Ad of the Month - Fenty
At Human Made Machine, we tell you whether your creative will be effective with your target audience. This is crucial, as creative contributes up to 70% of a campaign's success.
We test thousands of creatives each month in realistic, simulated media environments. Our tests use the gold standard of control/exposed experiments to predict real-world impact. To dig deeper into performance, we collect qualitative and quantitative data, analyzing what works and why.
Through our Ad of the Month series, we aim to share our insights. In April, we delved into the beauty category to see what’s captivating audiences and building connections with brands. Competition is fierce, with beauty brands spending an estimated $8 billion annually on advertising. It’s a crowded space, with legacy brands, challengers, cross-category behemoths, and nimble specialists contending for consumers’ hearts and minds.
In this challenging landscape, highly effective creative provides a significant competitive edge for brands.
Fame and beauty
Many beauty ads seen on YouTube over the past month used celebrities to tell a story and promote their brands. Our clients often ask us how their ads featuring celebrity partners are performing, and for our help making the right talent choices. We see that ads succeed when they use partners who reflect the brand's values, and integrate them seamlessly into a wider story.
Our April Ad of the Month winner excels in this area, but before we get to that, here are a few notable mentions:
Rare Beauty - feat Selena Gomez
While sleek and visually appealing, this ad failed to move the needle on Awareness or Consideration of Rare Beauty. Selena Gomez is a popular star, but in the ad she does not speak or actively communicate her love for the brand.
Charlotte Tilbury - feat Charlotte Tilbury, Kate Moss, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez
This was attention grabbing and the fun, cheeky style resonated with many viewers. However, it was divisive, with others finding it irritating, limiting its overall success. The stars also play a fairly limited role, meaning they were often not recognized.
Laneige - feat Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney was another popular choice, and viewers were entertained by the mock quiz show. Still, it struggled to drive impact as viewers did not understand how the setting or celebrity fit with the brand.
Each of these examples have distinct strengths and feature celebrities that people love to see. However, there can only be one winner. This month, the award goes to the outstanding…
How to Fenty Face - feat Rihanna
Beloved A-list celebrity? Check. Authentic messaging? Check. Clear functional and emotional product benefits? Check. Strong branding? Check. High quality visuals? Check. Alignment of brand and talent? Massive check.
Fenty Beauty has an inbuilt advantage here. It is the brainchild of global megastar Rihanna, who embodies the brands’ values. Here, she takes center stage, delivering a powerful message about inclusivity, which is at the heart of the brand. At the same time she brings the benefits of the products to life by demonstrating their use on her own skin. It comes across as extra authentic, with the star and her stylist having a relaxed conversation that communicates the key points to the audience.
The ad excels across the board. It drives a mighty 11 point increase in Purchase Consideration, while also lifting Awareness and Brand Favorability. It far exceeds every benchmark on the most predictive indicators of creative performance - Breakthrough, Rational Appeal, and Brand Engagement. In other words, it immediately hooks in the viewer, successfully conveys why they should love the product, and builds an emotional connection to the brand. The scores on our talent metrics were off the charts - Rihanna was by far the best recognised and most liked celebrity featured in any of the ads we reviewed this month, and 84% of respondents agreed she was a good fit for the brand.
At HMM we analyze thousands of qualitative responses to ads (i.e. real human feedback) using AI-powered topic modelling. This helps us understand the key themes that resonate with your audience. Our analysis shows why people love this ad in their own words.
“I love that Rihana herself is in the video. I love that her products are inclusive and advocate for all skin types and color. I love that it shows how pigmented her shimmer sticks are.”
“It shows how much Rihanna cares about having products that can be used with all skin tones”
“I liked the video because the genuine person who made it is actually advertising it instead of other people. I like it because she also shows not just 1 or 2, but multiple makeup products”
Rihanna elevates this ad in several ways. She speaks passionately about representation in beauty. She talks through the Fenty Face routine simply, demonstrating her expertise. Despite her megastar status, her tone is conversational and approachable. To convey inclusivity, she shares the spotlight with others to show how the products can be used with different skin tones.
At 60 seconds, this is on the longer side for a YouTube ad. Lengthier ads can struggle on the platform because they are skippable after 5 seconds. Here though, Rihanna is recognisable and popular enough to draw viewers in, and she delivers such powerful and believable messaging throughout the ad that it succeeds where others often fail.
Learning from the best
There is a lot that any brand can learn from this ad. True, very few have a wildly popular celebrity founder who perfectly embodies the brand. But it shows us that featuring a celebrity works best when they have an authentic connection to the brand’s core values and can speak passionately on its behalf. A celebrity should have a reason to be in the ad, and not simply be present but actively advocate for the products and the customers they serve. Consistency is also key, so that a celebrity can evoke the brand in people’s minds as soon as they see them.
Fenty Beauty, and Rihanna, we salute you!
Want to learn more about how to maximize the return on your ad spend with effective creative? Connect with us and request a demo.