Glossy Pop Newsletter: NYFW-timed pop-ups proved a big success for beauty brands

September 13, 2024 Mary

In the weeks leading up to New York Fashion Week, announcements of beauty brand pop-ups — many of which would combine a VIP event with a few days of activations — flooded editors’ inboxes. Still, despite the crowding, the line to get into Prada Beauty’s pop-up, held from September 6-8 in Chelsea, was wrapped around the block. The multi-room activation was meant to promote the latest flanker of the brand’s Paradoxe franchise, dubbed Virtual Flower.

Prada Beauty isn’t exactly starved for brand awareness, and the goal of the pop-up wasn’t sales, either, according to the brand. “We wanted to bring the story of Virtual Flower to life,” said Nico Lubkeman, brand manager at Prada Beauty. And he believes the brand accomplished this goal.

To promote the pop-up, the brand used wild postings in NYC and tapped a wide array of influencers for paid partnerships including Meredith Duxbury (18.6 million TikTok followers), Steph Hui (2.1 million), Lily Chee (1.2 million), Dana Hasson (3 million) and Cyrus Vessi (595,000). From the pop-up, Duxbury and Hui created content focused on interviewing other VIP guests before it opened to the public.

Lubkeman said that, when it comes to brand activations, New York Fashion Week is essentially prime time. “Being in New York at that time fills you with this energy, this desire to participate in such a fleeting moment. … If you scroll through TikTok, Instagram, whatever social platform during Fashion Week, chances are you will see some sort of content about it, [which] speaks to the general emotional zeitgeist of it all. And to activate during that time means being able to capitalize on that energy.”

According to Prada Beauty, the pop-up saw over 4,000 guests, many of whom waited over 3.5 hours to gain entry. These numbers don’t include the smaller flower stands that Prada mounted in Washington Square Park, Bryant Park and outside of Sephora’s Soho location, where guests could pick up small bouquets of anemones and perfume samples.

According to Traackr, the pop-up has generated over 4 million impressions from the influencers who posted about it, and it has the potential to reach 272 million based on the influencers’ followings.

The pop-up featured a green wall with a huge, Instagram-bait logo, the aforementioned free mini-bouquets of anemones, makeup touch-ups, bubbles scented with the various notes in the fragrance, and the opportunity for guests to create AI-generated videos of themselves. Those who purchased Virtual Flower could customize it in ways exclusive to the pop-up. The brand offered monogrammed “ascots” for the bottles, for example. Guests could also select from archival Prada prints, which could then be UV-printed onto the backs of the bottles. “It’s just another way to make it that much more unique and increase that ‘wow’ factor,” Lubkeman said. Prada Beauty re-launched color cosmetics and skin care in January.

It’s worth noting that some of the AI-generated videos wound up being mocked on TikTok. Of this, Lubkeman said, “People are going to perceive things how they want to perceive them. Ultimately, our goal was to bring the digital to the physical, and we feel we developed a beautiful experience.”

All visitors, whether or not they made a purchase, were given 7-milliliter samples of the scent — and, of course, the opportunity to post standout social content.

Other beauty brands hosting pop-ups during New York Fashion Week included Lancôme, Addiction Tokyo and Hourglass. For its part, Hourglass hosted a nostalgia-fueled pop-up with Barneys from September 5 to October 11.

Olaplex hosted a pop-up in Soho. It started with a VIP party hosted by Jenna Lyons (808,000 Instagram followers) on September 6 and opened to the public on September 6-7. Dubbed the “Leave-Inn,” the concept played on the theme of a hotel and celebrated the brand’s most recent launch, its No.5 Leave-In Moisturize & Mend Leave-In Conditioner.

Glossy Pop Newsletter: NYFW-timed pop-ups proved a big success for beauty brands

“[The timing] allowed us to align ourselves with a cultural moment that worked, in terms of the brand and what we stand for,” said Katie Gohman, CMO of Olaplex. “New York was just popping.” On top of New York Fashion Week, Labor Day had just wrapped, schools were back in session and the U.S. Open was going on, she noted.

The experience allowed guests to have a “selfie moment,” but also to touch and feel the new product, get styling experiences from Olaplex experts, and to leave with deluxe samples of both the new product and the brand’s shampoo, she said.

Two thousand consumers attended the pop-up, with over 300 receiving a hair-styling service. Between the VIP event and the consumer pop-up, the brand reached over 127 million people and saw a 37% increase in new community members in 72 hours, compared to the previous month, Gohman said. Olaplex has 2.5 million Instagram followers and 369,000 TikTok followers.

According to Lisa Bobroff, the brand’s vp of global communications and consumer engagement, guests were craving education, not just freebies. “They wanted to learn,” she said. “We had microscopes where they could look at damaged hair, and we had people from our R&D team there, and people wanted to engage with them. We also had people who came in and knew our products by heart [saying], ‘I use this, but should I be using this?’ And, ‘How do I use this with my No. 9 [Bond Protector Frizz Reduction & Heat Protectant Hair Serum]? How do I use this with my No. 7 [Bonding Frizz Reduction & Heat Protectant Hair Oil]?’”

Other than partnering with Lyons, the brand did not promote the pop-up, but rather let organic social from its VIP event “do its thing,” Bobroff said. Prior to the partnership, Lyons was already a fan and user of the brand, Bobroff said. She is also a client of the brand’s global ambassador, celebrity colorist Jenna Perry. “To celebrate this launch and this event, we wanted a quintessential New Yorker,” she said. “And knowing that this would take place during Fashion Week, we wanted someone who had the respect of the industry and felt authentic to the moment.”

Compared to fashion brands, it’s far less common for beauty brands to have their own store, Bobroff pointed out. “It’s rare for consumers to be able to experience a true physical manifestation and expression of a brand,” she said. And, especially for those allowing customers to feel like an influencer via content or a free sample, stores are proving worthwhile for the brands that partake.

Boll & Branch + Prabal Gurung continue their partnership

Boll & Branch, known for its sustainably produced bedding, hit the runway on Saturday at the Prabal Gurung show. Leading up to the show, the brand worked with the designer to incorporate its 100% organic cotton into some of his runway garments, including an all-white collection that closed the show. In May, the bedding brand and designer partnered with Prabal Gurung on Maria Sharapova’s Met Gala gown.