Submitted by ButtermilkAgency IPI Score 66/100

Making More of #MyBeautyCape

Influencer Marketing

Buttermilk activated a roster of TikTok creators across six lifestyle tribes to keep Elizabeth Arden's Eight Hour Cream relevant year-round, exceeding its engagement KPI by 201%.

+60%creator following over kpi
+201%content engagement over kpi

About the campaign

Sustaining an influencer programme for a heritage product across a full year with no hero launch moment is where most campaigns lose steam, and in 2023 Elizabeth Arden needed its Eight Hour Cream to hold the momentum built during the 2022 launch of the #MyBeautyCape platform while reaching beyond core beauty consumers. Buttermilk found its strategic anchor in TikTok listening data, which showed six lifestyle communities, travel enthusiasts, savvy students, fitness fans, busy parents, festival-goers and staycation skincare audiences, already talking organically about the cream, so the agency let the product's existing versatility decide which tribes to activate rather than imposing a brief on pre-selected audiences.

Across 2023 the always-on TikTok programme activated 146 creators in three tiers, macro ambassadors at 170K to 250K followers, mid-tier engagement drivers at 75K to 150K, and brand fans from 1K to 15K, producing 228 pieces of content (against a KPI of 212) mapped to occasions such as festival season, summer travel and student skincare routines, with creators like @Tanakatravels and @Aishatami fronting their respective tribes.

Buttermilk reports the programme beat its creator and following KPIs by 60% each, reached a combined following of 5.2 million, exceeded its engagement KPI by 201% with a 5% total engagement rate, and picked up two Gold Awards.

Case in 60 seconds

Elizabeth Arden needed to sustain year-round relevance for its Eight Hour Cream in 2023 without a single launch moment, while simultaneously growing its audience beyond core beauty consumers into broader lifestyle categories.

TikTok community listening revealed that Six distinct lifestyle groups — travel enthusiasts, savvy students, fitness fans, busy parents, festival-goers, and staycation skincare audiences — were already organically discussing Eight Hour Cream, signalling untapped credibility across non-beauty verticals.

Let the product's existing versatility determine which communities to activate, rather than imposing a creative brief on pre-selected audiences, with content variety generated by matching use cases to creator tribes rather than scripting uniform brand messages.

Buttermilk activated 146 creators across three tiers — macro (170K–250K followers), mid-tier (75K–150K), and brand fans (1K–15K) — organised into six lifestyle tribes on TikTok, producing 228 pieces of content mapped to seasonal and lifestyle occasions including festival season, summer travel, and student skincare routines.

The campaign exceeded its creator KPI by 60%, its creator following KPI by 60%, and its engagement KPI by 201%, delivering a 5% total content engagement rate across a combined following of 5.2 million, and was recognised with two Gold Awards.

Strategy Breakdown

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

The primary audience was existing Eight Hour Cream fans within the beauty category, with a deliberate expansion strategy targeting six lifestyle-based communities identified through TikTok organic listening: travel enthusiasts, savvy students, fitness fans, busy parents, festival-goers, and staycation skincare audiences. The inclusion of brand fans with as few as 1,000 followers signalled that the campaign sought depth and authenticity within each community, not just broad reach.
A product with strong loyalty among an established beauty audience risked being perceived as category-specific rather than a universal everyday essential. The tension was between the cream's known heritage and the need to appear genuinely relevant to people who did not primarily identify as beauty consumers, in an environment Buttermilk described as time-pressured and economically evolving.
Sustaining influencer campaign momentum across a full calendar year without a hero launch moment is structurally difficult: content fatigue, declining relevance between tentpole moments, and the risk of appearing formulaic are all common failure modes. The 2023 brief explicitly required the programme to sustain momentum built in the 2022 launch year rather than reset it.
Elizabeth Arden's Eight Hour Cream was positioned as a versatile everyday essential rather than a specialist beauty product. The brand's role was to enable authentic lifestyle storytelling rather than lead with heritage or authority, with the product's multi-use functionality serving as the connective thread across otherwise unrelated content verticals.
Observed TikTok behaviour — existing organic conversation about Eight Hour Cream across lifestyle niches — provided the strategic foundation. Rather than assuming which audiences might be receptive, Buttermilk identified communities where product relevance already existed, then formalised and amplified that behaviour through a structured creator programme.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • TikTok organic creator posts (primary and only channel cited in source)
  • 228 pieces of content across six lifestyle tribe categories
  • Content formats mapped to festival season, summer travel, student skincare routines, staycation skin, and multi-use occasions

Partners

  • Buttermilk (lead agency, influencer campaign management, social strategy)

Participation mechanic

  • Creators published under the #MyBeautyCape platform hashtag
  • Content mapped to specific lifestyle occasions rather than generic brand messaging
  • Three-tier structure: macro creators led on product education and creative direction; mid-tier creators focused on engagement and calls to action; brand fans demonstrated everyday versatility and community authenticity
  • No paid amplification layer mentioned in source

Creator role

  • Macro tier (170K–250K followers): brand ambassadors providing authoritative endorsement and leading creative direction
  • Mid-tier (75K–150K followers): engagement and purchase-intent drivers with clear calls to action
  • Brand fans (1K–15K followers): community authenticators demonstrating everyday product use
  • Example creators cited: @Aishatami (Savvy Student, 43K followers, 4.7% engagement rate), @Tommybrady7 (Fitness Fanatic, 85K followers, 5.5% engagement rate), @Tanakatravels (Travel Lover, 23K followers, 7.3% engagement rate)

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult typeConfidence
Creator following KPI over-delivery+60%ReachAgency reported
Content engagement KPI over-delivery+201%EngagementAgency reported

Awards & Recognition

Award showYearCategoryResultSource
Not disclosed in source2023Best Use of TikTokGold—
Not disclosed in source2023Best Social Influencer CampaignGold—

Why Buttermilk's strategy worked

  1. 1

    **Organic listening before briefing.** Mapping existing TikTok conversations about Eight Hour Cream before selecting creators meant the strategy followed authentic product use rather than manufacturing it. Creators already had credibility with their audiences on this product.

  2. 2

    **Tier structure serves distinct jobs simultaneously.** The three-tier model allowed the campaign to generate macro reach, mid-tier purchase intent, and community-level authenticity in parallel. Neither a single-tier macro nor a single-tier micro approach would have achieved the same combination.

  3. 3

    **Occasion-led planning sustains always-on programmes.** Mapping content to seasonal and lifestyle moments — festival, travel, student term, staycation — provided a natural editorial rhythm across the year without requiring a hero launch event to anchor attention.

  4. 4

    **Brand fan tier signals genuine adoption.** Including creators with as few as 1,000 followers at the brand-fan level served a credibility function: it communicated that real people across different lives used the product without brand prompting, which may have reinforced the authenticity of macro-tier content.

  5. 5

    **Product versatility is a content strategy.** Rather than scripting brand messages, Buttermilk allowed the cream's multi-use functionality to generate content variety organically across 228 pieces, reducing repetition across a year-long programme.

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