In the month of December, NARS and MAC outpaced the beauty pack, due in part to well-placed promotions during the Holiday selling period, according to Tribe Dynamics.

NARS significantly increased its social influence in December, owed to the overwhelming response to its Guy Bourdin-inspired line. The collection, an assortment of vibrant shades representative of the celebrated photographer’s career, took the beauty community by storm just in time for the holidays, said Tribe, which uses proprietary data analytics software to measure a brand’s earned media value [EMV] among the top 50,000 influencers in health, beauty and fashion.

The campaign generated an incredible amount of buzz across all channels, putting the brand on par with MAC in terms of overall social influence for the month. Originally announced via Snapchat, the collection and its provocative and striking digital campaign were largely responsible for catapulting the brand into the second slot in Tribe’s the quantifiable dollar amount assigned to publicity gained through word-of-mouth endorsements.

For the second month running, MAC generated more organic earned media in the form of video views and videos than any other brand. The brand was one of the few to simultaneously run multiple holiday campaigns over the month for a variety of collections. With so many opportunities for content creation, beauty vloggers had ample inspiration for content creation over the holidays. MAC garnered the greatest number of endorsements in the form of video content for the month with 14,928,818 views. Maybelline was next in line with 13,736,036.

1. MAC: $8,286,989.78

2. NARS: $6,440,702.80
3. Maybelline: $5,810,903.93

4. Chanel: $5,389,353.33
5. Urban Decay: $5,046,772.35

Caption: The beauty brands that generated the greatest social influence measured by earned media value, number of impressions, audience size, number of publishers, and post count in December.

Overall, online engagement remained high notwithstanding lackluster holiday sales, Tribe said. During the month of December, the top beauty brands overall saw far greater engagement rates. Bloggers and industry-specific publications responded positively to the profusion of holiday campaigns and promotions that dominated the online landscape. The brands that performed best saw increases in online traffic -versus in-store- to position their brand for ongoing engagement and future initiatives. For the month, MAC and Urban Decay continued to prove themselves as the most socially influential brands on Facebook and Instagram, while Chanel led in blog traffic with 204,299 views, followed by Urban Decay (42,925) and MAC (26,662).

Tribe’s December report added that while in-store sales were low, e- commerce holiday sales increased 12% from 2012, a boost by no means exceptional given the growing preference amongst consumers for online shopping. In the week following the holiday, Forbes reported that sales from desktops fell 8%, accounting for 71% of total e-commerce orders. Sales from tablets however rose 3%, accounting for 11%, and mobile device sales were up 6% to a total of 18%.

Unlike decreases to in-store traffic, online traffic was at an all-time high. Bloggers and industry-specific publications responded positively to the profusion of holiday campaigns and promotions that dominated the online landscape. The leading beauty brands in our study overall saw far greater engagement rates. The top performers seized upon increases in online traffic and social activity, emphasizing brand messaging, and positioning themselves for ongoing engagement and future success rather than simply focusing on holiday shopping returns.

To see the full report for the month of December, click here.