EARNED MEDIA SUCCESS FOR BEAUTY BRANDS ON YOUTUBE

BY
A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR
EARNED MEDIA SUCCESS
FOR BEAUTY BRANDS
ON YOUTUBE

DISCOVER AMPLIFY YOUR
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
The power of passion
Navigating a confusing
landscape
The marketing world is
changing
The Octoly marketplace
Why free is better
Sharing on social media
Curating playlists
Sharing videos on your
website
Licensing
Using as a YouTube Ad
Using as a TV Ad
Finding the right people
DELIVER
Unboxings are magic
Presentation is key
Keys to great product
reviews
Product reviews timing
Addressing negative
reviews
YOUTUBE
PRODUCT
REVIEWS
DEMYSTIFIED
Types of YouTube
product reviews
YouTubers love doing
product reviews
Many thousands of
experts
Everyone watches
product reviews
Conversations happen
without brands
Product reviews and the
law
Consumers trust
YouTubers
Inﬂuencer campaign
ROI
YouTubers want an
audience
BEAUTY
BRANDS THAT
ARE CRUSHING
IT ON YOUTUBE
Sigma Beauty
Memebox
BH Cosmetics
NYX
ULTA
Birchbox
A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR EARNED MEDIA SUCCESS FOR BEAUTY BRANDS ON YOUTUBE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover: Photo by Jacob | Reischel

At Octoly, we believe in the power of passion. Passion is what drives us as
human beings. Passion gives us the inner strength to push ourselves beyond
expected limits. It’s what drives creativity, deﬁnes our belief system, makes crowds
gather and cheer, and gives birth to society’s great cultural icons - everything from
media stars to superstar brands. Thousands of Youtubers reach this level of
passion, by reviewing products and featuring brands on YouTube and their
other socials channels.
INTRODUCTION BEAUTY BRANDS THAT ARE
CRUSHING IT ON YOUTUBE
YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
DISCOVER DELIVER AMPLIFY YOUR
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
1

We wrote this playbook
We built Octoly marketplace with one goal
to help brands navigate
90%
EARNED MEDIA
(YOUTUBE VIDEOS)
OWNED MEDIA
(BRAND VIDEOS)
10%
this highly-confusing landscape where videos by inﬂuencers get 90% voice share
about brands and related products.
We set out to facilitate a more direct connection between brands and YouTubers
with a data-driven campaign platform that is easy for all to use. By using our platform,
today brands can reach thousands of YouTubers who would love to review their
products.
The marketing world is changing
Today’s customers are skeptical about ads and armed with technology to avoid
them. They skip over TV ads with the DVR, block Internet ads using browser plugins,
andoftencanhardlywaitfortheﬁvesecondstoskipthepre-rolladsonYouTube.Atthe
same time they go out of their way to look for product reviews, demonstrations,
and comparisons about the same products on YouTube.
YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
2

At Octoly we’re continually tracking and studying the beauty brands that are crushing it with
earned media on YouTube. We’ve done extensive research on YouTube beauty brands and beauty
gurus across organic, paid and earned media. Not surprisingly, almost all of them are young,
innovative companies founded in the last six years, after YouTube was already well-ingrained.
Here are some of our favorite examples:
BEAUTY BRANDS
THAT ARE CRUSHING IT
ON YOUTUBE
YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
3

If you look at Sigma Beauty’s own YouTube channel, you could be deceived into
thinking that the brand doesn’t have a very large footprint on YouTube. But you would
be mistaken. Sigma has very strategical realized that beauty gurus are vastly more
effective in selling its products than the company itself is. Sigma has developed an
extensive network of affiliate members, heavily promoting the program’s benefits
and offering a generous commission. Thus the company has well over hundreds of
affiliates, aka salespeople, who advocate for them on YouTube. For each view on its
own channel there are 180 views of videos created by fan/affiliate/salespeople
on YouTube who help them sell brushes and specialty beauty products. Founded
in 2009, the company grew to $25 million annual sales by 2013, almost
entirely based on YouTube sales.
Korean beauty products are hot, and Memebox (pronounced “mi-mi box”) is another
brand that strategically partnered with YouTube influencers instead of focusing on
its own YouTube channel. The “K-Beauty” company is less than two years old and
started on a shoestring, but the Y Combinator startup has now raised $29 million
in funding. Memebox partners with YouTubers to create white label products
for them. Last year one of these sold out all 20,000 units in just 40 minutes,
grossing $400,000 for the day. The company has spent just a few hundred dollars
in paid media.
FOUNDED IN
2009
FOUNDED IN
2013
YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
4

BH Cosmetics is one of the fastest growing private companies in America. The
company was founded in 2009 without any outside funding and by 2013 had made
$13.7 million in yearly revenue. BH celebrates its YouTube advocates by featuring
them on its own YouTube channel, where you see two playlists prominently placed.
One is called “YouTube Tutorials We Love,” and the other is, simply, “Liked Videos.”
More than 98% of the YouTube views about BH cosmetics, to the tune of 382 million
views, are from independent creators. And that’s in no small part due to the 15%
commission that BH pays creators who send sales their way. As an online business,
BH has outsourced their sales incentives to YouTube inﬂuencers.
L’Oreal recently acquired NYX Cosmetics (NYX rhymes with “ﬁx”), a $100 million
company founded in 1999. The company had quickly become a fan-favorite
on YouTube, far surpassing L’Oreal on the platform. NYX did this in large part by
celebrating its biggest fans, the YouTube creators. The company created the FACE
Awards, a competition where YouTubers went over the top to create incredible
videos. During just one of phase of the competition last year, YouTubers participating
in the contest got NYX 32 million earned media views in just two days. Yes, that’s
right - 32 million views in two days, with zero paid media.
FOUNDED IN
VIEWS EARNED ALL TIME WORLDWIDE
2009
594 523 958
YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
5
FOUNDED IN
1999
2 714 932 055

Beauty retailer Ulta has taken a hybrid approach to working with YouTube influencers.
It begins by sponsoring hauls in its stores, where YouTubers select (or are sent)
products that they feature in videos on their own channels. Then the company
takes the best of these and promotes the videos as pre-roll ads to run before
other highly-targeted and related YouTube beauty guru videos. The authenticity
of the YouTuber’s product review has a much higher degree of resonance with the
viewer. Finally, they embed those videos on their sales pages right next to the
products so that shoppers can have contextual demonstrations or reviews.
Birchbox, founded in 2010, is the top beauty subscription box. In our study of the
brand last year, we found that the Birchbox YouTube channel had 600,000 organic
views and 2 million paid views. But their earned media views (videos created by
influencers on their own channels) totaled 14.5 million, 85% of the brand footprint.
Birchbox is getting the majority of its views from unboxings, which YouTubers
can’t get enough of. It’s amazing how of these brands on our list, and many others we
don’t have room to mention, almost all are very young companies who understand
the power of earned media and the strength of putting YouTubers in the driver’s
seat when advocating for their products. They are challenging the largest brands
by focusing on millennials and understanding which are the best strategies to
adopt on social media and YouTube specifically, where engagement and time
spent are the highest for shoppers who are passionate about beauty products.
YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
6
FOUNDED IN
1990
FOUNDED IN
2010
47 602 880

YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSIONYOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
7

YOUTUBE PRODUCT REVIEWS
AND DEMONSTRATIONS...
The Unboxing
The Haul
Get Ready With Me
What’s In My Bag?
Makeup Challenges
can take many forms, but overall it is categorized as an
authentic, unbiased, highly-engaging video about a
productthatishighlytrustedbytheconsumer.Almost
any format that discusses the product can demonstrate
a product, but here are the top 5 most frequent types of
videos YouTubers use to talk about products:
When the video shows items that come in from an
ecommerce purchase, sponsorship, or subscription box.
«Nyx Unboxing Haul Round 2», by Sarah Burgett
«MAC & Sephora Haul», by Madison Kate
«GetReadyWithMe:19thBirthdayMakeupGlam»,byMakeUpByPang
«What’s in My Purse?» May 2015, by Roxette Arisa
«Challenge!», by krazyrayray
When a YouTuber reveals their beauty purchase at a
physical retail store.
When a YouTuber shows one part of her beauty routine
When a YouTubers reveals every item in her makeup bag
or handbag.
When YouTubers get zany and do makeup the wrong way
just for fun.
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
8

YOUTUBERS DO PRODUCT
REVIEWS...
THERE ARE MANY THOUSANDS
OF SELF-DETERMINED EXPERTS
EVERYONE WATCHES PRODUCT
REVIEWS
because they love doing them. As with the other
performers, some find a way to get paid for it, and are
able to do it full time and with greater resources. But
they will do product reviews, with or without financing,
because they are passionate about products.
who invest lots of time specializing in a product or
category. In the U.S. alone there are more than 23,000
YouTubers who make beauty videos.
The top 20 YouTubers beauty represent only 35% of
the monthly views in the beauty category.
Millennial audiences tends to follow their favorite
YouTubers while also doing lots of searches. As they
go up in age, audiences mostly find video reviews via
YouTube search and Google.
The 2015 MediaPost study “What Women Watch” found
that 67% of Millennial women who spend time on
YouTube watch beauty tutorials, and 60% watch
product reviews. Forty-two percent of women in older
age groups watch product reviews. The report found
that 63% of Millennial women subscribe to YouTube
channels, while 36% of women in older age groups
subscribe.
«DOES IT WORK? Black Head Mask», by Chloe Morello
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
9

PRODUCT CONVERSATIONS
HAPPEN WITH OR WITHOUT
BRAND INVOLVEMENT
PRODUCT REVIEWS ARE
GOVERNED BY THE FTC...
CONSUMERS TRUST
YOUTUBERS
Time and again, social media and YouTube have proven
that brands don’t have the ultimate control of their
messaging on these platforms. Brand must learn that
they must give up control to get control. It’s best to
be proactive and help start conversations, participate
in conversations, and amplify favored parts of the
discussion.
and sometimes the FDA. Any paid or incentivised
sponsorships must be disclosed clearly on YouTube
and social media.
As MarketingLand reports, in June 2015 the FTC has said
that they will be enforcing social media and YouTube
influencer rules much more harshly and without giving
warnings first to violators. They’ve now also ruled that all
influencer campaigns must make it clear to their users of
any promotional tie-ins.
MarketingLand says that «For YouTube video, it’s not
enough to have a disclaimer on the details page; the
disclosure must be made at the beginning of the video
and preferably repeated multiple times for longer-form
pieces.»
In Neilsen’s 2012 study, people said they trusted social
media, which they equated with “People I know,” at
92%. TV commercials was 47%, online video ads
was 36%, TV product placements at 40%.
RECOMMANDATIONS FROM PEOPLE
I KNOW
TRUST
COMPLETELY
92%
70%
58%
50%
47%
47%
40%
36%
36%
33%
33%
29%
30%
42%
50%
53%
53%
60%
64%
64%
67%
67%
71%
8%
DON’T TRUST
MUCH
CONSUMER OPINIONS POSTED ONLINE
BRANDED WEBSITES
EMAILS I SIGNED UP FOR
ADS ON TV
BRAND SPONSORSHIPS
ADS SERVED IN SEARCH ENGINE
RESULTS
ONLINE VIDEO ADS
ADS ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
ONLINE BANNER ADS
DISPLAY ADS ON MOBILE DEVICES
TEXT ADS ON MOBILE PHONES
Source : Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey, Q3 2011
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
10

YOUTUBERS WANT MORE
THAN ANYTHING TO BUILD AN
AUDIENCE
and a longterm career to support themselves, while
being authentic and true to themselves. This will lead
to greater earnings overall.
INFLUENCER CAMPAIGN ROI
IS 685%
ACCORDING TO EARNED MEDIA VALUE OF
US INFLUENCER MARKETING PROGRAMS,
BY ADVERTISER CATEGORY, 2014
CPG FOOD
RETAILERS & APPAREL
TOURIST DESTINATIONS & TRAVEL
GROCERS & SUPERMARKETS
SHOES
TOYS & GAMES
HOME & GARDEN
TOTAL
$11,33
$10,48
$7,04
$4,80
$3,70
$3,31
$0,64
$6,85
Source : www.emarkeeter.com
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
11

DISCOVER
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
12

WHY FREE IS BETTER
Top Youtubers have many gatekeepers and are
expensive, and have little time to give to each brand they
discuss. In the U.S. alone there are more than 23,000
YouTubers who make beauty videos.
and allowing them the freedom to do product reviews in
any way they like, consumers are able to have access
to the opinions of many honest brokers, and weight
the evidence themselves on whether they’d like to make
a purchase or not.
to endorse products. However, consumers are sometimes
skeptical of paid endorsements, even from their most
trusted YouTubers.
The top 20 YouTubers beauty
represent only 35% of the
monthly views in the beauty
By giving products free to
targeted YouTubers
YouTubers are sometimes
paid
TOP 20
YOUTUBERS BEAUTY
YOUTUBERS BEAUTY
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
13

FIND THE RIGHT PEOPLE
to review the products. This is best done by looking at which brands the YouTubers have
reviewed in the past.
to apply to receive a product.
to participate, and notify the selectee. Now, with the Octoly data-driven solution,
brands can execute this process at scale, and decide which YouTubers are best for
the campaign.
Brands must decide who to invite
Brands invite a number of creators
Brands then select the best group of
YouTubers
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
14

DELIVER
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
15

According to Google Consumer Surveys, 62% of people
who view unboxing videos do so when researching a
particular product. Consumers are searching YouTube
for authentic product reviews, demonstrations, and
commentary. But they also love watch boxes being open.
usually get the best receptions, and so too with YouTube
unboxings. Here are some tips:
with a splash of color and unique design.
to be camera-ready.
with colored tissue, etc
to demonstrate that something shareable is about to
happen.
Unboxings are magic The best wrapped presents
Customize recyclable brown boxes
Customize the box interior
Wrap it up nice
#Hashtag it
Unboxing my collection, by EnjoyPhoenix
Battle of the Boxes, by Megan McTaggart
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
16

People love to get cards or invitations and show them to
friends.
so they can share it.
Example: In the early episodes of “Sex and The City,”
Carrie Bradshaw’s laptop had an upside-down Apple
logo. The company saw its error and soon reversed the
logo orientation on all its computers.
to show something special is inside.
Send them a card Give them good product info
Give YouTubers a direct line of
communication, and respond ASAP
Keep the camera’s orientation in mindPut a bow on it
YouTubers, particularly, non-elite YouTubers, can feel
neglected. But love to have their questions answered.
Keys to great product
reviews
Betty Beauty
125,673 subscribers
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
17

Plan ahead
Assign a community manager
YouTube videos take several weeks to get promoted in
YouTube search, and it takes a little while to do the video.
Place the same importance on these relationships as you
would with any member of the press who is reviewing
your product
Choose the right product. It could be
for a soon-to-be-launched product
that you want to
Give YouTubers the option of
returning the product
Set your expectations
create tons of authentic product reviews for before it
gets released. Or the product could be an ongoing best-
seller for which you want to nurture share of voice in the
YouTube beauty audience.
If they feel uncomfortable doing a review, perhaps
because they don’t like the product, give them a way
out.
Tell them when you’ll expect a video to be uploaded.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
N O V E M B R E
8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4
Inform and educate
As Tonie Shin, creator of the NYX FACE Awards said,
«Don’t expect them to turn your product into gold by
the mere fact of handing it to them and based on their
subscriber base. You have to educate them with
your product points, your marketing goal, and your
unique positioning in the market.»
Establish trust and a relationship for
the future
If they feel uncomfortable doing a review, perhaps
because they don’t like the product, give them a way out.
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
18

A hundred little voices are better
than one big voice
Let them say whatever they want
Send a short letter, certiﬁcate, and/
or info card
Brands must give up control to get control.
Great!
Cool
awesome
Good!
When is the right time for
product reviews?
There are four main times that
product reviews can be helpful:
PRE-RELEASE PRODUCTS
Build excitement with
exclusive launches.
POST RELEASE PRODUCTS
Just after the product has
been released, continue
to build excitement with
product reviews.
NEW VERSION OF A
PRODUCT
YouTubers can learn
what’s different in the new
version of a product.
REINVIGORATE A LONG-
STANDING PRODUCT
YouTubers can learn about
a great product that’s
been around a long time,
but now has some new
suggested uses, or could
appeal to a new consumer
base.
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
19

1. Best Option: With silence
2. Second-Best Option: Positively!
4. Worst Option Ever:
Flag their video
3. Nearly-Worst Option: Negatively
If you must respond, respond helpfully with greater
info. A brand going negative on a YouTuber is an ugly
thing to watch, and usually backfires. You might say
something like “We’re so sorry you didn’t find our
product to your liking. We will continue to do our best
to make our products as great as they possibly can be,
and we appreciate your feedback.” And it’s OK to gently
respond in the comments with a “Thanks for the review
- we always appreciate frank opinions. We feel it’s our
fault we were not able to give you better info before this
video. We’d like to invite your viewers to get more info
about the product by going here…”
Never, ever flag a video as inappropriate, or worse,
as a copyright infringement. As a policy, Octoly
will not work with any companies who resort to these
underhanded methods.
How to best address negative
reviews?
EARNED MEDIA
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
20

YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
One key difference between a paid sponsorship and a product
reviewisthatthebrandholdsnorightstothereviews.However
there are legitimate ways of amplifying the message of those
great videos once they are complete.
AMPLIFY YOUR
EARNED MEDIA
21

Share it on social media Licensing
Use it as a TV Ad
Use it as a YouTube Ad
Curate playlists and on website
Share the videos on your website
If you like the video, ask the YouTuber if you can pay them to license it for later use.
If you like the video, ask the YouTuber if you can pay them to license it for later use.
At Octoly we have a service to do this called TrueReview.
YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
22

YOUTUBE PRODUCT
REVIEWS DEMYSTIFIED
EARNED MEDIA
CONCLUSION
Compared to previous generations, millennials
simply are not watching TV. Instead, they are
spending increasing amounts of time online, both
on desktop and mobile. For the beauty industry,
YouTube is essential, because young women spend
a lot of time on the platform seeking out beauty tips.
But they’re not interested in finding this information
from the brands themselves. Rather, Millennial
women look to the YouTubers themselves
who are “real people,” honest brokers who
give their viewers the straight scoop on every
product they review.
But for brands, engaging with beauty YouTubers
at scale has to this point been extremely time
consuming. To find the right YouTubers with loyal
CONCLUSION
audiences of all sizes and interests, it takes great
data and a proven selection process.
Octoly makes this possible by offering a single
solution. The Octoly platform empowers brands to
find and engage with the right YouTubers who are
interested in talking about their products. Then,
brands can create turn-key campaigns and send
products to these YouTubers, receiving product
reviews in return.
At Octoly we stand ready to help you master
yourYouTubeinfluencercampaigns.Contact
us about how you can start a grass-roots
movement on YouTube today!
23

24
How it works
Step 1
Offer free products
Step 2
Select the best YouTubers
Amplify your earned media on YouTube
Step 3
Get your products reviewed
in authentic YouTube videos

25
OCTOLY
104 rue d’Aboukir
75002 PARIS
+1 646-844-9398
hello@octoly.com
OCTOLY, INC.
244 Fifth Avenue, Suite D61 New York
N.Y. 10001
646-844-9398
CONTACT US

EARNED MEDIA SUCCESS FOR BEAUTY BRANDS ON YOUTUBE

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