When it comes to staying relevant in the world of skincare and makeup, one of the most well-known (and successful!) tactics is always having something new to draw the customer's eye.
While long-established brands like Guerlain (LVMHF) , Chanel, and Estee Lauder (EL) are known for being luxury classics that lean on their reputation and legacy to continue to sell products, drugstore brands such as Revlon (REV), L' Oreal and Maybelline (LRLCY) face a different type of challenge.
Since the lower price point of these brands make them more affordable for the everyday consumer, there's even more pressure to present new products quickly. With the exception of a few classic items like Maybelline's much-loved Great Lash in the pink and green bottle, drugstore beauty brands have to constantly predict the next makeup trend and find a way to leverage it to their advantage.
Maybelline's latest attempt at this approach is a unique one -- and there's more to it than meets the eye (lash).
What's Maybelline's Newest Approach About?
While video games might be the least obvious place to imagine a beauty brand like Maybelline going, that's exactly where parent company is taking it.
Maybelline has announced a partnership with mobile gaming company Zynga (ZNGA), which is known for its massive Facebook META hit "FarmVille" and mobile smash "Words With Friends," Marketing Dive reports.
Called "Maybelline Mascara Merge," the title is a merge between an advertisement and a mobile game. Using the gameplay of a popular genre of mobile gaming called "merge games," the player is challenged to match icons together to reveal a total of three Maybelline mascaras. Once the play time ends, players will see a branded video and get a link to Ulta Beauty (ULTA) to purchase the product if they wish.
This ad-game hybrid was made by Zynga's in-house developer Studio E, and will live inside the titles made by developer Rollic Studio, which has dozens of casual titles available with many have been ranked in the App Store's top 5.
This may seem like quite an odd approach for those unfamiliar with the mobile gaming world. But in 2021, the mobile market was worth $119 billion, and its forecasted to hit $338 billion by the year 2030. Also, 86% of Gen Z plays mobile games regularly. That's a highly desirable demographic to put beauty products in front of.
And if you're thinking people don't watch ads while they play mobile games, think again. It's a common tactic developers use to allow players to get another chance after a gameplay failure, to earn in-games currency like coins or gems, or to skip a wait time.
A new Data.ai report also reveals that more than half of the players it surveyed are fine with in-game ads if they are interactive. It gives the person something to do while waiting for the ads to roll by. But if the ad also happens to be a game, and the player finds it fun while they play it, well -- in this case, they may be buying a new Maybelline mascara soon enough.
