Brief:
- Perfect's YouCam Perfect photo editor app is hosting an online challenge to promote its recently released collection of holiday-themed digital images to decorate selfies. The collection includes picture frames, stickers and digital images such as tinsel, lights and wintery effects to match the spirit of the season, an announcement said.
- YouCam Perfect's holiday photo challenge urges app users to create and share photos tagged with the #YouCamPerfect and #Holidays2019 hashtags for a chance to win a premium subscription, which typically costs $4.99 a month, or at a discounted annual price of $24.99. The contest ends on Dec. 25.
- Christmas and New Year's Eve are the biggest photo-sharing days of the year with more than 210 million selfies taken worldwide, according to YouCam's usage statistics. Perfect updated YouCam Perfect with a new text editor, along with software tools to adjust color saturation, lightness and sharpness, per its announcement. YouCam Perfect can be downloaded for free from Apple's App Store or Google Play.
Insight:
Perfect's holiday picture challenge comes as the company introduces a refreshed YouCam Perfect photo editing app during one of the busiest times of year for sharing selfies on social media and in mobile messages.
While the company's YouCam Makeup app features virtual try-on's of cosmetics, the YouCam Perfect app has a broader set of photo editing tools. People use YouCam Perfect to take 25 million pictures a day, and 58% of them use filters in the pictures, the company said in September, indicating that its mobile app has generated a loyal following among beauty enthusiasts.
Perfect has made online contests more central to promoting its AR content in seeking to inspire and engage fans of its apps that feature makeup looks from multiple brands. The company in October ran a similar contest with Halloween-themed looks to share on social media as users tested makeup styles and prepared their costumes. In September, it launched a photo editing contest timed with New York Fashion Week, offering a chance for fans to see their selfies on its Instagram account. In May, Perfect debuted the YouCam Beauty Star contest to give entrants a chance to become a beauty influencer.
Perfect has also broadened its augmented reality (AR) tools to include hair and nail colors. Direct-to-consumer hair color brand Madison Reed and Jerome Russell brand Punky Colour last year partnered with the app to show off their products to mobile users.
Perfect additionally launched YouCam for Web to let businesses add its AR capabilities to their respective websites via a plug-in. The company's clientele includes brands such as Estée Lauder, MAC and YSL. Aside from beauty brands, Perfect also partnered with more retailers and brands including Target and QVC, and introduced mobile features like livestreaming for deeper interactivity.
