Brand
Instagram
Comms & PR
Helping Instagram unlock tomorrow’s beauty consumer
Project Types
Thought Leadership
The challenge

Instagram and Facebook were looking to help their beauty clients leverage social media as part of their media mix across EMEA. To do that, they wanted to demonstrate an understanding of culture – the fashion influencers and communities thriving on their platforms.

Our approach

We wanted to understand people’s relationships with the beauty industry and the success stories behind the brands connecting with them on social media. We did that through a blend of:

Expert interviews with a globally recognized digital anthropologist and a world-renowned ‘niche beauty’ expert.
Quantitative analysis of Facebook-commissioned research on the beauty industry.
Light ethnographic interviews with 15 beauty ‘insiders’ in each of our key markets.
Industry interviews with six leading beauty influencers and brands, from Huda Beauty to @MissFameNYC and @HarnaamKaur.
Output

Our analysis uncovered nine behavioural trends shaping tomorrow’s beauty consumer. These trends explored the ever-changing definition, journey, and expression of beauty. We built an online and print Inside Beauty zine (UK) that outlined how beauty brands can turn these trends into action on social media.

Canvas8 launched the zine at a Facebook event with over 150 clients attending, including Estée Lauder, Treatwell, and L’Oréal.


Results

The insights are being used by teams at Instagram and Facebook to better support beauty clients’ social strategies – from Messenger through to Shopping. And with attitudes from ‘beauty insiders’ across our key markets adding localised nuance to the overarching themes, the report helped activate strategies for brands across EMEA. The report was Instagram and Facebook’s first big foray into the niche beauty sector. Considering the presentation at the Facebook event was “rated among the highest for the day” and received “fantastic client feedback,” it supported them as an authoritative voice in this sector.

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