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Pop quiz on a mystery brand! Globally, this brand:
- Enjoyed a 79% EMV surge from 2022 to 2023
- Saw a 94% EMV surge from April 2022-March 2023 to April 2023-March 2024, proving that the momentum is ongoing
- Increased its Impressions by 109% to 9.1B (with a B!) in April 2023-March 2024
- Heightened its TikTok EMV by 314% YoY in April 2023-March 2024
- Starts with a ‘Y’ and ends with an ‘SL’
Did you get it? That’s right—our mystery brand is YSL Beauty, the iconic purveyor of all things French and Luxurious.
It’s rare to see such a dramatic YoY shift for such an established brand. As a keen and discerning mind such as your own might have noticed, most of the brands I highlight in this newsletter are shiny new objects that are on the up-and-up. For YSL Beauty, it’s been a longer and stranger trip:
EMV for YSL Beauty from 2018 - 2023
After holding steady from 2018 to 2021, the brand took a small step in 2022, then a giant leap in 2023. For readers who have a healthy skepticism toward the metric system, fear not—these trends are mirrored in YSL Beauty’s American numbers:
YSL Beauty (US) EMV from 2018 - 2023
When comparing YSL Beauty’s global and U.S. stats, a few things jump out:
- Whereas the brand was holding steady globally from 2018 to 2021, in the U.S., it was on a slow but clear decline.
- Given the scope of each market—a single country, albeit the best one, against, you know, the entire world—we’re operating on entirely different scales in terms of EMV. All of YSL Beauty’s global annual EMV totals have been 2-3x its U.S. annual EMV totals.
- The Great Spike of 2023 was even more pronounced in the U.S. than it was globally. While the worldwide EMV numbers saw that 79% YoY boost, in the U.S., the brand soared by 155% YoY.
But there’s another factor to keep in mind here: as I hinted at earlier, YSL Beauty’s momentum wasn’t confined to 2023. The brand continued to rise in Q1 2024, cementing its status as one to watch this year.
Here’s how that month-by-month progress progress over the last year looked globally:
YSL Beauty EMV from April 2023 - March 2024
And in the United States:
YSL Beauty (US) EMV from April 2023 - March 2024
As one would expect, pretty similar, though the curves and spikes are a bit steeper in the U.S. given the smaller amounts of EMV involved.
Alright, so those are the numbers. But why is YSL Beauty growing so quickly? What are they doing right?
You better believe that I have the answers:
Fashion Week? More Like Beauty Week
Look, you’re smart people—the fact that you read this newsletter proves it. So when you see YSL Beauty’s EMV surging in September and February, you can probably deduce that Fashion Weeks are in some way involved.
Globally and in the U.S., celebrities and creators from the worlds of beauty and fashion flaunted YSL makeup while strutting the red carpet or sitting front row at fashion shows. In a savvy move, and a display of a sophisticated creator marketing strategy, YSL Beauty augmented these high-profile events with additional opportunities for content creation.
In September 2023, Korean actor Lee Jae-wook and Canadian musician Finn Wolfhard fronted a campaign for YSL’s MYSLF Eau de Parfum fragrance; meanwhile, creators like makeup artist Jacinta Spencer took to TikTok to promote the All Hours Concealer. Of course, it didn’t hurt to have K-pop idol Rosé, with her 77.4M Instagram followers, reporting live from Paris Fashion Week.
Rosé reprised her starring role during February’s Fashion Week events, inspiring $2.4M EMV during that month alone, but YSL Beauty kept its partners busy via various activations, including Valentine’s Day events and giveaways. Thus, by seeding an already-busy fashion calendar with beauty-specific activations, YSL further amplified its digital presence, pushing the brand to unprecedented heights.
Balancing Superstars and Superstar Creators
YSL Beauty’s top EMV-drivers from April 2023-March 2024 makes for an interesting list. Right at the top is beauty guru, brand founder, and author Shima Katouzian (@herosheemaz for those on Instagram). Despite not posting about YSL Beauty during the preceding 12 months, Shima powered $6.1M EMV across 70 posts—largely organic makeup tutorials in which she favored numerous YSL Beauty products, showing a particular affinity for lipstick.
Shima’s style of post—chatty, quick-cut video tutorials featuring an array of beauty products and brands—is emblematic of both YSL Beauty content and broader industry content in 2024. Other top YSL Beauty earners such as Danielle Marcan, Lena Bagrowska (@lenkalul), and GRWM expert Lina Noory.
But then we have official brand partners like Rosé, along with newly minted YSL ambassador Dua Lipa. So clearly YSL Beauty is drawing from both buckets.
Ultimately, the brand’s growth wouldn’t have been possible without both components of this two-pronged approach: the makeup aficionados who keep YSL Beauty supplied with a steady stream of everyday content creation, and share a genuine passion for the brand’s products, and the world-renowned A-listers who help blast the brand’s message to all corners of social media. But maintaining steady connections to both of these creator segments wouldn’t be possible if YSL Beauty didn’t also…
Build a Partner Community
If this feels like advice that I give all the time, well, that’s probably because it is. And I get why it might not be what brands want to hear—if it was easy, everyone would do it. Plus, the prestige and history of the YSL name, and the ability to furnish partners with exclusive events and opportunities, does make for an easier sell.
But YSL Beauty’s surge over the past 15 months has been predicated on forging mutually beneficial relationships between brand and creator. Rosie and Dua Lipa were genuinely excited by the activations that YSL Beauty brought them into, and continued posting about the brand consistently. Meanwhile, YSL Beauty’s organic fans from the world of makeup never flagged in their content creation, and were rewarded via consistent product launches, giveaways, and other reasons to post.
One crucial thing to note about those MoM growth graphs? Months that contain Fashion Weeks aren’t just brief spikes for YSL Beauty: they propel the brand to another level. In the months following September and February, YSL Beauty declined, but only to a level that still exceeded where the brand had been before. Thanks to a truly engaged creator community, these events served as floor-raisers, rather than one-offs.
And if that’s where the floor is set, there’s no telling how high the ceiling could be.
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