Submitted by connective3

Avon - Influencer & social media marketing campaign

connective3 ran influencer, live activation and social campaigns for Avon across three product launches, contributing to a 58% increase in Vitamin C revenue year on year.

+74%engagement rate
25Mimpressions
41mimpressions
41mincrease in Make-up + Care sales the
+50%increase in revenue

Case in 60 seconds

Avon carried a heritage reputation as a door-to-door beauty seller dating to 1880, so the brief was to reach a newer generation of buyers and build demand for new products across skincare, beauty and fragrance.

The fragrance work appears to turn on Avon's heritage being a liability in name and an asset in product, because a blind smell test lets the reaction to quality land before the label does.

Each launch put ordinary people or creators in first contact with the product rather than leading with brand assertion, so recognition of Avon arrived as a discovery rather than as a claim.

On TikTok influencers ran smell tests with friends, partners and family to guess brand and price, while Instagram carried inspirational content linking personal achievements to the fragrance; the Vitamin C launch worked with 12 micro influencers around a new year, new glow theme through an in-person event whose content was amplified by paid media, and the Make-up + Care launch staged makeovers by professional make-up artists at the Trafford Centre with the resulting looks shown on a food court billboard and influencers invited to extend reach.

connective3 reports 25M impressions, a 19% engagement rate and 14 links including The Sun and Women's Health on the fragrance launch, a 74% engagement rate with a 58% increase in Vitamin C revenue year on year, and 41m impressions with a 29% increase in sales.

Strategy Breakdown

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

A newer generation of Avon buyers, with the fragrance launch targeting younger generations in their discovery phase and the Make-up + Care launch targeting consumers aged 35-55.
Avon is known for door-to-door selling since 1880, so the fragrance work had to reach younger buyers who would not necessarily place the brand in a premium fragrance conversation, which the smell test resolved by withholding the name until after the judgement.
Fragrance and colour cosmetics are usually launched on television, and the client quote frames this launch as the most successful and the only one without TV, so the campaign had to build recognition through discovery-phase social content instead.
Avon positioned its products as the reveal rather than the premise, with the brand name landing after the reaction in the smell test and after the makeover in the retail activation.
Based on the available evidence, the work assumes purchase interest in beauty begins in a discovery phase on TikTok and Instagram, so the campaigns placed products in front of audiences through creators and live experiences rather than through direct product advertising.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • billboard
  • in-person event
  • influencer video
  • inspirational content

Partners

  • connective3 (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • Members of the public at the Trafford Centre received makeovers from professional make-up artists and then had their new looks showcased on a billboard at the heart of the food court.

Creator role

  • Ali Bailey — creator
  • Leanne Chapman — creator
  • Lucy Claire — creator
  • Nadine Bacchus — creator
  • 12 influencers (micro influencers, Vitamin C launch)

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
engagement rateWith a 74% engagement rate this highly relevant campaign contributed significantly to early Q1 sales growth with a 58% YOY increase in Vitamin C revenue through their digital channels (sales rep websites, amazon and Avon.co.uk).engagement_rate
impressionsOverall, this campaign received 25 million impressions and an average engagement rate of 19%.engagement_rate
impressionsWith influencers invited to further amplify campaign reach, we achieved 41m impressions and a 29% increase in Make-up + Care sales the following week.performance
increase in Make-up + Care sales the following weekWith influencers invited to further amplify campaign reach, we achieved 41m impressions and a 29% increase in Make-up + Care sales the following week.business
increase in revenueCombining influencer, live activations, social media and powerful creatives to drive 50% increase in revenue for global beauty icon Avonbusiness
links including The Sun & Women's Health14 Links - including The Sun & Women's Healthperformance

Why connective3's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Blind product testing works as an influencer format for heritage brands, because the guess-the-brand reaction supplies proof of quality and price value in a way a creator endorsement of a known name cannot.

  2. 2

    Gathering micro influencers at a single in-person event produced content that paid media could then carry further, which suggests the event functioned as a production shoot rather than only as a moment of coverage.

  3. 3

    Putting members of the public on a billboard at a high footfall retail site turned the audience into the advertising, so the activation generated its own creative rather than distributing creative made elsewhere.

  4. 4

    Running the same brand across separate launches with distinct casting and platform choices, from younger discovery audiences on TikTok to consumers aged 35 to 55 in a shopping centre, indicates the account was planned per product rather than as one audience strategy.

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