Mejuri's magic and Charli D’Amelio
Part of the challenge of adapting new marketing channels is not knowing best practices. When I look at Instagram, the two best brands are glossier and Mejuri. Glossier got on my radar about three years ago. Mejuri over a year and a half ago. Immediately after I found about them, I studied them intently and helped other brands incorporate their strategies. These two companies clearly had the magic to brand marketing on Instagram.
This isn’t about knowing about a brand first. This is knowing how to identify brands that have ideas worth using first. Then it’s about how to incorporate those ideas in your own experiments. This post is about that entire process of dissecting the magic of another brand.
The best way to discover things is to talk to people or simply observing them. With glossier, I asked a younger designer what makeup brands do you think could use AR makeup? I heard a couple names and then one that I didn’t know of. That was glossier. We never did an AR makeup campaign with them - they told me they didn’t have any interest two years ago. But that’s a different story.
I discovered Mejuri when I noticed women tagging jewelry on Instagram that previously never tagged any jewelry brand. If this process doesn’t sound sophisticated. You’d be right. But it’s surprisingly easy to replicate. There’s no need for me to go through the design palette and communications strategy of glossier and Mejuri. Others have done so. Instead, I’ll look at new channels.
Now let’s turn this topic to video - both short form (TikTok, Reels) as well as longer form (youtube, Facebook). How do you find the magic worth stealing? The first thing to note is that the magic is not with the brands right now. It’s with individual creators. Step one is knowing who to steal from.
What attributes lead to success? For short form, I’m noticing:
Looks
Movement / Dancing
Collaborative Content
Personality
As I look at this list. I try to find the areas the represent opportunities. Things that the market is not prioritizing but should. Inefficiencies in the market. I look for opportunities to be two or three standard deviations away from the norm. Here’s quick notes on what I’m thinking:
Looks - Easy to find, hard to compete
Movement / Dancing - More difficult to find than looks, but not easy to compete with established players for talent
Collaborative Content - Limited to creator houses or family members. Hard during covid19 era.
Personality - Mostly ignored by brands. Potential opportunity
If you are not sure who represents all four, it’s Charli D'Amelio. But what if you can’t afford Charli?
Trying to compete on the best looking creators seems like a losing game. This is not saying I’m looking for ugly people for campaigns. It just means I’m unlikely to beat other marketing campaigns by working with someone two or three deviations better in terms of better looks.
Dancing is more interesting than looks for me. But the problem is getting to the best dancers before the big brands given a smaller pool. Not a lost cause, but I’m thinking to myself, “is there something better?”
The collaborative content area is also interesting. There’s TikTok houses and then there are people who make content with family members. Here I’m thinking there is an opportunity to take advantage of. Is there something less than a mansion somewhere in the Hollywood Hills? The answer to me is yes. This is a market inefficiency. I’m thinking the The Holderness Family. I’m also thinking Charli D’Amelio and Dixie D’Amelio.
Personality is also very interesting to me. Because it’s not a singular type of personality that is resonating. I’m also thinking to myself that if plastic surgery gets more common place like with kpop - looks will be a place that’s harder to differentiate. But great personality is unique and underappreciated.
Now I make Venn diagram. Collaborative content in one circle and personality in the other. I brainstorm from there. I write down notes and names every time I observe good collaborative content or examples of personality resonating. If I have the money, I sign a multi year deal with Charli D’Amelio immediately. I let her express her personality through my brand and toss in some equity incentive so she cares long term about my brand.