Moj Mahdara’s “aha” moment came when the ambulance pulled up at last year’s BeautyCon convention.
Young girls, lined up for hours to meet and spend some time with YouTube and Instagram personalities, were wilting in the heat.
“There were over 10,000 girls that showed up and waited in line for six hours last August in the heat,” she said. “That’s a sight you don’t see for anything other than Justin Bieber. This was madness.”
Mahdara’s Hollywood marketing firm, Made With Elastic, had just bought the BeautyCon conference, and rather than promote it by hiring expensive celebrities and putting on a costly marketing campaign, Mahdara took a viral route and used Internet stars.
Mahdara, MWE’s chief executive, said watching the girls wait in line for hours made her realize that bringing brands together with Internet personalities could help create a new marketing channel.
“Previously, brands or marketers wanted to work with like a Robert Downey Jr.,” she said. “But now, they want to work with people that have more of a digital footprint.”
BeautyCon, a one-day event featuring presentations, how-to makeup booths, parties, and opportunities to preview and shop new beauty and makeup products, will make its New York debut in two weeks, using the same strategy of employing online personalities.
Kandee Johnson, a former celebrity makeup artist turned YouTube star, has participated as a guest speaker since the convention launched and was there when the ambulance rolled up at last year’s event.
“It was insane,” she said of the long lines outside the event. “I mean I went outside to hand girls water because I felt so bad.”
Johnson, who will be a speaker at the New York event, is the kind of Internet celebrity whose credentials pull in attendees. What started as a hobby to teach makeup tips and tricks has become a full-time job that supports her and her three young children.
“It’s more than a full-time job,” said Johnson. “From the morning when I wake up, I’m sending out tweets. I’m reading emails. I’m replying to people. I’m doing a Facebook post, an Instagram post. I’m writing a blog. I’m filming a video. I’m editing it and I’m posting it to Snapchat and back to Facebook.”
She said she’s often up until 3 a.m. creating content for the more than 3 million followers she has across various social media platforms.
That’s the kind of following Mahdara was looking for when it came to choosing participants for BeautyCon. The online personalities not only help sell tickets, they increasingly have appeal to advertisers and sponsors.
Cameron Manwaring, co-founder of YouTube-only ad agency Contagious in Marina del Rey, said using Internet celebrities helps brands reach consumers in a more authentic way while also saving on cost.
“A lot of large brands, when doing an endorsement deal with YouTube celebrities like Michelle Phan, see a far bigger bottom-line difference by doing a collaboration with someone in that area as opposed to a traditional celebrity from Hollywood or a sports figure,” he said.
And it’s why MWE expects BeautyCon to grow as brands will want to connect with online celebrities who can reach millions of fans. The company has already partnered with Elle magazine, which has invested in the convention.
Caution advised
Jerry Jao, chief executive of customer retention consultant Retention Science in Santa Monica, said brands using content creators such as YouTube stars to reach consumers should still take caution.
“Brands need to figure out whether or not it’s a good marketing channel for them to get a significant return from the investment,” said Jao. “It’s like our argument for social media – it’s cool and it generates buzz, but it doesn’t necessarily provide real conversion for most brands and commerce.”
Still, Jao said if BeautyCon can grow its attendance and expand to more cities, it can be a good tool to add to a marketer’s kit.
MWE specializes in helping clients such as French apparel company Lacoste and Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC Corp. put together and execute entertainment marketing programs.
Mahdara co-founded the company with Jessica Gehring in 2011, and they acted as consultants to BeautyCon in 2012 before acquiring the event last year.
The New York event will be held at a 125,000-square-foot venue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and MWE is projecting sale of the tickets, which start at $45, will bring in $200,000.
Last year’s Los Angeles BeautyCon was held at Siren Studios in Hollywood, and the next, at a larger location south of the 10 freeway downtown, will accommodate a carnival – one with rides and games that can be branded by participating companies.
Mahdara said the plan is to ultimately create off- and online appeal so once attendees leave the convention, they can still experience BeautyCon online through special content and even e-commerce.
“These people respond to their fans,” she said. “It’s a cool convergence of communication and it bleeds into commerce and content.”
