What Exactly Is Beauty PR?
Beauty PR is exactly what it sounds like: public relations for beauty products, or cosmetics. Think of every commercial for eyeliner, lipstick, or mascara – the people behind those ads are beauty public relation agents.
What Do Companies Do to Promote Products?
More than just ads, PR agents are responsible for the promotion of products through other channels as well. Most commonly, this is done through “influencers” (people with large social media followings). PR companies often promote events to make influencers aware of new products. During these events, the influencers will test the products and (hopefully) share them with their followers.
In addition, companies will send a “PR box” to whatever representative has been chosen, along with all of the information that the rep will need to know about the new products. This is done mainly in hopes that the representative will provide advertisement through their own social media accounts (Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat are the most popular for this purpose).
These “influencers” have wide reach, and even one voice with a large following can go a very long way in the world of cosmetics.
What do the Influencers Receive in Return?
For one thing, free products. Often there is actually not a lot of money changing hands, but that is not to say that it does not happen at all. Generally, influencers are not paid for their reviews, but that does not stop their audience from thinking otherwise. Therefore, most influencers will include a disclaimer to let the following know that they were paid (or not) for a review.
Influencers also get a lot of content to put out for their following. Videos and pictures of events or opening PR boxes, as well as whatever new content they can create in the future using those products. The promotion is mutually beneficial for these reasons.
That Means Companies Run the Risk of Bad Reviews, Right?
It absolutely does, and it has happened several times. They certainly risk receiving negative feedback from an influencer, but in the end it still draws attention to the company. Any advertisement is good advertisement.
More often than not, however, the reviews received are positive. This obviously draws positive attention to the company in question, as well as the products reviewed. Since these influencers have such a large following, and each of the followers has friends and family, companies feel that the risk of a bad review is worth it in nearly every case.
What About Non-Influencer Advertising?
That is a whole different ballpark, and in all honesty, it is very difficult. Take mascara, for example. How many ways can eyelashes be shown off? It is up to these PR agents to figure that out. Beauty PR agents tend to be creative people simply because the industry calls for exactly that. There is no real set formula for these advertisements, and the PR agents really get a chance to showcase their imaginations.
