Celimax: Native Advertising on YouTube Drives Complete Sellout in Russia
How to achieve maximum success from influencer marketing in the beauty segment
Background
The cosmetics brand Celimax asked for our help promoting their products to the Russian-speaking audience. The time has never been better, as demand for Korean skincare is growing in Russia. That is why both the client and we were initially confident of success. And we were not wrong. The results exceeded all expectations. The campaign ended with a full "sold out!" on the brand's products in the popular cosmetic store chain Golden Apple. But we'll talk about that a little later.
Goal
The main goal of the campaign was to promote a specific line, Celimax Noni. Besides, the advertising should "lead" users to the Wildberries marketplace or the Golden Apple online store (note: some of the most popular services for shopping for cosmetics and other goods in Russia) to make a purchase after viewing. And it was planned to achieve this result through integration with opinion leaders. The client had no specific preferences for bloggers or sites, so they fully entrusted this task to RMAA specialists.
Solution
Work Specifics
Celimax is a modern brand from South Korea that offers innovative, high-quality cosmetic products. The brand has its own philosophy and values that underpin each beauty product.
The brand has 5 product lines, but the client wanted to focus on the Celimax Noni category. That said, the blogger needed to use at least 4 of the brand's products, with 2 from a specific product line and the other 2 chosen at their discretion.
Add to these nuances the minimalist design, philosophy, and unusual ingredients of each brand's products. As a result, the most successful advertising campaign required the format of a detailed cosmetics review with the most native presentation.
Therefore, YouTube proved to be the most promising platform for the campaign, while other popular influencer services in Russia could limit the use of advertising creatives based on various parameters (e.g., the timing of TikTok videos, the format of Telegram posts, etc.).
Between August 10 and August 29, 2023, we managed to implement five collaborations with YouTube bloggers. What's more, it didn't take long to find influencers for the campaign, since we take a systematic approach to working with opinion leaders and constantly update our database of bloggers across various market segments and social platforms, including YouTube.
Solution
When searching for channels, we focused on current trends, opting for two popular blog formats:
- Unpacking of products from marketplaces, including cosmetic products;
- Beauty reviews from industry experts.
All the integrations turned out to be as native as possible, like "beauty routine", perfectly fitting into the lifestyle of the heroines of our advertising campaign. A bonus for channel viewers was an additional 10% discount on Celimax products at the Golden Apple online store.
The first three videos were released on popular Influencer channels, featuring content that unpacked various goods from marketplaces.
Blogger Masha Zoom made a video about a productive start to the day at 5AM, where she told her subscribers about the beauty rituals she follows in the morning, including cleansing her skin with Celimax products.
Ksyusha Aisberg, known under the nickname Icceeeberg not only on Youtube, but also in Tik-Tok, Instagram* (note - the social network is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia), dedicated a video on her channel entirely to products from the Golden Apple store. The blogger shoots content in this format quite often, across different budgets. Therefore, a beauty review of Celimax products served as the basis for the August content.
Having agreed to collaborate with Flexi, we focused on a young female audience. In our opinion, it is very timely, because August is considered a super commercial season for teenagers and students who are actively shopping before the start of the school year. Flexi's viewers (note - and the blogger herself) fall into this category.
Then, beauty experts joined the advertising campaign.
Makeup artist Marina Suya gave a review of purchases at the Golden Apple store, showing and demonstrating 5 Celimax products in use. The review turned out to be quite detailed (about 5 minutes), with separate shots where the blogger uses the brand's products.
In a similar style, Celimax was presented by blogger Daria Krivda on her YouTube channel. The video's theme was perfect makeup without foundation, which is impossible without cleansing the skin. Therefore, Daria started her story with a Celimax review. Besides, the girl emphasized that she had already had a chance to use the brand's products before the video was released, and that she was already running out of some of them. In short, the idea of "empty bottles" only increased viewers' trust.
Results
The Celimax campaign was a resounding success. Our KPIs were met and, in some areas, exceeded. This is why we began preparing a new offer for the client to promote on social platforms in Russia, not just YouTube. But... it turned out that our cooperation was so successful. All of the brand's goods sold out in one month in August 2023. The client was not ready for this and planned the nearest delivery of Celimax cosmetics to Russian Golden Apple stores by the end of the fall. Therefore, our joint campaign had to be put on a temporary "stop". Of course, the customer was satisfied and promised to resume cooperation with us when the products are back in stock. The brand did not carry out any other advertising activities in Russia.
