In-house content studios are giving Sephora, Haus Labs and Beachwaver a competitive edge

Haus Labs’ 2,700-square-foot studio, which is located a short drive from its Los Angeles office, was designed, funded and built in partnership with Klarna, a global retail bank offering at-checkout financing for brands and retailers including Haus Labs. Today the studio is fully owned by Haus Labs and is in use more than 300 days of the year, Coller said.

“Every single department uses the studio,” Coller said. It’s become the sole location for shooting campaigns, product photography and educational content; hosting PR events, masterclasses and deskside meetings with editors from the brand’s 15 distribution markets; hosting webinars and live-selling sessions for platforms like TikTok; and, for the product development team, testing products on models.

For Haus Labs, the studio has replaced all external vendors, except for its largest campaigns. For those projects, the team brings trusted creative agency Domen & Van De Velde into the studio. The studio is booked internally through a studio calendar, and the team’s in-house creative team is available to shoot and produce content on the fly. 

The studio is still serving its initial purpose: to be a beautiful backdrop for influencers to create content that’s unique and authentic, yet set in the consistent backdrop of the recognizable studio. The space features a soothing, light gray color palette, a sparkly glam room, and props like Haus Labs founder Lady Gaga’s piano and keytar instruments. 

“This is a not-so-secret weapon,” Coller told Glossy. “We did the math behind this as well, and, as a company, we’re saving well over a million dollars a year by having our own studio [instead of renting equipment and studio space as needed].”

The beauty industry is in a unique position to capitalize on the in-house studio strategy. “We’re shooting makeup on faces. … If we were shooting cars or needed a runway, this wouldn’t work,” Coller said. 

Another advantage is response time to social trends. “In part, it’s why our social media engagement has increased over 70% since we relaunched in June of 2022,” Coller told Glossy. “As soon as we see something that might go viral, whether it’s planned or accidental, we’re able to quickly [build on] that, for example, with educational videos featuring [Haus Lab makeup artist] Sarah Tanno or [partner makeup artist] Cherish Brooke Hill. … We’re able to get people into the studio very quickly.” On average, Haus Labs creates 50-100 pieces of content per month.

It’s not just Haus Labs taking advantage of the internal studio strategy. As the pace at which the beauty industry moves continues to increase, an in-house studio has become a vital tool for reducing the turnaround time of everyday asset needs like product imagery or promotional social media content. According to market research company Circana, the amount of new beauty product launches sold in prestige channels grew by 36% in 2023, generating $802 million in dollar volume.

The amount of content needed to support the industry’s growth is also ticking up. According to Dash Hudson, an all-in-one social media management platform for brands, the average beauty brand posts five times per week on TikTok, four times per week on Instagram, and six times per week on YouTube , averaging 15 pieces of content per week. But when Dash Hudson looked at larger beauty brands with over 100,000 followers, those numbers jumped to 28 pieces of content per week: seven TikTok posts, six on Instagram and 15 YouTube videos. 

Of course, for global beauty retailers like Sephora, that number is much higher. “We publish 40-50 pieces of content a week across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube,” said Brent Mitchell, vp of social media and influencer marketing at Sephora. To make this possible, Mitchell runs a multi-functional studio and creative space in Los Angeles that the team expanded in 2021. “It’s hard to find days of the week where the studio is not booked or double-booked for shoots and studio events across several marketing business needs.” 

The majority of Sephora’s campaign content is filmed at the studio with a mix of outside and in-house personnel, he told Glossy, and brand founders come to the studio for content creation every month. “The brands often also have their own relationships with amazing creators and we will bring them into the studio, as well,” said Sephora’s Mitchell. “The studio also serves as a backdrop to collaborate with our own Sephora Squad influencers to work together on content and beyond.”

To pull this off, Sephora has a dedicated studio operations team that oversees the day-to-day and supports the high-volume shoot needs, Mitchell said. “They act very much as the ‘air traffic control’ and balance the unique studio logistic needs for each in-house shoot or event production.” The space also features a “creator lounge” for BTS content creation. 

A studio similar to Sephora’s, but on a smaller scale, is where Maesa has found its sweet spot. The incubator behind Kristin Ess Hair, Hairitage, Flower by Drew Barrymore and others launched its business 26 years ago, first as a private label company, but always with an internal creative studio. “It’s a competitive advantage at this point,” Oshiya Savur, chief brand and marketing officer of Maesa, told Glossy. She said it’s been an integral part of its business model, not only for speed and consistency across creative and marketing, but also for talent retention.

“There is a really strong culture that has been created [within the creative studio] over the years, and, quite honestly, when you think about the trust that comes from that, it’s a huge advantage,” Savur said. “Every time you engage an outsider, you have to bring them up to speed on the brand, and the amount of time that it takes to build that trust to truly understand the brand could be years. Sometimes people could never get there.”

But brands at Maesa are born, developed, designed, tested and marketed all from in the studio with the same staff team. “The studio touches everything,” she said. 

While many businesses have found success owning a studio, there are industry skeptics. Chris Skinner, chief brand officer and head of marketing and creative at the Front Row creative, e-commerce and marketing agency, said there’s a reason why most brands haven’t expanded their creative-focused setups beyond a seamless backdrop in a conference room. A fully-operational studio with sound stage capabilities, staffed by an internal team with the right cameras, lighting, props, sets and creative talent, can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to launch. This doesn’t include pre- and post-production or the many involved roles, including producers, directors, photographers, videographers, editors and artists, among others.

“If a brand wants to run their business and start a second one, that is really what they’re doing [by opening a creative or content studio],” he told Glossy. “Sometimes it’ll work, but brands can also create a backdrop, hire a photographer and then get stuck.” 

Front Row has a 5,000-square-foot studio in San Diego that produces the majority of the agency’s award-winning creative work. Clients include a who’s who of beauty brands like La Mer, Kosas, Inkey List, CoverGirl, Indie Lee, Summer Fridays and Naturium.

“[An internal studio] doesn’t work for everything and it doesn’t allow thinking to be fresh,” he said. “It doesn’t always attract the best talent, it always doesn’t always attract the best artists, and there are no efficiencies and optimization that you’re receiving because you’re not in the business of running a content studio.” 

Many brands Glossy spoke to agreed and have, instead, found a happy medium. U.S. Laneige gm Julien Bouzitat told Glossy that much of the brand’s social success has been tied to its ability to make fast content in its small U.S. in-house studio. It sits in the brand’s offices and often produces macro shots of the skin- and lip-care products that show off the color and texture. He told Glossy that Laneige has found a small internal studio can satiate the day-to-day social media needs of the brand. However, the brand outsources most campaign shoots to larger, rented studios and agencies. 

Doing so has paid off: During the first quarter of 2024, Dash Hudson ranked Laneige as the top beauty brand on YouTube Shorts with 42 million views across 98 posts. Meanwhile, in June of this year, market research company Mintoiro ranked Laneige as the top beauty brand on TikTok according to followers, engagement and growth. 

However, live-selling, which often spans several hours and requires brand founders to have fresh video sets, is best hosted in a private studio space. Sarah Potempa, founder and CEO of the 14-year-old Beachwaver line of hot tools and hair products, has become one of the top beauty brands on TikTok and TikTok Shop thanks to her multi-hour live-streaming sessions. “[During the pandemic] we took our offices and turned them into sets,” she told Glossy. As a family business, this has entailed bold fabrics and colorful spray paint artfully applied to walls by her team and family. “People like watching the live streams with different backgrounds.”

Currently, Beachwaver’s Tiktok has 1.2 million followers, while Potempa’s personal TikTok is sitting at 1.5 million followers. As of this month, the brand has outgrown the studio spaces they created during the pandemic in its Illinois factory. It’s now expanding into a second office and studio space in the newly-renovated Domino Sugar building in Brooklyn on the East River. This will allow for desksides, collaborative content creation and better access to talent, both behind and in front of the camera. The new space is 5,000 square feet and will feature separate entrances to the studio and offices. One permanent set being created now is a salon set complete with a shampoo bowl, back bar and styling chair. 

“What I like about live-streaming on TikTok is it can be very much based in storytelling,” Potema told Glossy. “Sometimes I’ll stream for six hours, so I have gotten to know our top followers. They sit and hang out on our shows; they’re like our friends.” 

She said that it’s allowed her to turn brand users into brand superfans, some of whom will tune in for 100-200 hours a month to watch tutorials, order packing videos and product demos. And, of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without an in-house studio.