BLOGGERS/VLOGGERS - MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Blog post number four will look at today’s influencers in the digital media world. Digital media is becoming one of the most popular ways to promote a product to a large audience. Especially when it comes to the younger audience, they look upto people on social media and trust reviews on products they show on their platforms.

Companies can sponsor a video or a blog post to be featured on the influencer’s page. Depending on who you sponsor this can be costly. Zoella blogger and YouTuber has been rumoured to cost £20,000 to feature a product in her videos. YouTubers get paid 40-60% of views on their channel on average.

The media love to brag about how much money each influencer earns. YouTubers don’t actually earn money from likes and comments on a video. What it actually does is tell YouTube that they are doing a good job and companies are more likely to want to collaborate with them due to the large audience base. YouTubers get paid for views. The beauty category gets paid more because there are more advertisers in the beauty industry who are willing to pay for ads online.

YouTube and bloggers need to have good Business Skills to start up and make a living from this career. You can't guarantee views on your YouTube channel to be steady each month, so other platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook can be used to gain subscribers and therefore gain more views on their videos. A good example of earning more income is working with a company throughout their growth by having links in description boxes and showing products.

Working with brands in the social media world is a mainstream way of collecting income. But can you trust everyone that they are giving their true opinions of a brand? From a personal experience of reading blogs and watching YouTubers daily, you can tell when someone isn’t passionate about their sponsor brand. However, when you see that someone is passionate about the brand and want to show how good the companies products are, I will go on to look further at reviews and decided to purchase the product or not.

Sometimes companies will send out free products to a handful of bloggers and YouTubers to hopefully be mentioned. Companies will filter out the people they choose from. For example, sending a new Charlotte Tilbury lipstick to beauty focused platforms.

So is it all worth it? In my opinion yes. YouTubers and Bloggers who are full-time workers need to make an income somehow. Whether that is working with brands that you are passionate about or reviewing a product for the reward is your choice. The Digital Media world is growing and these options are becoming more relevant to a career path people will consider.

Thanks for reading,

Danielle

BEAUTY SUBSCRIPTION BOXES..

Let's have another look at a beauty subscription boxes. Subscription boxes are becoming a more popular way to try new beauty, skincare and tools/accessories in the beauty world. But are these subscription boxes just a dud?

Glossy Box

The idea of the Glossy Box is to firstly select your beauty plan. This basis around what products you’re most interested in, so you will ‘never receive a product you won’t use’.  At the end of ever month, GlossyBox will send out your box so it's something to look forward to at the end of the month.  Plus if you share your feedback with GlossyBox, you will gain ‘GlossyDots’ which add up to a free GlossyBox. The subscription service costs £10 monthly + £3.25 P&P.

GlossyBox seems abit of a hit or miss right? Every month you receive 5 sample-sized products but are you really going to really love every product in the box? Bloggers and Vloggers have jumped on the bandwagon making monthly reviews on the products itself online with Glossy Box.

Boxy Charm

Boxy Charm is another monthly subscription box focused in America. Instead on tiny little samples, Boxy charm sends out 4 to 5 full-size beauty items from makeup to skincare and beauty tools. This subscription service costs $21 monthly and is only sent out to America and Canada.

Boxy Charm does focus a lot on digital media to promote their product. Being a reader of blogs and a viewer of Vloggers, this particular subscription box has sent boxes out to popular influencers to gain reviews. KathleenLights on YouTube with over 3 million subscribers uploads her reviews every month online because of her love for the subscription box plus the contentious freebies for her every month!

Birch Box

Birch Box does not only focus on keeping women happy but in 2012 men Birch Boxes were available and sent out to male bloggers and YouTubers. Birch Boxes mission is to help customers find products they love. The subscription service costs £10 monthly + £2.95 P&P which is fairly similar to Glossy Box right?

The difference here is that Birch Box offers anyone with a relevant YouTube, blog or Instagram to apply to the Affiliate Programme. Its costs nothing to sign up and you are able to start earning money through commission. 

So are these subscription boxes worth it? Yes and No. It's something to look forward to every month plus its cheaper than buying full-size products. However, if your ever lurking around boots you are more than likely to get bombarded with samples for free so your saving £10 a month. The products are different every month, and personally, I would prefer to receive free samples and spend the money on a full sized product I would continue to purchase in future.

In some of these subscription boxes, a lot of the colours of the products aren’t suited to you. For example, if you have quite porcelain skin, most samples that are sent out are usually more of a nude colour. Also, nail varnish some people can be quite picky on what colour they like to wear, so if it doesn’t suit their liking they are probably going to ditch it.

Thanks for reading, what do you think about the beauty subscription industry?

Danielle

IS BEAUTYPIE.COM THE FUTURE?

Technology is constantly becoming more advanced and competition is building between Beauty companies. Marcia Kilgore entrepreneur that also founded ‘FitFlop’ and ‘Soap & Glory’ found there was a gap in the market for something unique. beautypie.com was launched on December 8th last year to supply the public with cheap make-up made by luxury brands.

Beauty Pie’s aim is to ensure people sign up to monthly memberships that cost £10 a month for a minimum of 3 months so the members can access the cheap prices. Non-members can also purchase but only at full price. In the end, prices do work out as little bit more expensive than the brands you find in boots but is worth it if you’re a make-up lover like I am.

Beauty Pie Review| Fleur De Force

Beauty Pie works closely with digital media famous bloggers and Vloggers such as Fleur De Force, MarziasLife, and Sali Hughes. In January, Beauty Pie invited Bloggers/Vloggers to pick out products from the line they were interested in testing out. The products come with a book showing the bloggers tips and tricks when it comes to applying the makeup. Bloggers/Vloggers show close ups of the packaging and spoke about their first impressions on the brand's concept. The packaging of the products seems to look as other expensive brands such as Chanel and Giorgio Armani although, with a cheaper feel. Bloggers/Vloggers tested out the products on themselves to give a more in-depth impression of the products.

The difference between other brands a beautypie.com is that although they make their own products in the same factory as other luxury brands, the brand states that the formulas of the products can be very much alike. If you’re a label lover like me, then you might be put off. In my opinion, I don’t only buy products because of the formula, but by its packaging. Buying a brand new Bobbi Brown lipstick just wouldn’t feel right if the packaging didn’t match up to the price, would it?

So no flaws in the brand and its campaign? Certainly not. What’s the point in buying a foundation or lipstick when you can’t try before you buy? People are put off by brands that rely solidly on online sales because there isn’t any aspect of trying the product to find out if it’s the right shade or textures your looking for.

Digital Media have upped the brand and have gained mix reviews online.  It seems the whole buying and signing up for a membership aspect is off putting to most people like myself. So how can beautypie.com change this? I feel beautypie.com would be a lot more successful if they offered small stalls in Boots or Superdrug so people could try before they buy. Also limiting membership costs to a smaller price and pay more for the product would increase the number of people signing up. If memberships cost half the price and I wasn’t sure how much I would buy per month, I wouldn’t grudge losing out £5.

Skin care will be released online this April along with 365 new makeup products that will be launched next year. What has the future have to hold with beautypie.com? We will have to wait and see.

Thanks for reading, Danielle. 

CAN DIGITAL MEDIA MAKE OR BREAK A BEAUTY CAMPAIGN?

I’m Danielle, and I’m a student studying Advertising and PR at North East Scotland College. This blog will be linked to my course so stay tuned for regularly updates throughout upcoming weeks.

The Question? Can digital media make or break a beauty campaign.

The point of this blog is to look further into past and present campaigns that have made a memorable impact. In today’s age, Digital Media has taken over the way companies campaign their products. Vloggers and Bloggers seem to have taken over viewer’s thoughts towards products and really seem to influence their audiences buying habits.

Digital Media can be either a make or break for a campaign. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can give companies a bad reputation because of the lack of control of what people say online. People twist campaigns and find every little negative thing they can to take the campaign down to tomorrows headlines.

So why choose Digital Media as part of your marketing plan?

Digital media increases the company’s brand recognition to a wide market base. In reality, companies seize the opportunity to do this because sharing or retweeting a post is free advertising for their campaign whilst hitting a large audience demographics. It’s the most up to date media platform and gives an opportunity for companies to interact between the customer and the brand.

Overall, this blog will include future posts about various campaigns dealing with the pressure of the digital media world. Will it be a make or break?

Lets start off with Benefits launch of the ‘they’re real! Push-up gel eyeliner’ back in 2014. The new product claims to ensure one quick swipe would last all day. The build up to the launch date for this product was massive. This was the first time anyone had heard of this new way to achieve the perfect liner, and Benefit almost garneted you would achieve the perfect cat flick with it!

The ‘They’re Real’ sequel continued from Benefits well known ‘They’re Real Mascara’ so people expected a great product already. The mascara was known to lasting all day and keeping the same curl to your lashes as it had when it was first applied. Benefit released the ‘They’re Real MakeUp Remover’ around the same time to help with the removal of the long lasting product.

Benefit sent out the new liner to You Tubers and Bloggers to hype up the product before the release date. Waiting lists were building up and Bloggers and YouTubers were continuing to hype the product on their social media sites such as Shaaanxo, Saudibeautyblog and emtalks blog. Even online news websites were on the band wagon!

Since the eyeliner has been released, Benefit has introduced new colours to suit the new modern makeup trends. Benefit has always been seen as quite a quirky and different makeup brand when it comes to packaging and new products. Lets hope they continue to release more quirky and fun products in the future.

Overall, this particular campaign chose the correct use of digital media for the release of their new product. It built hype and is still a well known product today.

If you are interested in buying any products mentioned above, click the link here to be directed straight to Benefit's website! https://www.benefitcosmetics.com/uk/en-gb

Thanks for reading – comment below! ⬇⬇