Dive Brief:
- Estée Lauder on Monday (March 24) launched a global campaign, “Beauty Sleep Dupe,” that stars actress Kristen Bell, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- The effort promotes the brand’s Advanced Night Repair Serum and centers around the claim that the product visibly repairs the skin of poor sleepers by “duping” — or nearly replicating — beauty sleep itself. Bell stars in two 30-second spots showcasing the product’s capabilities.
- Media spans digital, social and retail platforms. Estée Lauder Companies continues to work through a restructuring program that includes an increase in consumer-facing investments like advertising.
Dive Insight:
Estée Lauder is asserting its authority in what it calls “night skin science” with a global campaign promoting its Advanced Night Repair Serum, a product the brand claims can visibly repair the skin of poor sleepers who get less than 6.5 hours of sleep per night. The effort arrives on the heels of Sleep Awareness Week (March 9-15) and following the appointment of Matthew Walker as Estée Lauder’s first global sleep science advisor.
Key to “Beauty Sleep Dupe” are two 30-second video spots. In the first, Bell — a self-proclaimed “chronically awake” mom — is introduced to the Advanced Night Repair Serum and suddenly finds herself stuck in a “Groundhog Day”-esque loop where she continuously wakes up with perfectly smooth skin despite having slept less than 8 hours. The commercial sees Bell “duping it forward” by sharing the Advanced Night Repair Serum with everyone she knows.
Together, the two spots could help Estée Lauder connect with key younger audiences, particularly other millennial moms like Bell, who understand the impacts of getting less than 8 hours of sleep all too well. Creative, casting, script and production for the campaign was led by marketing and communications agency Shadow.
Dupe culture, or the tactic of finding affordable replacements for costly items, has been riffed on by other marketers, including E.l.f. Cosmetics and Olaplex. Estée Lauder’s take on dupes could be viewed as a departure from typical luxury marketing, though its claim that it can dupe sleep itself sets a high bar. Advanced Night Repair Serum retails for $128 for a 1.7oz bottle, which some might consider pricey for a dupe (though there’s no price tag on sleep).
A number of legacy beauty marketers, including Maybelline and Estée Lauder sister brand Clinique, are attempting to age down in hopes of winning over younger cohorts like Gen Z. That’s not to say older generations have come out of focus: Brands including Bliss and Laura Geller have recently debuted efforts targeting older millennials and Gen X.
Estée Lauder’s parent continues to work through a restructuring strategy that recently saw the business announce plans to cut between 5,800 to 7,000 jobs, or up to 11% of its global workforce. The move, which expanded prior turnaround efforts, came just a month after new CEO Stéphane de La Faverie took on the top job.
Other aspects of Estée Lauder Companies’ turnaround include increased advertising investments, greater simplification and accelerating some processes while outsourcing other services. The company recently partnered with Adobe to refine the launch of its digital marketing campaigns through generative artificial intelligence. Estée Lauder Companies’ net sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31 fell 6% year over year to $4 billion.
