THESUNDAY

TIMES STYLE BEAUTYAWARDS

2016

IN ASSOCIATION WITH CASE STUDY

Client BootsAgency OMDPublication date April-May 2016Medium The Sunday TimesCampaign elements Print, online, videos, social media, event

PRINT WEB MEDIA EVENTS SOCIAL

Since the birth of Estée Lauder’s cosmetics range against the backdrop of the Great Depression, beauty products have gone from strength to strength. And for good reason: at times of economic uncertainty, we drop more expensive luxuries but will still ‘treat’ ourselves to a good mascara or lipstick. This makes the beauty industry e� ectively ‘recession proof’.

But this robustness has led to an explosion of new products and categories on the market. There are now tens of thousands of products on o� er. Mascara, for example, range from Boots’ Natural Collection (£1.99) to Chantecaille’s Faux Cils (a snip at £60). How do we know which is the best? What’s worth our money, and what is worth avoiding?

THE IDEAIn partnership with Boots, we worked with the Sunday Times’ Style Magazine to create ‘the most defi nitive beauty awards ever’. We encouraged public nominations of thousands of products hand-picked by Style’s beauty editor, Sarah Jossel, in order to choose a set of winners.

The premise was that we wanted to provide readers with the ultimate recommendation from Boots, the UK’s number-one beauty retailer, and Style magazine, The Sunday Times’ fashion and beauty bible, and from people all over the country.

THE EXECUTIONWe created a new website, style-beauty.co.uk, and gathered the best products in every beauty category: from haircare to lips, to foundations, and beyond. Sarah Jossel provided video tips and demonstrations of key products, and a countdown to the

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

“Meeting all of women’s beauty needs is at the heart of everything we do, so celebrating the best of beauty products and helping women in their beauty choices makes The Style Beauty Awards a natural fit.”

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Helen Jeremiah, head of marketing at Boots UK

We formed a partnership between Boots and the Sunday Times’ Style magazine to pick Britain’s best beauty products

THE SUNDAY TIMES STYLE BEAUTY AWARDS 2016

THE RESULTS - The campaign reached a total of - 1.6m print readers (frequency: 3.4) - 4m radio listeners - And we served 16.8 million impressions with a CTR of 0.65.

- We also reached 5.3m social readers – and during the campaign Sarah Jossel appeared on instagram’s ‘top 25 most infl uential posts’ list.

- Overall the campaign received 576,182 votes from more than 87,256 unique users. 7,657 people signed up for more information and products from Boots as a result of the campaign.

- Over 65 per cent of Sunday Times readers recalled seeing the campaign – proving that it broke outside of Style Magazine and into the main newspaper. This is more than double the Sunday Times recall benchmark of 32 per cent.

- Awareness and recall of Boots advertising increased by 142 per cent during the campaign. Knowledge of its beauty fi nds range increased by 212 per cent, and its order and collect service by 73 per cent. Of those that recalled the advertising, 73 per cent agreed that Boots was the best place to go for beauty products – up from 43 per cent before the campaign. 86 per cent agreed Boots has a wide range of beauty products, 76 per cent agreed that Boots sells innovative and inspiring beauty products, and 68 per cent declared that Boots “is the brand for me” – an increase of 33 per cent from before the campaign.

- Overall, 60 per cent of Style readers are more positive about the Boots brand; and 72 per cent believe that the Style Beauty Awards are a valuable addition to the magazine.

RESEARCH IN NUMBERS - 1.6m print readers - 5.3m social readers - 4m radio listeners - 576,182 votes - 65% of Times readers recalled the campaign - 212% increase in awareness of the Boots ‘Beauty Finds’ range - 73% agreed Boots is the place to go for beauty products - 60% more positive sentiment for the Boots brand

national vote was announced with great fanfare in the pages of the magazine. Boots had name branding and accompanying content throughout the site, with additional practical advice and tips.

For the month-long campaign we produced regular callouts in print, on tablet, and additional marketing support on the radio. Integrated one-click purchase was added to the site for Boots. The fi nal results were announced at a special co-branded Boots/Style awards event, and the campaign closed with a special ‘winners’ double edition of the magazine.

“Boots UK is a perfect fit with the best fashion and beauty supplement in the UK. The partnership gives us increased scale and credibility.”

Sarah Jossel, Style beauty editor

CAMPAIGN STATISTICS