4 - Advertising Analysis

As an active TikTok user I got to take part of one of the smartest advertising strategies that I have ever seen. Two weeks ago, the beauty giant Charlotte Tilbury sent partially empty PR packages for the release of its Hollywood Beauty Icon Lipstick collection to influencers, which sparked a viral "investigation" on TikTok. At first I was laughing to myself thinking that the product creator of Charlotte Tilbury must have accidentally forgot to put down the lipstick in the PR package, but it turned out to being something completely different than what I expected. 

Lifestyle creator Emely Moreno and makeup artist Mikayla Nogueira Hawken both received the package and recorded their reactions online. Moreno's TikTok currently has more than 11.8 million views and Nogueira Hawken's boasts more than 12.3 million. 

Link to Video - Emily Moreno 

Link to Video - Mikayla Nogueira Hawken 

When everyone thought a mistake had been made to the PR packages, the beauty brand then stitched a video to their TikToks to reveal more information about the "missing" products, which were reportedly last seen on 27 January, and said it is appealing to the public for any information. The compelling storytelling definitely boosted engagement and the response has been generally positive, with many beauty fanatics trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. This announcement made it clear to everyone interested in this situation that no mistake had been done to the PR packages, it was all a plan. A very smart advertising plan because this situation has been talked about in front of a very big amount of people. 

This PR strategy has proven to be a compelling marketing tactic since everyone has been talking about it over social media and the videos related to this PR "scandal" has received an extreme amount of views. The influencers receiving the packages were talking about it and so did their followers, trying to figure out what went wrong or why this happened. In the beginning it seemed like everyone thought it must have been a mistake when the packages were being sent out, but some influencers realized that it must have been all planned out. Whitney Simmons was the first influencer I saw that realized that it must have been planned out. 

Now recently the same influencers that was sent the partially empty PR package has been sent the actual lipsticks of the collection and the missing lipstick case has been solved. 

My personal opinion on this is that it was a brilliant idea to advertise the new collection being dropped. I have never seen an advertising strategy like this and I must say that I loved it. This is a very smart way to get everyone engaged in it and to get everyone to talk about it over social media. And especially having big influencers talking about it is boosting the viewers as well. I love this new way of thinking and I wish I could have seen how their marketing team came up with this brilliant idea.