Beauty brand launches mask-by-mail initiative

PHD and digital developer Redvolutions created the Facebook-focused campaign, titled ‘My Beauty Diary – Hong Kong beauty mailbox’ for the brand's new platinum series, which launched in Hong Kong in May.

Although the brand has been selling its products in Hong Kong for six years through the city's 350 Mannings stores and has done some smaller marketing campaigns including airing its Taiwanese-made TV ads, this is its first localized campaign. The brand set up a Hong Kong office last summer, Ariel Chen, product and sales manager, told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

PHD has placed banner ads on sites including Yahoo and BeautyExchange.com to drive customers to the campaign website. Fens Sato, creative and business director with Redvolutions, said the campaign idea is to encourage users to share beauty secrets with their best friends.

Once users log in with their Facebook account, a photo album appears on their Facebook wall. They then need to fill in their name and their friends’ names and addresses, and the brand will send a free sample of the Platinum series mask to their friends.

Chen said aggressive marketing in the cosmetics space by many brands, including Korean brands, prompted the company to do more above-the-line-marketing. The brand is planning a roadshow event for another new product launch in July.

The brand launched in 2003 and is sold at retail chains Cosmed, Watsons and 7-Eleven. It plans to open a stand-alone store in Taipei later this year.