Eva Mendes fronts Estée Lauder's latest campaign, 2014 ad spend jumps 7 per cent, record interest in K-beauty, and the top global launches for L'Oréal.
Eva Mendes to front campaign for Estée Lauder
has really come out swinging over the past year with landmark anti-ageing and brightening skincare from the Enlighten range to Resilience Lift Restorative Radiance Oil. The multinational rarely uses major stars to spruik its latest advances but has tapped Eva Mendes as the face of the New Dimension transforming skincare collection. The new mum will front a global digital, TV and print advertising campaign debuting in the northern hemisphere Autumn.
Some of the names alone are attention-getting enough - New Definition Shape + Fill Expert Serum and New Dimension Liquid Tape - for those that feel their face would benefit from contouring and firming. In keeping with the strong anti-ageing trend that's less about wrinkles and more about visible results, Jane Hertzmark Hudis, the global brand president for Estee Lauder, says that the versatile actress "understands the power of transformation that is at the heart of our new approach to beauty".
The strategy also shows that the Estée Lauder core brand is also very committed to its major demographic - the over-40s - as it chases a more youthful image through links with Kendall Jenner and Gabriella Wilde.
2014 ad spend jumped 7 per cent says Nielsen
With the fragmentation of media vying for their money, advertisers have become increasingly savvy about where to direct their ad spends. According to Nielsen, the Australian ad market jumped 7 per cent to $13.9 billion in 2014. Major events such as the Commonwealth Games and the FIFA World Cup boosted ad spend growth throughout the calendar year says Nielsen.
Retail is still the big cheese when it comes to overall spending and reported the strongest online growth reveals the PwC-IAB Online Advertising Expenditure Report. Retail advertising now accounts for 10 per cent of all online advertising - up from 8 per cent in 2013.
Motor vehicles, the second largest sector, was valued at half the spend of the retail sector. The property boom, notably in Sydney and Melbourne, prompted real estate to carve out a larger online share and ad spending increased by 38 per cent in metro press and 21 per cent on metro radio in 2014.
Record interest in K-beauty - online and best in show
Attendance at the second Make Up in Seoul exhibition, held in mid-April, soared 28 per cent compared to the inaugural event in the South Korean capital last year. More than 2300 professional attendees from Europe, the US and Asia trooped through the trade show to catch up with the latest K-Beauty trends poised to take the global beauty industry by storm in the wake of BB creams and cushion foundations. Once again, local giant Amore Pacific, with its large stable of brands from Hera to Laneige was the driving force of the event as its seeks to expand internationally with its own portfolio and the proposed acquisition of Western brands.
As a recent convert to Dr Jart Beauty Balm, stocked by Sephora in Australia, I have been tracking the surging popularity of Korean beauty brands - known collectively as K-Beauty - in the US. Estée Lauder has a cushion foundation in development, due for release in August/September, to compete with Lancôme 's Miracle Cushion. But it's good to know what's already out there and the easiest way for English speakers to keep up to date is through bloggers dedicated to K-Beauty in the US, Asia and Australia.
For brands, distributors and beauty eds, some of the most informative blogs to trawl through are: fanserviced-b.com, thebeautywolf.com, snowwhiteandthepear.blogspot.com, sunhyemi.com and marvelikalife.blogspot.com.au. For a rundown of top K-Beauty products, go to SokoGlam.com run by Charlotte Cho, who also posts a great Korean travel diary.
The top global launches for L'Oreal - luxe, professional and consumer
Some companies content themselves with a few strategic new launches through the year. L'Oréal Paris isn't one of them. All of the multinational's key divisions - Luxe, Consumer Products, Active Cosmetics and Professional - produce a strong flow of new launches each quarter. Some do better than others and L'Oreal has pinpointed the with-a-bullet performers that helped the multinational increase global sales in the first quarter of the year to $8.95 billion
Looking first at prestige. Yves Saint Laurent's double digit growth was fuelled by Black Opium fragrance, Volupte Tint-in-Oil and Volume Effet Faux Cils Mascara. Acqua di Gio Profumo men's fragrance will debut in Australia in August but has already made a strong contribution in lifting the brand's sales overseas, together with the top-performing Si fragrance for women.
Lancome's continued success in its 80th anniversary year has been buoyed by La Vie Est Belle and La Nuit Tresor fragrances, Miracle Cushion foundation and the ongoing popularity of Visionnaire skin corrector.
L'Oreal's Consumer Products Division increased market share in North and South America and Eastern Europe over the past year. Strong performers included Infallible Matte Foundation, the Extraordinary Oils and Revitalift Magic Blur from L'Oreal Paris, Lash Sensational Mascara from Maybelline and the Micellar Cleansing Waters from Garnier.
Sales for L'Oreal's Professional division surged 16 per cent in the first quarter. The essie nail brand grew strongly in the US and Western Europe. Haircare products such as Serioxyl from L'Oreal Professionnel, Chronologiste from Kerastase and Cerafill from Redken also boosted the multinational's coffers.
The Active Cosmetics Division- La Roche-Posay, Vichy and SkinCeuticals - continues to out-perform the market worldwide. The addition of Toleriane Yeux eye cream to the sensitive skincare franchise lifted La Roche-Posay's bottom line.
Snippets from the wires
- The fight against ageing is beginning earlier and earlier. Over the past few years, , L'Oreal Paris and Nuxe have launched "first strike" skincare ranges for young women in their 20s - Ibuki, Youth Code and Nirvanesque. In the UK, Boots iconic No7 brand is debuting the Early Defence lineup of day, night and eye creams to keep young skin looking youthful for longer.
- Maybe the legendary beauty of Southern belles owed more to the fragrances they wore than their looks. German researchers have discovered that the magnolia-scented fragrance ingredient Hedione is a pheromone receptor which stimulates emotions, memory and motivation in both sexes.
- The ageless beauty trend which focuses on brightening and radiance products is boosting the prestige beauty market in the UK says the NPD Group. Sales surged 5.2 per cent in 2014 to $4.46 billion as British women bought more facial oils ($7.56 million), masks ($12.61 million) and cleansers ($113.71 million).
- According to Euromonitor, 2014 was the first year in over a decade that emerging markets, led by China, Brazil and Russia, didn't reach double digit growth in cosmetic sales. Increasingly, says the researcher, beauty brands are looking to fast-growing but smaller markets, principally the Middle East , Turkey and Indonesia. Over the next five years, Indonesia is expected to enter the top 10 global skincare markets.
- In 2011, Jeremy Langmead was the launch editor-in-chief of Mr Porter, the men's lifestyle offshoot of Net-a-Porter. Following a year away as the chief content officer of Christie's auction house, he's back at Mr Porter as the brand and content director.
