At the close of 2019 it was officially confirmed: indie beauty is not slowing down. Q4 brought news of blockbuster acquisitions, including Shiseido’s purchase of Drunk Elephant, Henkel’s purchase of DevaCurl, and the long-awaited purchase of Kylie Cosmetics by beauty giant Coty. With all of this investment chatter, Tribe Dynamics expanded the scope of its indie beauty reporting into the U.K. in Q3. This quarter, we took it even further with our first EMEA Indie Beauty Debrief, which showcases the buzziest EMEA-based indie beauty brands of Q4 2019 by Earned Media Value (EMV). Here’s a snapshot into what went on in the world of indie beauty, and the global impact these brands had.
Makes a Global Splash With New Products, New Distribution
Launched in 2013, the Italian brand has built a strong reputation among not only the Italian influencer community, but more recently, a global influencer audience thanks to expansive product seeding. In Q4, the brand released its Skin Glazing highlighter, which saw significant influencer support in Italy. Nabla Cosmetics was also featured in Ulta’s “Sparked at Ulta” program, which promotes smaller, indie brands available at the beauty retailer giant. Thanks to these new products and expanded distribution, Nabla Cosmetics enjoyed a 50% quarter-over-quarter EMV growth in Italy and a 56% QoQ EMV surge in the U.S.
Celebrates Influencer Community With Intimate Events
ByTerry, founded by French makeup artist and industry trailblazer Terry de Gunzburg, is a luxury beauty brand heralded by influencers for its high quality products. In Q4, the brand made sure to return the favor to its online community, inviting a squad of French beauty bloggers to Norway to celebrate the new Hyaluronic Tinted Hydra-Powder and hosting a group of British bloggers for an intimate holiday gathering. ByTerry’s community-building activations paid off: the brand enjoyed a 138% quarter-over-quarter EMV increase to $3.3M EMV in France, and netted $2.3M EMV in the U.K.
Promotes Seasonal Advent Calendar Content
Cosnova Beauty’s flagship brand, known for its winning combination of affordability and quality, drove influencer enthusiasm in Q4 with its festive Advent calendar of products. The brand sent the product-filled calendar to a group of German influencers, helping mentions of “Adventskalender” (Advent calendar) drive $674.0k EMV of the brand’s $4.4M EMV quarterly total in Germany. Additionally, Essence Cosmetics enjoyed quarter-over-quarter EMV bumps across EMEA, including 8% in Spain and 92% in the Gulf Countries.
Be sure to download the full EMEA Indie Beauty Debrief, to understand what exactly is driving these brands’ Earned Media Value success!