← Ahead of the Curve with Coco Mocoe
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Coco Moco
Did you know that Road Skin, the beauty brand founded in 2022 by Hailey Bieber, generated close to $100 million in 2024, according to Women's Wear Daily. This is a brand that was not meant to succeed when it first launched. When she originally announced the launch, it was met with groans from the collective beauty lovers who are tired of the empty feeling. So celebrity beauty brands that had overflowed between the years of 2019 and 2022. They had become what felt like cash grabs by celebrities that were hopping on a bandwagon instead of doing something they were passionate about. I personally didn't think it would succeed, not because I didn't believe in Hailey Bieber, but because I was looking to other struggling celebrity beauty brands and launches like Bad Habit by Emma Chamberlain, Item Beauty by Addison Rae REM Beauty by Ariana Grande and the Losing Steam Kylie Cosmetics. But within just two years, Road managed to rake in almost a hundred million dollars in revenue, sell out unique product launches within minutes, and solidify itself as a Gen Z and millennial favorite. That same Hailey Bieber, who was relentlessly bullied online in 2021 and 2022, has pulled pulled off one of the most impressive reputation comebacks in modern branding history. She didn't respond to the hate. Instead, she focused on launching a brand during what is probably one of the most tumultuous times of her life. And it was a big gamble. But did she come out a winner? Let's discuss Today's episode of Ahead of the Curve with Coco Moco is about the brilliant branding of Hailey Bieber and Road Skin in a sea of struggling celebrity beauty brands. How did Hailey Bieber manage to launch a brand that was able to not just float, but to make waves to become a disruptor launching innovative products that legacy brands are clawing to keep up with. The last two episodes of the brilliant branding have been about Tate McCrae and Neon's Anora film, and they've been some of my highest performing episodes for a while. So I really want to keep leaning into this format for you guys. Let me know in the comments on Substack or on the reviews on Apple or Spotify, what celebrity brand or creator you you would want me to do a future brilliant branding of. And if you have any theories, the first half of this episode will be about the specific strategies that Rhode uses known as sensory marketing, and how this differentiates from what has been popular with beauty brands in the last 10 years. We will talk about the integration of celebrity collabs with sensory marketing, especially on social media. Then in the second half of the episode available for paying members of the substack@cocomoco substack.com we will talk about roads in innovation when it comes to products, especially when compared to other celebrity beauty brands. And then we will also talk about how Rhode has gone editorial with their campaigns similar to what Skims is doing, plus how you can apply all of these marketing tactics we talk about in the episode to yourself, whether you're a creator, brand or artist, whether you have a hundred followers or a hundred million. I always save the best bits of the podcast for the end, so so be sure to subscribe if you are left wanting more when this episode finishes. The success of my substack has allowed me to keep this podcast completely ad free, even for the free listeners. So I really hope that you appreciate the effort that I put into the show to make it one that provides unique and timely insights into the intersection of pop culture and marketing. Share this with a friend who loves pop culture and marketing as much as we do and if you couldn't see I am filming this episode from a hotel. I'm in Hawaii. I feel like I'm coming out of the craziest, worst year of my Life, which was 2024. It really felt like anytime I got my bearings and stood back up again, the universe whacked me freaking down with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. I'm crawling out of my Saturn return and in a weird way I feel more confident in myself. My mentality is if I could go through what I went through last year, the little things don't bother me anymore. As long as I'm breathing and my friends and family are okay, then it feels like a good day. So I'm in Hawaii to kind of celebrate this new chapter and I'm filming this while I'm here because I just want to make sure I get you guys a good quality episode that isn't rushed. I will be posting a Honolulu guide on my sub stack for free anytime I visit a city. I've been doing these kind of guides and they're a really fun outlet for me and you guys seem to enjoy them so I'm going to keep doing them. Especially cuz I'm traveling so much this year for work and I also will be making it on Apple maps so I'll link that out in substack. When it's out. I always kind of joke that I was a travel agent in a past life because I really feel like I always know how to find the best things to do, the best hotels to stay at, the bars to go to and restaurants to eat. So you can check that out when it is up next week. But thank you so much for being here with me. Coconuts. I really just love all the support that you guys always give me, especially on this podcast and on Substack. But now for the brilliant Branding of Hailey Bieber's Road Skin. So what was popular in the last 10 years in the beauty space? This is from 2015 to 2025. Beauty brands the last 10 years had a very tongue in cheek approach to their branding that almost began to feel forced. Better than sex, mascara, orgasm, eyeshadow palettes and just this forced sensuality that really encompass the high contrast maximalist makeup trends of the last 10 years. Who remembers the popularity of those like cut crease smokey eyes from the mid 2010s or one palette that really reflected the colorful contrasted makeup of the time was James Charles Morphe eyeshadow palette. It had rainbow colors and it really seemed like a victory lap for this type of makeup trend before we would then shift into a more subtle type of makeup the next year when the 2020 pandemic began. Another example of this maximalist Trend in the 2010s was Kylie Cosmetics and specifically do you guys remember she did this like light blue, like liquid lipstick. To this day I've never seen someone actually wear that out in the wild, but honestly, if they did, like more respect them because it would take so much confidence to pull it off. While minimalist makeup became trendy as Gen Z and millennials were cooped up inside, Hailey Bieber became the face of it. I'm not really sure where it came from or that she even wanted that title was gunning for it, but she was labeled the ultimate clean girl and she was able to then capitalize on this on the road Skin about page. Their values include simplicity, transparency and quality among a few others. These could just be filler words, but I do think the best part of Rhodes beauty branding compared to other celebrity beauty brands and just beauty brands in general is Oxum's razor. The simplest answer is always the correct one. So the data of Road Skin, if you really want a great but precise video about specifically the data around Rhodeskin and they talk about, you know, what they do well but also some potential pitfalls. I found a great video on YouTube by a creator named the Devil Wears Data and I will link that out in the show notes and on the sub stack if you guys want to watch it. It was so informative for me when I was formulating this episode. And you should just really listen to it if you want more details on like the actual data behind the brand and if it is actually popular or not. She mentions that Hailey Bieber first started becoming known for makeup when she had several videos and interviews go viral where she talks about how she likes to look like a Gl Lays donut when she goes to bed. This might have been accidental or intentional, but it was this opening of a window into her brand's use of what would then be sensory marketing. Because they didn't lean as heavily into the food type content in the first year of their Instagram, except for a couple posts. It does make me think it wasn't something they foresaw as repeatable until later. Hailey Bieber also had this really cool series where she would film. It was a set but it looked like a bathroom and they would like do their makeup. I really loved that you guys know me. I love a show that takes like celebrities and puts them in a setting or context that you wouldn't normally think you would see them in. That's why Chicken Shop Date is really cool. Carpal karaoke. Like when would you be in a car with Ariana Grande? She's singing like that just wouldn't happen. So it's cool to watch. But when would you be in a bathroom doing your makeup with like Kendall Jenner or these really cool, you know, trendy celebrities? And that was something that Haley Bieber did with her show. And even though she doesn't do the show anymore, I think it was some foresight into her kind of like she is kind of scrappy with marketing in a way that I don't think all celebrities are. So I want to give credit where it's due. The Devil Wears Data video also says that according to Minitoro Mintoro Sorry, a market analysis website into trending beauty brands, Road Skin was the highest engaged beauty brand on Instagram and tick tock in 2024. And when comparing Road Skin mentions on all social media platforms like X, Facebook, Reddit and more, they made up 21 of the conversation. Just second place to rare Beauty by Selena Gomez which was at 27%. For comparison, other celebrity beauty brands like Ariana's REM only got 5%, Flower Beauty by Drew Barrymore that I didn't even know existed got 3% and House Labs by Lady Gaga got 18%. She talks about how Haley Bieber has built a strong team around Road Skin, even hiring a New York City dermatologist. And she also mentions where the brand succeeds and where its blind spots might be, the brand has succeeded in making lifestyle and cultural moments like the strawberry and glazed donut trend. Bieber is great at leveraging her social media to drive Road Skin forward in a way that other celebrities seem to really struggle with. For example, JLo has 250 million Instagram followers and her beauty brand was pulled from the shelves of Sephora last year. Addison Rae similarly has over 100 million followers across TikTok and Instagram combined and a really unique Gen Z presence that seemed really hungry for new innovative beauty products. But item beauty, her brand was pulled from Sephora in 2023. Where road skin brand struggles according to the Devil Wears Data is with disruption. While the brand might be innovative like with their phone cases, what her video defines as disruptive is the ability to take an existing product that might out of reach for most of the potential population and find a way to mass manufacture it for cheaper and make it affordable to the masses. The expert in her video defines this trait of a beauty brand as being the one that ensures a brand can last over five years or more versus being a trend. I think an example of this even though it is in a beauty brand. But like Spanx, like Spanx was something that it was innovative, it was disruptive and they were able to mass manufacture it so that anyone could have access to it. So that is a brand that was a disruptor and has been around for decades. As a result, every celebrity brand or trending band in general has to be weary of being too trendy and not being able to keep up with the hype. When you rely too much on social media to drive conversation forward versus just creating a really great product and positioning yourself as a long standing legacy brand, you put yourself in danger of being eclipsed by the next wave of trends. We saw this with Kylie Cosmetics. The brand was on top of the world in the late 2010s and I don't want to take away what Kylie Jenner accomplished at all. She did something phenomenal. She set the tone for celebrity beauty brands. She really did something great. But after the brand sold to Cody Cosmetics, that brand then came out and said the numbers didn't match what had been reported to them prior to the sale. Allegedly. And then the brand took an irreparable hit. Forbes even came out and revoked Kylie Jenner's billionaire status title that they had given her, reporting that they believe the numbers that they were told did not match the truth. A smoke and mirrors facade like that can hurt a trendy brand. Forever. Part of looking like a cool trendy brand is doing it effortlessly. Even though it takes a lot of effort, the moment the effort is revealed and it isn't done in good intention, it can devastate a brand that thrived on being the new cool kid on the block. You guys would actually be surprised at some of the cool artists that I love. But like there's artists that position themselves as these like really cool A listers and behind the scenes their teams are trying to pay creators to talk about them and not disclose it as an ad because their teams are like no, it can't look like anyone paid. Like the conversation has to look organic. Like that's insane you guys. Anyways, side note. Okay, back to back to the episode. So let's talk about a Rhodes Strategic Use of Sensory Marketing. When I was doing research for this episode I did a deep dive into Rhodeskins Instagram account to trace back their digital footprint and try to get insight into their strategy. What caught my eye is their fixation on one product at a time and having it revolve around a food item. They will spend weeks using one color scheme and food product in the build up to the launch of one specific product. That is unlike major retailer or box store beauty brands whose strategies often rely on casting a wide net. Like go into an ulta. They have thousands of products. It's insane like to just be in an ulta and see how many options there are. But that's like the wide net strategy versus being more intentional. Which I think do you think? Usually indie privately owned brands do have to be a little bit more intentional because they don't have the money to like cast a wide net. Rhodes first Instagram post is on June 8th of 2022 and on June 12th they posted their first picture with a food item. It was watermelon and the simple caption Juicy. I love that they don't show any product or you know, try to sell anyone in this specific photo. It's just someone biting into watermelon. For the next year they would lean into a more simple gray format for most of their posts and branding, which I personally thought was quite kind of boring. Notably for the end of the year recap Real posted in December of 22 to Rhodeskin. They feature clips of pop ups of Hailey Bieber on late night talk shows, assembly lines of making products and more. But something interesting. And if you have any thoughts on why they did this, the COVID photo of the reel was a picture of glazed donuts, not her on a talk show. None of that I wonder if this is the moment that they made a conscious decision to lean into sensory and food marketing for the following year. In March of 2023, they did a campaign with Hailey Bieber holding a yellow Passion Fruits and multiple photos and reels that fill the grid. This seemed to be one of the first times that the brand consciously leans into picking one food product and making it the centerpiece of a product launch in a repeatable way. Whereas the year prior she had talked about glazed donuts and glazing skin, but that seemed like at the time they thought it would just be a one off kind of conversation. At this point they're no longer just launching a new product, they then are always including food imagery and verbiage in the marketing material. This theme tentatively continues in 2023 with the launch of their strawberry glazed donut collab with Christmas Krispy Kremes, they begin using more food imagery in the branding on Instagram, but It isn't until 2024 that they fully lean in and it seems to be the gravitational pull for almost every single product launch and celebrity collaboration. While they became more intentional with celebrity collaborations in the last year with Road Skin, one of the first co signs that she got was from celebrity friend Kylie Jenner. Both the Jenner sisters have appeared at roadside skin launch parties and Kylie Jenner has actively posted about the brand since the beginning. While I believe this is all organic support, I do think it sent a strong message at a time when the Internet was tearing Bieber apart for being an alleged mean girl. And all of this was over an Instagram story of a harmless eyebrow that she didn't even post to begin with. Kylie Jenner owns a competing brand to Road Skin Kylie Cosmetics and its offshoot brand Kylie Skin. Her posting in support of Hailey Bieber's brand was an ode to their strong friendship. This was a strong antidote, whether intentional or not, to the narrative being aggressively pushed on tick tock in 2022 of Hailey Bieber being a soulless, desperate, friendless monster. In hindsight, now that we know what's happening with Blake Lively, I sometimes wonder if that was a like artificial bot campaign. However, the ramifications were real. Like she was really bullied offline for a while, and I'm sure the support of Kylie Jenner meant a lot during that time. After the support from her celebrity friends like the Jenners, Bieber's brand became a lot more intentional about their collaborations and having those campaigns revolve around a food item. In the following year, one celebrity collab that revolved around food was the Pineapple Refresh, a daily face cleanser with the marketing material including Haley Bieber and Candice Swanole, the supermodel on a beach. They pose in yellow and black bathing suits and there are pineapples and lemons surrounding the product in the buildup photos. I will say, however, I'm not sure that this collab pushed the needle forward for the brand because I honestly didn't hear much about it. While Candice is a popular supermodel, I think the collaboration just felt really random. I'm not sure what her association with snorkeling or pineapples is, and if there is is one, it would have been great if they could explain it in the marketing materials to make it more sticky to audiences. And the most recent and very talked about collaboration was this past December with Swedish influencer Matilda Jerf. The first teaser reel for the product launch featured a cooking tray of gingerbread men. Once the product was revealed, it was a Peppermint Glaze Lip Peptide. That's a mouthful. They had Matilda Jerf dress up as Cindy Lou, who with peppermint branding throughout the duo being sold were the Peppermint Glaze and Glazing Milk Lip Peptides, two titles which heavily lean into the food senses. One celebrity collaboration I would love to see happen next is Nara Smith or a trending food influencer. Nara Smith is in high demand right now because of how cinematic her videos are and the world building that she does around making those items from scratch. They're both trendy IT girls and have worked with brands like Erewhon. She wears couture when cooking something that is different and innovative compared to the typical and cozy, comfortable outfits that most creators film in. I talk later in this podcast. Power of being Counterintuitive so Nara Smith is not trying to be relatable, and that's kind of what I love about it. What other creator or celebrity could you see launch a All it takes is a scroll on Road Skin's Instagram to see the food integration into almost all of their marketing materials, from espresso martinis to cinnamon rolls to cereal and milk. This is a formula that is so captivating because food is something that humans must eat multiple times a day. Including it in your marketing material naturally makes a person trigger the part of them that needs to be filled to literally survive. To continue listening to the episode and to get access to the weekly Friday Trend Report plus every extended episode of this podcast, you can become a paying member of my best selling substack@cocomoco substack.com thank you guys so much for 10,000 subscribers. Hope that my show Ahead of the Curve is a weekly sense of comfort, information and inspiration for.