Half of The Beauty Brief resides in sunny LA, but the other half can be found in anything but Seattle. That other half is me, so when we saw that Glow Recipe launched a new version of their infamous watermelon niacinamide drops with a hint of hue, my deeply pale face lit up the best it can in March.
Targeting uneven skin tone and dullness, Glow Recipe has done an excellent job showing consumers how this new variation differentiates from their OG formula with a series of show and tell infographics and visuals across all platforms, and on a variety of skin tones to display universal results.
The brand describes the Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Hue Drops as “a clinically effective serum with a sheer tint that evens skin tone with a warm glow, while Niacinamide helps to brighten skin over time.”
And an early spring launch feels completely in line with this serum’s mission.
In late February, the brand leveraged their partnership with Sephora for an exclusive NYC pop up event to promote the launch. The Dewy World of Glow Recipe gave attendees the opportunity to be the first to try the new Hue Drops and sent them home with goodies including free samples and gifts.
Promo also included a Times Square billboard illuminating the product visuals and benefits.
Glow Recipe teased the pop up on Instagram in a broadcast news style skit where they eventually unveiled details on the exclusive NYC launch, followed by world-wide access to their Hue Drops the following day.
Immersive, experiential brand experiences that allow an audience to engage and interact with both their community and the brand itself in real life are becoming a major priority in post-pandemic marketing strategy.
There’s fatigue surrounding the perfection of carefully curated content on platforms like Instagram and while in-person events are clearly selling (and are undeniably aggressively branded), they are also providing consumers with more than just a transactional exchange.
There’s a new kind of value being given.
Community-focused initiatives and emotional marketing will continue to receive more emphasis from brands moving forward.
While we are incredibly impressed with Glow Recipe’s GTM rollout, things did not go off without some setbacks.
Influencer and Glow Recipe Diversity Board Member, Aysha Harun, posted on TikTok wondering if she received an unreleased product from the brand on accident in an unpaid video, which ultimately went viral.
But even this “mistake” has only added to the hype and benefitted the launch overall. We are a bit skeptical, as marketing can be increasingly covert and clever, but either way - it produced results.
Let us know if you think the mishap was authentic in the comments.
At the end of the day, this launch has checked off all the boxes we seek from brands.
What’s most exciting about the Hue Drops – aside from the gorgeous results we’re seeing from end users – is that this is a very different product from Glow Recipe than we’ve seen before.
It’s a baby step towards potentially expanding the skincare line to also feature color, which the brand has teased we should stay tuned to see what’s next.
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