Dive Brief:
- L'Oréal Canada has tapped Toronto-based mobile tech firm dubdub to “enhance and accelerate” its influencer marketing program, according to a joint press release.
- L'Oréal is most interested in dubdub for its dubcandy app, which supports shoppable video content that can link out to retailer websites for direct sales.
- E-commerce acceleration is part of L'Oréal Canada’s growth strategy per Stéphane Bérubé, VP and CMO of L'Oréal Canada, who said in the release that the dubcandy application is already converting content into sales and impacting influencer partnerships in part by providing a new compensation model for influencer campaigns.
Dive Insight:
Influencer marketing, where everyday people and even celebrities share sponsored content via their social media pages, has proven to be a good fit with beauty brands given its home on aesthetic-driven platforms like Instagram. However, one of the issues that's plagued influencer marketing from the start is a lack of concrete measurements, especially for key metrics like ROI. L'Oréal Canada's push into shoppable video with dubdub might not only boost e-commerce but could also help the brand figure out how much its influencer outreach actually translates into direct sales, and the dubcandy dashboard purportedly tracks ROI performance for video.
The press release pointed out that influencer marketing is increasingly essential for brands as advertising legislation and ad block tech, in particular, both negatively impact traditional channels. Other platforms like Instagram have also recently made pushes into shoppable branded posts with retailers including Kate Spade and Warby Parker, though that feature is still in a test phase. Whether consumers will try out dubcandy, which is a comparatively small app, remains to be seen.
Marketers must also continue to be careful with influencers and ensure all paid posts are properly disclosed as such since the FTC has been more active in taking action against brands that defy disclosure guidelines.
