BareMinerals is building a new foundation in digital and event marketing with its new GO BARE tour and digital campaign. Over the next six months, the Bare Escentuals mineral foundation and makeup brand is traveling to six different cities to drive brand awareness and introduce new customers to its product line.
“Rather than ask women to come to us, we really wanted to go out and talk to women and have that conversation,” says Stephanie Lin, senior director of North American marketing and digital brand building at Bare Escentuals.
The cosmetics company kicked off its nationwide tour in Washington D.C. this week by setting up pop-up shops and tasking its army of complexion experts with giving new customers 10-minute “make-unders.” After spending a month in D.C., bareMinerals will pick up shop and venture off to New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. To help spread word about the campaign in each city, bareMinerals is also engaging in local events and partnerships, such as serving as the official beauty sponsor for the Nike Women Half Marathon D.C. and partnering with Katherine Kallinis Berman and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne—cofounders of Georgetown Cupcake and stars of TLC’s D.C. Cupcakes. Customers can also buy the product directly on site.
“Katherine and Sophie are longtime users of the bareMinerals brand, so it was a very authentic relationship for us to be partnering with them and to actually invite them to help us kick off this tool,” Lin says. “Of course, we’re looking for Katherine and Sophie to help us reach their audiences and to introduce bareMinerals to a whole new generation of women.”
To broaden expand the converstaion to customers living outside of the toured cities, bareMinerals also launched a digital campaign, through which the brand encourages people to tweet their favorite indulgences with the hashtag #GOBARE. BareMinerals also intends to launch a YoutTube video series that will feature select indulgences being fulfilled, such as watching reality TV shows or eating chocolate. In addition, to bridge these physical and digital experiences, bareMinerals has also introduced Twitter vending machines that releases gifts once customers tweet to #GOBARE. BareMinerals will also track its journey across America and post photos, videos, and content on the brand’s Facebook and landing pages.
“The idea is that we start the conversation online but ultimately, with that mainstream interest that we’re seeing in the marketplace, we’re able to push you out to the right physical doors where you can have that high-touch experience with a beauty ambassador,” Lin says.
In addition, people can visit the campaign’s microsite to sign up for email notifications that will alert them when the tour is visiting a nearby city. Lin says the emails also include bareMinerals’ social sharing buttons to encourage customers to share the event with their friends.
And while driving brand awareness and customer conversations are the brand’s primary goals, Lin says bareMinerals also aims to use the events and microsite to drive traffic to its e-commerce site.
“You might be there initially just to learn about bareMinerals because you saw it on the street or you heard about the Go Bare tour from a friend, but once you’re on the site, what you’re going to find is a very rich environment,” Lin says. “Obviously, the transactional element is [also] there where we can easily convert you after you’ve been educated and entertained on the gobaretour.com mini site to then go buy the product.”
Whether connecting with customers in-person or via digital, Lin advises marketers to focus on the overall customer experience rather than the need to make a dollar.
“One of my pet peeves as a marketer is when you force the customer down a road because it’s best for you as a brand, rather than it’s best for her as a customer,” Lin says. “We’re following you. We want to customize this experience for you.”
