Elisabeth King reports on Estée Lauder signing Gabriella Wilde, Shu Uemura teaming with Yaz Bukey, advertising spend dropping by $33 million in December, and beauty brands targeting the "manopausal male”.
Estée Lauder signs Gabriella Wilde
Cressida Bonas, Prince Harry's ex, has been swanning around Hollywood as the new face of Mulberry and acting alongside Judi Dench and Christoph Waltz in the Harvey Weinstein-backed movie Tulip Fever. Aristocratic British beauties are having a moment. Gabriella Wilde (Three Musketeers, Endless Love) is the new face of and will debut in her first campaign in March for the Crescent White skincare line, a new range of brightening products.
Gabriella's real name is Gabriella Zanna Vanessa Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe. The descendant of a long line of aristos and King Charles II, her half-sister Isabella once dated Prince William and was regarded as the only serious threat to Kate Middleton. She went for the money, though, and married Sam Branson, the son of Sir Richard. Isabella is also a half-sister of Cressida Bonas as both are daughters of the much-married Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon.
Shu Uemura teams with Yaz Bukey for new makeup collection
Shu Uemura's collaboration with Choupette, Karl Lagerfeld's pampered moggie, pushed the odd bedfellows envelope. But the L'Oréal-owned brand has announced a partnership with niche jeweller, Yaz Bukey. The exotic-looking craftswoman's bio reveals that she is an Ottoman princess whose family reigned in Egypt. One of her forebears, Mehmet Ali Pasha, gifted the obelisk that centres the Place de la Concorde in Paris to Napoleon.
Since founding her company in 2000, Yaz has become a major force in the costume jewellery world with her pop art necklaces, mouse handbags and Plexiglas bracelets. Stockists include Colette and Le Bon Marché in Paris, Fenwicks in London, Joyce in Hong Kong, Isetan in Tokyo and Net-A-Porter.
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Yaz Bukey jewellery range, Shu Uemura is launching a 34 SKU collection in May, taking its cue from signature jewellery designs such as a brooch shaped as an open mouth and lipstick-shaped earrings. The lineup will include blurring skin smoothers, false eyelashes, lipsticks and more and will be launched to the global media in Tokyo in March.
Advertising spend drops by $33 million in December
According to Standard Media Index, ad spending showed marginal growth for the first 11 months of 2014. But a 5.8% drop in December - $33 million - resulted in a 0.1% dip for the year to $7.48 billion, in contrast to $7.49 billion for 2013.
Newspapers experienced the biggest fall in advertising, with metropolitan and regional papers recording a 16% year-on-year drop. Newspapers currently have a 10.4% share of the ad market, down from 12.1% in 2013 and close to 20% six years ago. According to SMI, the continued rise of outdoor advertising - 9.7% - will see the sector overtake newspapers for the first time ever by the end of this year.
Magazine advertising also dropped from 3.9% to 3.5% of ad spending in 2014. Only eight years ago, the magazine sector was the third biggest medium for advertising but only ranked seventh in 2014.
Television remains the biggest magnet for ad dollars by a country mile - 47% - followed by digital at 20.1%. Newspapers ranked third, followed by outdoor, radio (7.5%), magazines and cinema (0.1%).
As we reported recently, Australians bought over a million cars and vehicles in 2014. Automotive ads topped the spend rankings in December ($62.8 million), followed by retail ($53.5 million) and alcohol ($33.4 million). Over the year, NSW/ACT was the biggest state for ad spending - $3.89 billion, followed by Victoria - $2.38 billion - and Queensland - $665 million.
Targeting the "manopausal male"
Men may prefer the term midlife crisis as a romanticised excuse for buying prestige cars and generally cutting loose. But the personal care industry prefers one word - manopause - to describe the lower testosterone, strength and energy levels that bedevil middle-aged males. No wonder. According to Datamonitor, the rise of the metrosexual over a decade ago has made today's older men more worried about their appearance as they try to stay "relevant" in the bedroom and the boardroom.
Understanding consumer attitudes and lifestyle characterising the "manopausal man" can provide enormous opportunities for personal care brands to capitalise on says the researcher. And that means supplements and energy drinks to make older men feel more energetic and revitalised and anti-aging products that go well beyond moisturising.
The top three men's prestige brands in Australia - for Men, ClarinsMen and - have been revving up their ranges with products that deal with pigmentation, fatigue and baggy eyes. But Lab Series Skincare For Men, another Lauder prestige brand, is upping the ante on February 15th with the on-counter launch of MAX LS Age-Less Power V Lifting Cream. Primarily designed to defy gravity and visibly re-define facial contours, especially around the jawline, the hard-working cream targets a problem that men hate just as women - a double chin. Priced at $110, the V in the title is the Roman numeral for five, corresponding with the product's major anti-ageing effects.
L'Oréal Paris Men Expert has been leading the way in mass in launching products for more mature male faces. House actor Hugh Laurie spruiks the anti-ageing effects of Vita Lift 5 Daily Moisturiser.
The pharmaceutical industry has also been working hard on products geared toward to the manopausal male says Datamonitor. We can expect to see more advanced products designed to boost testosterone levels, rather than the controversial testosterone replacement therapy.
Snippets from the wires
- With several major Nivea launches poised to debut in 2015, Beiersdorf is pumped by its end-of-year results. Organic sales across the three major brands - Nivea, Eucerin and - jumped 4.7% to 6.285 billion euros ($8.84 billion).
- With niche fragrances accounting for over 12% of new scent launches, department stores worldwide are rolling out dedicated concept stores to luxury juices. In a first-to-market move in travel retail, the World Duty Free Group has launched a luxury fragrance area in Terminal 5 at London Heathrow. The focal point is 's Le Gemme collection, flanked by names such as Amouage, Annick Goutal, , Ferragamo and Van Cleef & Arpels.
- Brazilians have always loved natural beauty proucts and home-grown giants such as O Boticario and Natura are among the biggest personal care companies in the world. L'Oréal bought the local beauty chain - Emporio Body Store - in October 2013 and has announced it will re-brand its 122 stores under The Body Shop banner by the end of the year. By 2019, the French multinational plans to expand the number of stores in Brazil to five hundred.
- Uniqlo, the cash cow of Japan's Fast Retailing Co, accounts for 48.5% of its business. Following major store openings in Sydney, China, Japan and South Korea, global profits increased 63.9% in the first quarter to 487 million euros ($685 million) on revenues of 3.4 billion euros ($4.78 billion).
- The recent Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris has made fashion editors, clients and buyers skittish about heading to the French capital for the couture shows which begin on January 25th. Organisers of the major shows are finding it hard to fill the coveted seats, as many customers from the Middle East and Russia, in particular, choose to stay at home.
Image: Le Figaro Madame
