This Season's Holiday Viral Marketing Hit: Sephora's Mistletoe MakeOver

by Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

This time of year I like to devote my posts to cover some of the more interesting holiday interactive promotions online and this one in particular caught my attention since it was created especially for women!

Sephora has launched a new holiday digital makeover campaign called “Mistletoe Makeover” where women (or daring men) can virtually try-on this holiday season’s hottest makeup trends. At MistletoeMakeover.com women are invited to upload their photo, identify facial features, and choose from four holiday looks – “Smokey Sugar Plum,”  “Santa’s Little Temptress” , “O, Tannen Babe" and “Merry Berry" that's featured here. 

The site used advanced makeover technology that generate realistic makeovers.The campaign was concepted and created by digital marketing firm, EVB San Francisco, in partnership with TAAZ.com, a virtual makeover website. EVB is the same digital marketing firm that was behind OfficeMax's hugely popular Elf Yourself.com Holiday Viral Marketing Hit. Mistletoe Makeover is now exploding across the Internet and experiencing some high web traffic.

After some fun experimenting, women can then share their new look with friends by sending a holiday e-greeting delivered with a custom message and a “kiss” or “wink.” They then give all users a gift which is promo code WINKORKISS where they redeem a free lipstick sample or lashes with any purchase at sephora.com.

“Mistletoe Makeover delivers an experiential platform for women to explore, enhance and indulge in the latest makeup trends,” said Allison Slater, VP of Retail Marketing, Sephora USA. “Through this exciting digital initiative, we hope to engage and inspire women by offering them a unique interactive experience that’s useful, entertaining and readily shareable.”

They've supported “Mistletoe Makeover” by incorporating a grassroots social media outreach program and have debuted it on their blog, Sephora’s Beauty and the Blog.

Check it out and let us know what you think. It's pretty cool and has some fun holiday music on the site.  Share with us your new looks while you're at it as well.

You can read about some of the other interesting holiday marketing campaigns I've been covering at my blog, Donna's Promo Talk.

Comments

[Donna DeClemente]

Thanks Beth for posting your makeover. I love the look and especially the "kiss". That's hysterical.

Ashley, I can't directly speak for the company, Sephora, but I know that with most retailers today the brick & mortar stores and the online store are two totally separate business units and in some cases very competitive. So it's very likely that an online promotion, which drives traffic to a website and promotes purchases online, may not be embraced and promoted in-store.

Wal-Mart is a perfect example of this. Wal-Mart.com is a totally different business and is headquarter in California, vs. Wal-Mart stores which are based in Arkansas. They even sell different products.

Anyhow, this promotion just recently launched, and as a viral campaign, it's goal is to get as many mentions online as it can and drive traffic to the website. Already they've had a large traffic volume, which I don't know the exact number. It's a hit with me which is why I wanted to help promote it to other women.

[Ashley]

Viral marketing hit? This is the first I've heard of it. On Sunday I was IN a Sephora located in an upscale area of a major US city and noticed no promotions for this.

[Beth]

Great article, Donna!

My favorite Mistletoe Makeover is the "Smokey Sugar Plum" look. I've included my makeover here for all to see: http://mistletoemakeover.com/?f6dc01703ced65ccf0e8c06a05f64055