For the month of December, Tribe Dynamics saw several new arrivals to its Top 10 list of cosmetics brands ranked most influential on social media platforms, which is ranked by the number of likes and posts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter. Making its Tribe Top 10 debut was Anastasia Beverly Hills, thanks to successful relationships with beauty bloggers. And, Tarte appeared as a Top 10 influencer for a second time in the fourth quarter. Below, the cosmetics brands with the highest earned media vale [EMV] in December.
1. MAC $21,316,946.60 EMV
2. ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS $16,448,566.75 EMV
3. TOO FACED $14,278,297.25 EMV
4. NARS $9,780,546.15 EMV
5. NYX COSMETICS $8,877,917.00 EMV
6. L’ORÉAL $7,892,591.70 EMV
7. URBAN DECAY $7,678,333.30 EMV
8. TARTE COSMETICS $6,402,134.25 EMV
9. MAYBELLINE $6,344,020.55 EMV
10. BOBBI BROWN $5,576,345.65 EMV
December’s Top 10 list provided a bookend to a transformative 2014 for the beauty industry. With new arrivals and trends, the month’s leaderboard was illustrative of the democratization of influence occurring within digital, Tribe said. Although MAC led in overall earned media performance for the month, the brand was outdone by competitors on three of the six social channels monitored, channels it had dominated in the past. Anastasia Beverly Hills made its first appearance, driving an incredible amount of engagement through Instagram. The brand is benefiting from relationships nourished with top beauty influencers. Tarte Cosmetics proved that its appearance in November’s Top 10 was not a fluke, placing the brand in eighth place just behind Urban Decay. Bobbi Brown held its thanks to maintained success on YouTube and Instagram.
November’s trends continued into December with overall improvements in earned media performance on Instagram. Originally dominated by MAC and NYX Cosmetics, the channel is progressively becoming a more even playing field.
As previously mentioned, Anastasia succeeded on Instagram during the month, incredibly not as a result of a specific campaign or product launch. The brand owes its impressive EMV to the large community of beauty bloggers and makeup artists including the brand’s products in posts of inspired makeup looks. It’s clear that the community still associates the brand with its namesake brow products, featured in the majority of these pages.
By contrast, Too Faced excelled on Instagram and Facebook, thanks to social buzz surrounding the release of a second Chocolate Palette. The brand benefited from content created by retailers, primarily Sephora, as well as those created by beauty influencers and everyday consumers. The anticipation of a second palette was reminiscent of the social response to Urban Decay’s release of a second and third Naked Palette. Over the course of the month, Sephora shared content spotlighting the new palette, making it particularly desirable to its incredibly trusting community of consumers. Beauty influencers online responded accordingly, posting to Instagram their own creations that highlighted the palette’s range of matte, natural nudes and browns.
MAC maintained its dominant performance on YouTube, as one of the most frequently mentioned brands during the month within holiday and New Years Eve video tutorials. Its success amongst these videos demonstrates the clarity and strength of MAC’s brand associations and identity. The brand is by all means still recognized as the industry’s standard for extravagant-party makeup and universally appealing to women looking for these kinds of products during the season.
Earned media on Pinterest also improved, with MAC, Too Faced and Urban Decay leading the way. MAC’s lipsticks were a favorite within Pinterest posts, while Too Faced benefited from content about its Chocolate Palettes and Urban Decay, its Naked Palettes.
Taking a closer look at the content created about Too Faced and Tarte Cosmetics this month, Tribe detected a pattern in respect to how awareness for these brands and their products spread within the online beauty community: The most valuable influencers post high-engagement photographs or videos that are then shared with a larger community of interested consumers, who in turn pass along knowledge to their extended groups of friends. The trend speaks to the importance of establishing intimate lines of communication with the influencer where content and a subsequent consumer perception of your brand originates.
To read more Tribe Dynamics analysis on the performance of the month’s Top 10 Cosmetics brands, please click here.
