Time Inc.'s beauty vertical launches with sponsors L'Oréal Paris, Maybelline New York

Dive Brief:

Time Inc. launched The Pretty, a new social video brand on Facebook and Instagram dedicated to beauty and targeted at a Gen Z and millennial audience, per a press release made available to Marketing Dive. L’Oréal Paris and Maybelline New York are the exclusive launch partners.
The Pretty aims to create 10 short-form videos weekly, including beauty tutorials, hacks and product reveals, with an eye toward humor and relatability with its target viewership. The brand will also tap Time's beauty portfolio and audience of more than 50 million social media fans and followers including HelloGiggles, People, InStyle, Real Simple, Essence, PeopleStyle and People en Espanol.
The Pretty is led by Zoë Ruderman, executive director of content strategy for style, entertainment and sports at Time Inc. Ruderman seeks to replicate the success of the publisher's first social video vertical, the food-oriented Well Done.

Dive Insight:

As print advertising revenues continue to dwindle and digital content proves difficult to monetize thanks to ad blockers and other headwinds, more publishers are turning to video as their next big opportunity. Video consumption on desktop and mobile is commanding more of consumers' time, and leading brands like L’Oréal and Maybelline clearly see opportunity in partnering with media outlets charging into the space.

Beauty is a category that already has a strong presence on social media platforms like Instagram thanks to social influencers, so Time Inc. might be concocting an especially potent content strategy by combining that factor with its already massive online presence. Young demographic groups also appear to be willing to experiment with digital innovations in the beauty sector.

The Pretty was first announced at IAB NewFronts last month along with two other social video verticals called The Barrel and ReMade. Those three, along with Well Done, are part of a broader strategy pivot from Time Inc., which described digital video as the "linchpin" for its future storytelling development, with plans to produce more than 50,000 videos for 150 new and returning franchises across its entire media portfolio.

In April, Time Inc. hit more than 1 billion video views across its entire network and is expected to surpass 8.5 billion views this year, which would almost double last year's total, per the release.