how we use PCR, post-consumer recycled material in our packaging. It's a really fun way to educate, engage people. and, you know, I think the pros, kind of everything I talked about, that's time, you know, people on Roblox, they're spending time there and that's time they're not spending. So we're reaching them in channels that they're already on.

18:41I don't want to say it's a con, but a challenge is that it's a whole other marketing channel. So we have to have activation strategies, giveaways are really engaging. So it's a whole other channel to manage and it's definitely a channel that's new to a lot of people. But, you know, we really prioritize innovation and we were the first premium hair care brand in the U.S. on Velox. So that was very exciting too. And do you think there is like as of now a game of primarily brand awareness education or are you also able to then convert? Let's say, you know, I know that other brands are doing either a promo code, right?

19:15Or like there is a game that if you finish, it gives you an activation code or something or maybe there is a drop collection. As you said, it's challenging, right? To be able to do that. But do you feel there is going to be a future like where it's going to be a bit more easy to integrate these from offline to online to offline again, that type of things? Or do you think that as of now, it's again, primarily just a game of, you know, we do this, we experiment, we test it out, but it's still difficult to then bring the people maybe to activate on, you know, on a deal or something like that. Yes.

19:46The goal right now really is brand awareness and just testing and learning. But, you know, Roblox just partnered with Shopify. That was just announced recently. So it's definitely going to be easier to kind of switch back and forth. And we are really closely with our D2C team. And there's ways we can integrate our loyalty program where if you do, you know, S, Y, and Z within the Roblox game, you'll get loyalty points on our website. So it's definitely, you know, with the Shopify partnership especially, it's only going to get easier to integrate that. One other thing that I think it's interesting for is, you know, we have a, like a store in our D Amicaverse where users can buy custom hair or merch or little outfits, kind of, you know, in the metaverse to decorate their avatar.

20:29And it's kind of interesting to see what items people gravitate to most. And that can kind of almost help inform our merch strategy, our GWP strategy, right? Because if we see people looking for, I'm going to make this up, but for a beach bag or a bucket hat or a baseball cap, you know, we can kind of get a sense of what types of items people are gravitating toward before we actually go make the IRL merch. Very interesting, actually. Yeah, you're right. Like, you know, it's gamification at the same time if you want to put that in the metaverse and it's actually an item you can buy potentially out there most probably if you add that dream to everything with your avatar most probably you also want to have it right in real life so I think it's very interesting for you to study that and then bring it to real life again and I have a last question for you today and it's what is the most important thing for Amika when it comes to the creative economy in the next feature you said that fearless you want to test you want to do is there anything else in addition to the metaverse that we just discussed that you're like really focusing on?

21:27You know, we work with creators of all tiers, right? As I'm sure pretty much everybody, you know, your macro, your mid-tier, your micro. They all play different roles in our community. I think in beauty and in particular in hair, we prioritize working with creators across multiple different like industries or interests. So not just your try to true beauty creators who are incredible, by the way, but your gamers, your athletes, your travel enthusiasts, again, based on some psychographic data that we've, some psychographic research that we've done. We know what our audience is interested in. So we can kind of tap into that through different creators.

22:00But for us, it's really about, you know, I think consumers are getting more savvy, but they want to watch content from people who they look up to or who they relate to. So for us, it's really about relationship building. Like, I think the stronger the brand's relationship with the creators are, you know, the better partner or creator is going to be back to the brand. So it's just prioritizing those relationships we handle via all of our influencer marketing in-house just to make sure that it's, you know, they're getting the best possible. experience with the brand. And is there anything else that I didn't ask you today in that you are either excited to share things that you work on or something that, again, you're looking forward to see the credit economy happening soon?

22:36No, I mean, just, you know, you have a fun Roblox roadmap for 2025. We have some fun events lined up, but, you know, can't share too much right now, but I really appreciate you having me here. Thank you so much. Of course. No, I thank you for sharing, like, you know, the journey so far. Quite curious to see what is next. Again, you know, your team and yourself, like, very, very active in person and online. So very curious to see and best of luck for everything there. And again, thank you for joining us on today's channel. Of course. Thank you so much. This was the Influence Factor by the Influencer Marketing Factory and I'll see you next week.