Submitted by ButtermilkAgency IPI Score 66/100

Rediscovering the #Armani Beauties Community

Influencer Marketing

Buttermilk built a three-tier creator community of nearly 7,848 creators for Armani Beauty from early 2023, reporting engagement rate 142% above KPI and views 60% above KPI across TikTok and Instagram.

60%Views above KPI
142%Engagement rate above KPI
95%Creator following above KPI
50%Content engagement above KPI

About the campaign

Armani Beauty entered 2023 needing a sustained social presence among Gen Z beauty consumers, not one-off influencer placements, and a model that could keep pace with fast-moving trends while reacting to cultural moments in real time. Buttermilk's answer was to treat creators as a structured community rather than a media buy, anchoring selection in four "Armani It Girl" archetypes built from media audience targets, industry insights and social listening, on the insight that Gen Z responds to content showing how a product fits into a real consumer's life.

From early 2023 the agency built and managed a three-tier community across TikTok and Instagram: a Beauty Squad of long-term ambassadors with 500K to 20M followers leading creative direction, a Trend Squad at 50K to 250K producing reactive trend content, and Brand Fans at 1K to 25K generating steady UGC while doubling as an early-warning system for subcultural trends. Always-on campaigns tracked Armani's NPD calendar, including a Pumpkin Spice Makeup moment with Meredith Duxbury and a gloss launch fronted by Pookie.

Buttermilk reports 7,848 creators activated with a combined following of 113 million, producing over 15,000 pieces of content, 153 million views, 4.8 million engagements and a 7.8% average engagement rate that beat the original KPI by 142%.

Case in 60 seconds

Armani Beauty entered 2023 needing sustained social presence among Gen Z consumers rather than one-off influencer placements, and required a model capable of keeping pace with fast-moving content trends while reacting to cultural moments in real time, as described in Buttermilk's case study.

Gen Z responds to content that shows how a product fits into a real consumer's life; as Buttermilk founder Jamie Ray has noted, creator content can tell a lifestyle story that a billboard cannot.

Structure the creator community in three tiers, anchored by four distinct 'Armani It Girl' archetypes derived from media audience targets, industry insights, and social listening, so that talent selection is both precise and scalable, per Buttermilk's case study.

From early 2023, Buttermilk activated 7,848 creators across three tiers, Beauty Squad (500K–20M followers), Trend Squad (50K–250K), and Brand Fans (1K–25K), running campaigns on TikTok and Instagram including a Pumpkin Spice Makeup moment with Meredith Duxbury and a Gloss launch featuring Pookie.

Buttermilk reports 153 million total views, 4.8 million engagements, a 7.8% average engagement rate across 15,000-plus pieces of content, and an engagement rate exceeding the original KPI by 142%; all figures are self-reported with no independent verification identified.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Primary audience was Gen Z beauty consumers on TikTok and Instagram. Buttermilk developed four 'Armani It Girl' creator archetypes, each representing a specific audience segment, with example profiles ranging from 3K to 137K followers and engagement rates of 3% to 6%, informed by media audience targets, industry insights, and social listening.
Prestige beauty brands traditionally rely on polished, top-tier talent, but Gen Z gravitates toward niche, subcultural content that feels grounded in real life. A handful of macro ambassadors cannot produce the volume or variety of content needed to stay relevant across fast-moving social feeds.
The brief required more than a single campaign activation. Armani Beauty needed a structured community capable of producing consistent content volume, owning culturally relevant NPD moments, and generating grassroots insight that top-tier talent alone could not supply.
Armani Beauty positioned itself as a brand embedded in Gen Z culture rather than broadcasting to it, using the creator community to generate ground-up insight alongside top-tier reach, as described by Buttermilk.
Buttermilk's reported strategy reflects the observation that brand fans at the grassroots tier behave as organic trend sensors: their content surfaces subcultural signals before they peak, informing both creative direction and talent identification at higher tiers.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • TikTok organic creator content
  • Instagram organic creator content
  • UGC produced by Brand Fans tier (1K–25K followers)
  • Trend-led content produced by Trend Squad tier (50K–250K followers)
  • Long-form creative concepts led by Beauty Squad tier (500K–20M followers)

Partners

  • Buttermilk (lead agency, creator community management)

Participation mechanic

  • Macro Beauty Squad ambassadors on long-term partnerships spearheaded creative concepts
  • Mid-tier Trend Squad creators produced reactive, trend-led content
  • Brand Fans tier produced steady UGC and functioned as a real-time insight engine for subcultures and niches
  • NPD calendar cross-referenced against trend forecasting to develop pre-emptive content moments

Creator role

  • Beauty Squad (500K–20M followers): long-term ambassadors leading creative direction
  • Trend Squad (50K–250K followers): reactive trend content creators
  • Brand Fans (1K–25K followers): UGC producers and subcultural insight sources
  • Named activations: Meredith Duxbury for Pumpkin Spice Makeup moment; Pookie for Gloss launch

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult typeConfidence
Views vs KPIExceeded KPI by 60%AwarenessAgency reported
Content engagement vs KPIExceeded KPI by 50%EngagementAgency reported
Engagement rate vs KPIExceeded original KPI by 142%EngagementAgency reported

Why Buttermilk's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A tiered creator structure distributes creative risk: Buttermilk reports that if a macro activation underperforms, mid-tier and brand fan content can maintain overall content volume and engagement.

  2. 2

    Building a grassroots Brand Fans tier from the outset provides an organic, real-time insight mechanism, allowing the agency to spot rising creators and react to trends before they peaked rather than after.

  3. 3

    Anchoring creator selection in four defined audience archetypes, each informed by media audience targets, industry insights, and social listening, gave the outreach process consistency and reduced the risk of off-brand talent selection at scale.

  4. 4

    Cross-referencing the NPD calendar against trend forecasting, as Buttermilk describes, allowed the brand to enter cultural conversations at contextually appropriate moments rather than reacting to launches after the fact.

  5. 5

    Based on the available evidence, content that shows how a product fits into a consumer's life, as Buttermilk's founder Jamie Ray has argued, may be more effective for Gen Z than traditional advertising formats, though no brand lift data from this campaign is available to test that claim directly.

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