A (22:10)
I feel quite sick. This clip. My God, I love the Internet. I have linked the full video on substack because it actually, it makes my heart sing. It is just. I forgot what the early days of influencing were like. I feel like every other day influencers get online and they tell you that you can't create content to get views or get money. And you just have to love the act of making videos, which feels like a crock of shit in 2026 when it is such a fully fledged and understood business. Like, this isn't a new space anymore. But this clip of Lauren just reminded me of the rudimentary. Is that the right word? The rudimentary beginnings of influencing. She's just so bloody excited to be there and she just loves it. But anyway, I couldn't actually find any documentation or reports on the performance of this collaboration. There was actually very little about it. Whatsoever other than what was posted by Lauren on her own channels. And something else is that she's by no means a huge macro influencer now. She's not drastically blown up, she's still around, she's still present. But Sephora were really on the forefront of this idea of community and tapping into people's audiences. And it's from this point in the early 2010s that they start sending YouTubers and eventually Instagram influencers product gifts and event invitations. Again, there is sadly not a lot I could find surrounding this decision or strategy, but I feel like we have enough evidence to assume that Sephora really did have a culture of just jumping on things and seeing if it stuck. I also wish we had present day media coverage on these brands and companies because I'm conscious that I'm making this story sound like every decision they made was not only like the right one, but was super genius in some way. Like it just because we're getting a highlight reel. By seeing all the things that worked, I'm sure they failed as many times as they succeeded. For instance, if I had to place a bet on the performance of that first influencer collaboration with Lauren, I would guess that it absolutely flopped. But what actually happened during this time, which I think is is really worth noting, is how they were sending influencers product at the same time as the birth of the infamous whole videos. Product reviews and tutorials were around also and they really came into power into influence in the mid-2010s. But the start was this real whole flexing of having stuff. It was like a marketer's dream because Sephora was being associated with this desire of flexing how much you bought, even more so than whether or not those products were any good or efficacious in any way. We learned how to do our makeup in the mid 2010s, but it was really the early 2010s where people were getting online and it was about having the latest and the greatest and like multiples of everything. People would do bronzer collections, people would come home from the mall and purely just show you what they bought while they were there. Not even their opinions about such thing, not even like the first impressions. But the content was about what I got at Sephora, what I bought at Sephora. Sephora was the destination. And in fact, actually just a couple days ago, on February 2, Claudia Saluski, an OG YouTuber turned celebrity, she's now very famously engaged to Phineas O', Connell, Billie Eilish's brother. Although Claudia is incredibly successful in her own right as both a creator and then a couple years ago she launched this brand, Cycla. They're a body care brand and on February 2nd it was announced that they'll be launching into Sephora in the US and Claudia made a compilation of her old YouTube videos. Talking about Sephora. Start with Sephora and we also went to Sephora. Sephora. We're going to Sephora from Sephora. Next up I went went to Sephora from Sephora AKA my favorite and only makeup store that I ever. All these clips are such a great example of this early YouTube type content where the retailer was the destination. This is of course during the peak mall era where shopping was an event and it really made the retailer front and center over the brands. Which is such an interesting flip of where we're at today, where in 2026 it feels like you go into Sephora to buy X brand rather than visit Sephora simply because it's Sephora. This whole mentality, this kind of flex culture, although we didn't see it as problematic yet, we weren't really criticizing it yet. It was very, again, all of this is with hindsight, like very new money vibes, very Kardashian esque, very early Instagram, but it was just a total different dynamic. Sephora being early to position themselves as a destination really capitalized on that. So they were kind of quite quickly exposed to the impact and power of influencers. We then get to the mid-2010s and we're jumping forward a good amount of time now post the whole type content. We start to get still a lot of long form video because YouTube was primarily the platform, but it became a lot of tutorials which algorithmically this made a lot of sense because how you would grow as a creator and get discovered by new audiences was really through search. It was very rudimentary SEO where people would search things like beginner eyebrow tutorials or how to do a smokey eye. And that was how you grew as a creator. As opposed to the homepage on YouTube where it was just those nine squares or to this day is just those nine squares. Although now you'll get served stuff from new audiences. It used to just really be the latest content from creators you already subscribe to. That's why subscribers was so significant, because that was really someone stepping into your community. But how you reached new people and were discoverable was through these tutorials. It was through search. And these tutorials meant that the general population, the beauty guru population that was forming was getting really damn good at Makeup on a technical level. This was what introduced a whole new appetite for talking about products at a granular level and almost like a scientific manner because it became about color payoff and pigmentation and fallout and longevity and hydration and like brush bristle density and so on. It was, it was this moment that, that the hype around Sephora as a destination starts to wane and the retailer focus really starts to shift towards brands and towards products. Of course we also have to footnote that 2016 is really this point where we have the entrant of the lifestyle brand. The the D to C movement is a whole other conversation. So what Sephora does at this point in time with this product obsessed Internet culture and phase, they start to launch influencer founded brands onto shelves and launch a formal Sephora Collection ambassador program. So influencers Mariana Hewitt and Lauren Gore's Ireland launch Summer Fridays. With the support of Sephora, they launched with a singular skew, the Jet Lag mask which became the number two best selling face mask at Sephora within a week. And honestly, it's a damn good product. I use it nearly every day. So it's not like the success was baseless, but it was meticulously timed by the world's most powerful retailer. And so it's this point in which they go from understanding that they need to test with creators to really investing in creators slash influencers. So part three is all around Sephora ambassadors. And so Sephora started working with creators in this ongoing ambassador ship type capacity when they went to reinvent and rebrand their Sephora collection. And this reinvention is truly carved into my brain because their front runner was none other than Ms. Olivia Jade. And before I rant to you about the significance of Olivia Jade being the face of Sephora Collection, let's look at why Sephora rebranded their Sephora collection and why did they do it in conjunction with the launch of this ambassador program? So Sephora Collection had existed since 1998. It launched right when they entered the US which is interesting. We spoke about it more in episode one, but it never really had this clear identity. Deborah Yay. Sephora's SVP of marketing and brand told Glossy that the brand didn't have a clear enough point of view, which prompted this overhaul around 2016. They then launched a at Sephora Collection Instagram account, the hashtag Beauty Uncomplicated campaign. They partnered with collectively an influencer network to have beauty experts try select products and then spread the message of Beauty Uncomplicated. They were trying to build the brand beyond something you would stumble across when you go into Sephora and into something you would actually seek out and buy from. The beauty uncomplicated thing is also very indicative of the time where you had like Kim Kardashian with her KKW contouring ones where everyone was trying to sell you that you could get this full beat and perfect glam that you were seeing a lot on on social media but in less steps and with less less effort. Up until this point the brand had worked with influencers on short term and intermittent basis, usually highlighting one specific campaign or product launch. Very typical of influencer marketing work. But they then brought in this company, Style Hall, a content marketing agency to help build out a tiered system. They wanted in house makeup artists, a core group of ambassadors and a wider pool of micro influencers to try and extend the reach of brand and into the culture, so to speak. So 2017 it started with just four ambassadors who I could not for the life of me actually find the names of. And then 2018 they expanded to 10ambassadors which included none other than Ms. Olivia Jade. And when I tell you I was a loyal Olivia Jade watcher, I really need you to believe me because because her life events feel like my personal life events. They are so ingrained into my life. But if you are unfamiliar with this diva Olivia Jade on YouTube or legally Olivia Jade Giannulli is an American YouTuber and daughter of fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli and actress Lori Loughlin. It's usually her mother that people know because I think she was Aunt Becky or Rebecca Donaldson on Fuller House, which means means nothing to me. But her dad started Mossimo Clothing which in Australia was being sold at Target. I might still be sold at Target, but I swear I remember in primary school every man and their dog wearing one of their like hoodies or shirts. But anyway, this family is much better known for their infamous college scandal where Ms. Olivia Jade, my beloved YouTube girly who would do these extremely entertaining Christmas haul videos where she would show you everything she was gifted from family only after like a five minute disclaimer about how she was super grateful and recognizes she's really privileged. And it was luxury bag after luxury bag after luxury bag. Zero hate. It was deeply entertaining. But that Olivia was made by her parents to pose on a rowing machine as they then paid off the rowing coach at UCLA US$500,000 to falsely designate her and her sister as crew recruits to get her into the school. All of this happened while she was the face of Sephora Collection it is. Is brilliant. There has been Netflix shows made about it now, but it just did not do this time in pop culture justice. I've been wanting to talk about it for years because, again, as a loyal Olivia Jade viewer, I can testify she hated school. Like, that was a common thread of her YouTube videos. She would vlog her days at high school and come home and go to town about how much she hated it. She couldn't wait to just be an influencer. But her parents were forcing her to go to uni. Oh. Anyway, obviously, when all of this scandal happened, Sephora dropped their contract with her and they published a statement that they don't, don't support this. Obviously, Olivia's parents, you know, got a slap on the wrist with a fine and a handful of months in jail. But the best part is that you would assume her career is over, right? You would assume that she's going to lay low for the rest of her life. But no, six months later, she goes on Red Table Talk, the talk show that was hosted by the three generations of the Smith women. I don't actually think it's still around, but it was Jada Pickett Smith and her daughter Willow, and then her mother, Adrian. Olivia goes on, and she basically says nothing. But then Jada is like, you're going to be fine. Though Olivia just doesn't believe her because obviously the Internet was in very rightfully in an uproar. But I so vividly remember watching this episode and recognizing this coded language Jada was using, as if, like, you know, darling, you are filthy rich, white, gorgeous. You're gonna be fine. Anyway, fast forward to today. Olivia is essentially right where she left off. Creating videos on YouTube and working with brands. And she's dating none other than fucking Jacob Elordi, of all people. Like, arguably the biggest heartthrob in all of Hollywood. And she does these interviews where no one is allowed to mention her boyfriend and no one is allowed to mention the call of scandal. I find it deeply hilarious. I just. I had to give you that sidebar, that pop culture sidebar. But she was the face of this Sephora collection ambassador program and clusterfuck, and let the record show that she definitely had, like, under a million subscribers at the time, and I want to say more like half a million, but even that feels really high. Sadly, I could not find a way to confirm that number. But alas, the ambassadors were regularly invited to Sephora's corporate headquarters for tours and information sessions and the opportunities to brain Tom with a product development team. Whether or not that Eventuated into anything. Olivia came out with a highlighter palette. I remember that much. But this was kind of the first with its time outside of just like influencer trips. Like, you know, we've all seen them, the tarts, the nas of it all, where they would go on these luxury holidays and talk about the brand. This was kind of the idea of taking creators into a brand, but the criteria of how they picked who these people were and who these creators were was supposedly quite specific. It focused primarily on millennials or people who had audience who were primarily millennials and they were beginning to play with beauty and supposedly the style hall edge that content agency was in. The data is they were able to make measure cross channel whether someone's expertise was in a certain segment. So it really helps Sephora ensure that their reach was spread across different consumer profiles, which is interesting in 2026 as data is the new currency. But that said, the early program was never really about massive numbers. It was a learning exercise, another theme of Sephora. So you had makeup artists and Olivia Jades as the official ambassadors, but it was this massive kind of micro influencer reach that, that third tier of the structure that this agency supposedly constructed for them that was most interesting because it wasn't the final evolution of their ambassador program either. This laid the foundation of what went on to become the Sephora squad, because what they learned was that what this ambassador, 10 people type thing and a bunch of micros was doing was there was no community element, there was no application process. And again, that typical branded way of working with influencers, where you find the talent that you love, you reach out to them and negotiate rates. And it didn't really have a way of regular beauty lovers to get involved. And the Olivia jade situation in 2019 probably didn't help their confidence in picking a big name and hoping for their best either. So in February 2019, they announced hashtag Sephora Squad. The squad was basically Sephora, saying that the old model was too narrow, too transactional, and doesn't really reflect who actually buys beauty. Deborah Yeh told Glossy, and I quote that we see see social behaviors constantly evolving. And in order to stay relevant, we felt it was time to take influencer relationships to the next level. We wanted to amplify the beauty community in a larger way and expand the number of voices and perspectives we're using in our work. The changes were significant because instead of Sephora picking people, they opened it up. The brand held a contest that in the first year drew 16,000 applicants, where they asked creators to get testimonials from their social media following to basically advocate for how this person should be a part of the Sephora Squad. It was a marketing effort in itself, but in that first year they received 250,000 testimonials, which is a pretty wild twist on crowdsourcing. But they partnered with influencer platform FOA F O H R to manage this at scale. Participants gave their social audiences calls to action to foster a new two way dialogue so that Sephora could pass follow accounts or conversion data and try and get people that had, you know, engagement. That's been the buzzword for five. But from May 2020 to May 2021, Sephora Squad members saw 18 increase in follower size on Instagram, a 15% increase in total growth on YouTube, and the TikTok Squad's combine follower count increased by more than 93%. You'll notice how so much of this coverage is like creators first. We'll get into why Sephora did this in a second. But when reading about Sephora Squad, it's so interesting the PR angle of it all where it's about about like what Sephora does for its creators and it's like, well no, the creators are in service of you. But anyway, the bigger story was the organic ripple effect beyond the squad members themselves. So according to Tracker data, since the beginning of 2021 there were 1650 Instagram posts mentioning Sephora Squad from influencers alone, compared to just 275 with the hashtag for alters equivalent program. Tracker's VP of Marketing put it bluntly where she said that the Sephora Squad just garners a huge amount of organic activity that goes well beyond the squad members themselves. It's really this ripple effect where a few dozen individuals are able to create this groundswell of activities throughout the year, which you don't see with Sephora. Again, it's like the marketing of even just the Sephora Squad application process. Like I've seen so many creators throughout the years jump online as they're trying to get their communities to advocate for them. It becomes this huge marketing effort around Sephora combined with this press language of like we're so creators first. It's just fascinating. It's just fascinating. But the program kept snowballing year after year. So they grew up from 27 individuals in 2019 up to 72 in just three years. So what Sephora Squad enabled for the retailer themselves is really content at scale for almost nothing. Sephora Squad members supposedly put produce 6,000 plus pieces of original content per year according to Marketing Scoop and this is across tutorials, unboxings, reviews, hauls. And for a retailer, that's an enormous content library and that was all created by creators themselves. Sephora then gets to repurpose this content across their own channel. The real win of the Sephora Squad activity is in the usage rights. I could not find official documentation about what those usage rights actually are. But if you've worked in marketing in or in beauty or in fashion, you'll be well aware that it's the usage in content that's actually the doozy. It's not how long it takes for someone to create the content, but the cost that they decide to associate with their face being used across channels. For instance, like a 20 second TikTok with Sephora collection, you could charge like 1K, but if that clip is going in the window of a store or on a website, that number is going to 3 to 10x. And what happens as social media has evolved is that firstly it's so much more about quantity as much as it is quality now. So having 6,000 pieces of creative to work with across different people and different professional creators, might I add is fascinating. And this is the idea of User Generated content or ugc, where brands pay people who are not necessarily notable in any way. This is like a new take on the micro influencer thing that would have been the target of that lower tier of the original Sephora Ambassador program. But UGC is where these retailers and brands need so much content to circulate on organic or even in paid assets to just circulate enough faces to build up the brand online that it's so much cheaper for them to do this via creators and you know, give them the Sephora experience than produce that amount of volume in house or through agencies. It would cost a fraction producing it internally. Although again I could not find anything publicly disclosed about the usage agreements. I imagine there is a clause where they have to let Sephora use something for some amount even if it's just on social. I'm not sure, but the program has been credited by the company to drive a direct purchase intent lift. So in a 2021 earnings call, Sephora CEO revealed that the company's influencer marketing efforts drove a 63% lift lift in conversion intent and a 48% lift in brand awareness. Brand awareness is kind of eh, but purchase intent is kind of this metric closest to actual sales, so it's less of a vanity metric. And it's people saying I'm actually going to buy this, which is really interesting. So lefty actually tracked this and also cited in 2023, that Sephora's strategic collaborations with micro and macro influences led to a 1013 increase in ROI on a TikTok campaign, Campaign for Sephora collection specifically. And that is so far from an industry average. That is only one campaign, but it was tracked through the lefty platform with real attribution data. So this creator program is really interesting. I'd only ever really rolled my eyes at it before. I'd never really dug my teeth into it. I didn't really get the point. I don't really find it all that engaging, personally, in terms of like someone being, you know, in the Sephora squad. I just then kind of trust that creator a little bit less because I'm like, okay, now you're entirely compromised. But that's not really fair. It's just a different take on hashtag ad, which was the second episode I ever did of this podcast, which is the evolution of ad. And I would way rather someone be in the Sephora squad than, you know, go on a brand trip where. Now I don't really trust anything you say about that brand now because there's that gray area of are you just saying something polite in hopes of copying an invite? So I shouldn't complain about someone being in the Sephora squad because it is so much better. Better than other alternatives. It is just influencer marketing is really interesting and I think the way that has changed and Sephora has kept up with that in kind of creating these new dynamics of how to work with creators, these new models around usage, around repurposing, around ugc. It's really fascinating because it's, it is a UGC program, but at the Sephora scale, where they're working with creators with like 10 to 80k followers, which for, you know, so many other brands that that's, that's their big creators, that's their big gets. I think stories of companies this large, this huge, particularly when they're backed by the LVMHs of the world, can make them quite boring stories to listen to. I am a much bigger fan of the underdog story or a rivalry rather than a company that's just been number one in so many markets for so long and continues to gain space on pretty much much all the competition. But the reason I tell it is because of how much Sephora's success can be attributed to jumping on things early. I think I mentioned in the first episode about Sephora that I thought them moving to San Francisco and having their American headquarters there was kind of random, but I think it's obvious to me now that they're running this retailer as a tech company over a beauty company. And I cringe at me even saying that out loud because what in the court probably it, but there are so many signals of how this company approaches innovation that actually cannot be found in any other beauty company of this scale. So that's why I think it's worth listening to. I hope you got something out of it. That's all for today's episode. Thank you so much for coming back after such an insane amount of time off. I have said it once and I'll say it again, that I am incredibly proud of this show. So as the format does change a little bit towards becoming more chatty and more conversational in an effort to actually be able to get these episodes out to you bi weekly, I do want to promise that they will still always be rooted in pretty deep research because that's how we got here in the first place. That is what I felt like was missing in beauty media. An audio show that was entertaining, but also not just people talking about recent marketing happenings off the cloud cuff. I don't even hate those shows, there's just a lot of them. So if you do enjoy this format, you do enjoy the effort we go to with all the research. Pretty please do leave us a follow rate the show wherever you're listening. Huge shout out to Kelsey, our wonderful producer, who is able to warp my yapping into something kind of cool and worth listening to. I can actually promise that I'll see you back here in two weeks because I've already recorded that episode. How about that adhd. But we are back publishing every other Wednesday and on the Wednesdays that we're not live here, you'll receive a piece of analysis over on Substack, so be sure to head to bareface.substack.com to subscribe there and get all the industry juice and data and analysis you can't find anywhere else delivered right to your inbox. So see you next time.
