Business of beauty: Top 10 Performers in the beauty industry

At the top of the new ranking by Launchmetrics, Dior dominates with a MIV of $388 million between January and June of 2022 (…) Dior who surfs on success, especially thanks to Jisoo, who serves them as a muse and whose every post is a hit.

@Dior La Collection Privée 2023

The beauty industry is more competitive than ever; there has been an influx of new brands, products, and celebrity collaborations in the past year. While beauty is considered an affordable luxury in a time of economic uncertainty, there has been an increasing concern over consumer fatigue, says Launchmetrics new report “Business of Beauty Top 700 Performers”. In addition, challenges remain as beauty is less reliant on media compared to the fashion industry and requires a much more nuanced, diversified Voice strategy.

In its latest report, Launchmetrics analyzed over 700 top-performing beauty brands across color cosmetics, skincare, and fragrance to identify industry trends, biggest winners, and best practices. The Media Impact Value (abbreviation: MIV) is an algorithm developed by Launchmetrics that analyses quantitative and qualitative data to determine and calculate the value of the media impact of influencer marketing actions on a brand image.

While the old-guard platforms such as Instagram and YouTube continue to be the juggernauts in driving reach, they have seen decline in total MIV on the platform year-over-year. On the other hand, TikTok has been propelling MIV® growth for many beauty brands through shorter-format videos that are more authentic and entertaining in nature.

Compared to the fashion industry, beauty is more reliant on influencers. The importance of KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) becomes even more supercharged when it comes to China. Whereas beauty brands drive a bigger share of MIV via media and owned channels outside of China, influencers account for the majority of MIV for brands in the region.

@Chanel Sublimage L’extrait Intensive -Serum

KOL stands for Key Opinion Leader, which is also known as an “influencer” in the Western countries.

The era of in-depth tutorials by beauty vloggers has passed. On YouTube, longer videos (often over 10 minutes) perform best, and lifestyle videos accounted for many of the top videos with the highest MIV®.

On the other hand, top performing videos on TikTok tends to be less than 1 minute, featuring celebrities / influencers or entertainment content.

Out of top 5 TikTok videos with the highest MIV was published on celebrity handles, and 4 out of 5 featured a celebrity within the content itself.

Overall, total MIV generated by YouTube has decreased by 21% year-over-year; while total MIV® on TikTok has increased by 176%.

While star influencers resonate best on Chinese social platforms, a diversified KOL portfolio is key to success on Western platforms. Within Launchmetrics’ 5 Voices framework, Influencer is the most effective Voice in generating the highest MIV for beauty brands. In S1 2022, influencers alone accounted for more than $5.6B in MIV® in the industry.

However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to influencers. There has also been a shift in consumer perception on influencers, especially when it comes to celebrities.

Different tiers of influencers, from micro, mid-tier, mega to star, resonate to a different degree by social media platform. While star influencers account for majority share of MIV across Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat and Douyin, mid-tier and mega influencers play a much more important role in driving MIV on Instagram and Facebook.

@Jisoo for @Dior

Dior claims the throne as #1 beauty brand, thanks to Jisoo Kim

Dior was ranked as the #1 beauty brand in Launchmetrics’ S1 2022 Business of Beauty report, with over $388M in MIV®. The secret sauce was, with no surprise, celebrities. While celebrity as a Voice drives about 4% share of MIV for beauty brands on average, celebrity Voice accounted for 13% of Dior’s total MIV® in S1 2022.

Celebrity posts on Instagram specifically has been Dior’s top source of MIV®; however, celebrities in general isn’t the strategy for Dior. One celebrity in particular, “Jisoo Kim”, has been the powerhouse behind Dior’s mega-reach and engagement. 8 out of top 10 placements [LEFT] were authored by the K-Pop star, who managed to influence the younger generations while maintaining the brand’s prestige positioning.

Dior not only ranked as #1 brand in total MIV – the brand ranked #1 in celebrities and partner Voices as well as in print channel, a key outlet for prestige fashion houses.