Brief:

• Olay, the skincare brand owned by Procter & Gamble, spurred a 20% gain in engagement from a social media campaign that asked influencers to document their experiences using Olay products for four weeks while updating followers along the way, according to an L2 report shared with Mobile Marketer.
• The beauty brand also saw a 22% jump in monthly Google searches for the brand name in November 2017, as influencers offered free samples and discounts through unique codes and affiliate links to encourage their followers to join the skincare challenge.
• Olay dedicated a special section of its website to the "28 Day Challenge" and set up a product collection on Walmart called 28 Days of Olay. However, the brand didn't equip these pages with links to the influencer content, a potential missed opportunity to further extend the campaign's reach, per L2. Walmart's barebones 28 Days of Olay page lists 16 products ranging from about $7 to $25.

Insight:

Olay's social influencer campaign appears to be a win in boosting online engagement and driving more searches of the brand name on Google, though it may have missed an opportunity to leverage that raised awareness by linking directly to Walmart's website to drive transactions. Walmart's page for Olay's 28 Day challenge looks somewhat like an afterthought rather than a key step in the broader social campaign strategy.

Social influencers are quickly becoming as influential in the beauty industry. As Olay's campaign results demonstrate, influencers can be effective in driving awareness on social media and motivating Google searches and direct sales online.

The beauty brand seems to understand the growing importance of influencer marketing, which is expected to grow a $2 billion industry by next year, according to a separate L2 study. Social influencers have a profound effect on how consumers understand products, especially in the beauty category where people seek authentic opinions and style inspiration. The significance of authenticity is key to social influencing, which is why the Federal Trade Commission has taken action to punish bad actors who reap financial rewards for their opinions without disclosing sponsor support.

Personal care brands are connecting with influencers to reach consumers through authentic marketing. Sixty-five percent of brands with Instagram accounts and tracked by L2 engaged influencers to post brand-related content in 2017. Skincare and bath and shower brands lead in the adoption of influence campaigns, L2's study found. Almost 80% of brands in the bath and shower categories were tagged in influencer posts during the study period, and the average brand in each category was featured in more influencer posts than brands in other categories. Beauty behemoths Neutrogena, Olay and Garnier alone represent over 37% of analyzed personal care influencer posts.