Beyoncé recently launched her hair care brand, Cécred, and it's already made quite the impression on consumers, creators, and others in the industry. In fact, it earned the #1 spot on the US Beauty Leaderboard in February, out ranking well established brands like Sephora, Rare Beauty, Pat McGrath, Milk Makeup, YSL, and more.
Over the past few years we’ve seen an influx of celeb-owned brands, but not all of them prove to be successful. The industry has shown that — regardless of owner — successful brands require sophisticated, multifaceted strategies to captivate and engage consumers.
Below we analyze the data behind Cécred’s February launch, and provide some insights on why it was so successful (hint: its influencer strategy played a big role).
The Data Behind Cécred’s Launch Campaign
On February 20th, Cécred hosted an event at the Revery Los Angeles to celebrate its official public launch. The event had many creators in attendance, and served as a great way for the brand to drum up buzz and interest that month.
Key Stats for Cécred in February:
- 540 active influencers
- 1,060 posts
- 22.6M engagements
- 99M video views
- 98K Brand Vitality (VIT) Score
Cécred’s influencer strategy also led to it being ranked #1 on the US Beauty Leaderboard, due to it earning the highest Brand Vitality (VIT) Score. Brands that it beat out that month included Sephora, JLo Beauty, Rare Beauty, Pat McGrath, Milk Makeup, YSL, Kylie Skin, L’Oréal Paris, and Fenty Beauty.
Even more interesting? The brand managed to continue its momentum post-launch, proving that its success is not specific to one moment in time.
Key Stats for Cécred in March:
- 523 active influencers
- 1,080 posts
- 6.91M engagements
- 46M video views
- 42.9k VIT Score (ranked 7th on the US Beauty Leaderboard)
An important thing to note about the brand’s performance is that it relied less on Beyoncé’s influence in March than it did in February. In February Beyoncé generated 78% of Cécred’s VIT, while in March, she earned 75% of the brand’s VIT.
Why is this important?
It’s been proven in the industry that brands that rely solely on the influence of its celebrity owner have less consistent performance and less staying power. Celeb-owned brands that have proven successful not only have a diverse and sophisticated influencer strategy, they build out other tenants of the brand that consumers can relate to (e.g. Rare Beauty’s values around mental health).
Tip: The monthly Beauty Leaderboard rankings are determined by Traackr’s proprietary Brand Vitality (VIT) Score. This metric was developed to provide a transparent and scalable way to measure the attention your brand earns among influencers. It measures the visibility (reach of content), impact (weighted engagement), and trust (focus of content of your brand). Learn more about VIT here.
What Worked in Cécred’s Launch Campaign and Beyond
Hosting events with creators and sending out PR mailers are fairly standard activities in the modern brand’s launch playbook, yet not all of them see the same success as Cécred.
So what are some key elements that Cécred did well?
- Celeb star power, with an intimate and personal twist. The success and buzz around its launch event was very clearly celebrity driven. Most creators that were invited posted about being excited to meet Beyoncé, Tina, and Blue Ivy. There’s nothing wrong with using star power if you have it! However, the brand did a good job of making the event about more than just “meeting Beyoncé”. Many creators posted about the generational and personal way the brand was presented. Zooming out from creators, consumers seem to be hungry for that intimate view too. For example, the top comment on this post illustrates how people actually want Beyoncé to show the story of how this brand was founded, and how she uses its products because she is usually so private.
- Premium, yet well balanced event. Cécred didn’t just rely on celeb power for the event. The brand made the event feel premium and stylized, and made sure to have a good diversity of models and creator attendees. The angle for the launch was inherently inclusive as it was more about creative styling of hair (maybe even verging on editorial-style hair) than any specific type of hair/hair texture.
- Diverse and sophisticated influencer strategy. The brand is clearly prioritizing building creator relationships with beauty creators from the jump rather than solely relying on Beyoncé and her celeb network. A breakdown of their VIT performance showed that they had multiple tiers (VIP, mega, macro, mid, and more) contributing to their success. This is a departure from what we’ve seen some other large celeb-owned beauty brands do.
Cécred is definitely a good brand to keep an eye on — it will be interesting to see how it evolves its brand and influencer strategy.
A prediction from our end? Cécred is poised to uplevel the brand beyond celebs, products, and influencer strategy. 👀The highlights on its Instagram profile (@cecred) seem to suggest that the brand is planning on leaning into educational content and value-driven campaigns (à la Rare Beauty).