Submitted by ButtermilkAgency IPI Score 66/100

Capturing Community Spirit — The Love Story of the Holiday Season

Influencer Marketing

Buttermilk built a micro-creator community mapped to four brand archetypes to drive Estée Lauder holiday gifting awareness on TikTok and Instagram, exceeding every stated KPI.

$90.7Ktotal emv
1Mtotal views
33%avg watch rate
9.3%avg engagement rate
630total content output
4.4Mtotal creators following

About the campaign

The holiday gifting window is among the most contested periods in the beauty calendar, and Estée Lauder needed to connect emotionally with shoppers rather than push transactional product promotion, while also supporting exclusive in-store collections at key retail partners, a dimension Buttermilk itself added to the scope during planning of an initially online-only brief. The agency's anchor was the observation that micro-creators with 1,000 to 15,000 followers tend to sustain higher engagement than larger accounts, and that matching creators to product categories they already care about makes gifting recommendations feel credible rather than sold.

Buttermilk recruited a micro-creator community across TikTok and Instagram and organised it into four archetypes, skinfluencers and fragrance experts, beauty enthusiasts and makeup artists, long-term loyal brand lovers, and premium luxury lifestyle creators, then briefed them to frame every gift as a personal love story under Estée Lauder's seasonal "What Do You Wish For?" platform. Creators including @Erineuafraiche, @Marioartistry, @Biancamarinae and @Angiebee__ produced 630 pieces of unboxing, live gifting reaction and gift-story content against a 600-piece target, all distributed organically.

Buttermilk reports every stated KPI was exceeded: a 4.4M combined following against a 2.4M target, a 9.3% average engagement rate against a 4.3% KPI, a 33% watch rate against a 13.4% benchmark, and $90,676 in earned media value.

Case in 60 seconds

Estée Lauder needed to cut through a crowded holiday gifting period and connect emotionally with shoppers, while also supporting exclusive in-store collections at primary retail partners — a scope that expanded beyond an initial online-only brief during campaign planning.

Micro-creators with 1,000–15,000 followers tend to maintain higher engagement rates than larger accounts, and matching creator profiles to specific product categories — rather than recruiting by follower count — makes gifting recommendations feel natural and credible to each creator's existing audience, as described in Buttermilk's case study.

Frame every Estée Lauder holiday gift as a personal love story: organise a community of micro-creators into four brand archetypes aligned to specific product lines, then direct them to produce content that makes gifting feel emotionally meaningful rather than transactional, as outlined by Buttermilk.

Buttermilk recruited micro-creators across TikTok and Instagram, assigned them to one of four archetypes (skinfluencers and fragrance experts; beauty enthusiasts and makeup artists; long-term loyal brand lovers; premium luxury lifestyle creators), and directed them to produce 630 pieces of unboxing, live gifting reaction, and heartwarming gift-story content against Estée Lauder's seasonal 'What Do You Wish For?' campaign.

All reported KPIs were exceeded: combined creator following reached 4.4M against a 2.4M target, average engagement rate was 9.3% against a 4.3% KPI, average watch rate was 33% against a 13.4% benchmark, and earned media value totalled $90,676. All figures are self-reported by Buttermilk with no independent verification.

Strategy Breakdown

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

The campaign targeted holiday gift shoppers across two reach bands: a higher-volume tier aimed at broad awareness through experiential moments (500K–20M views), and a more targeted tier focused on heartwarming storytelling formats (50K–250K views), as described by Buttermilk. Creator audiences spanned beauty enthusiasts, skincare beginners and advanced users, fragrance fans, and premium lifestyle consumers.
The holiday gifting period is one of the most competitive windows in the beauty calendar, with brands competing for attention from shoppers seeking premium options. Generic product promotion risks feeling transactional at a moment when consumers are seeking emotional resonance and personal connection, a tension identified in the campaign brief.
Heritage beauty brands such as Estée Lauder must compete during peak gifting periods against both mass-market rivals and newer, digitally native beauty brands. The challenge was to position Estée Lauder as a go-to holiday destination while extending reach to in-store retail, a dimension not originally specified in the brief.
Estée Lauder acted as the gifting occasion anchor: the brand's seasonal 'What Do You Wish For?' campaign provided the creative platform, while Buttermilk translated that platform into community-rooted stories told through creators' own voices rather than polished brand advertising.
Micro-creators with smaller, more engaged audiences tend to generate higher engagement rates than macro-influencers. By mapping creators to product archetypes that align with their established interests, Buttermilk aimed to ensure that gifting recommendations felt organic within each creator's existing content style, increasing the likelihood that followers would respond with genuine interest rather than scrolling past.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • TikTok — organic creator posts (unboxing, gifting reaction, gift-story narrative formats)
  • Instagram — organic creator posts (same format mix)
  • No paid amplification, whitelisting, or media buying described in source materials

Partners

  • Buttermilk (creator community management and campaign strategy, per Buttermilk case study)

Participation mechanic

  • Creators assigned to one of four archetypes based on interest and content style alignment with Estée Lauder product categories
  • Each creator produced content under the 'What Do You Wish For?' seasonal campaign platform
  • Content formats: unboxing videos, live gifting reactions, heartwarming gift-story narratives
  • Distribution was organic, rooted in individual creator audiences — no paid social described

Creator role

  • Lead content producer: each creator produced original TikTok and Instagram content independently
  • Brand storyteller: creators framed gifts as personal stories rather than product demonstrations
  • Named creators referenced in campaign materials include @Erineuafraiche, @Marioartistry, @Biancamarinae, and @Angiebee__

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult typeConfidence
Total views1MReachAgency reported
Average engagement rate9.3%EngagementAgency reported
Average watch rate33%EngagementAgency reported
Total earned media value$90,676Commercial proxyAgency reported

Why Buttermilk's strategy worked

  1. 1

    **Archetype mapping adds content relevance.** Segmenting creators by interest alignment with specific product lines — rather than by follower count alone — appears to have produced stronger engagement signals, as reported by Buttermilk. The 9.3% average engagement rate against a 4.3% KPI is consistent with this approach.

  2. 2

    **Micro-creator communities can aggregate significant reach.** The 630-piece output from creators averaging 1,000–15,000 followers collectively reached a combined audience of 4.4M, nearly double the 2.4M KPI, illustrating that volume of creators can compensate for individual account scale.

  3. 3

    **Emotional narrative formats drive watch time in holiday contexts.** The gift-story format achieved a 33% average watch rate against a 13.4% target, suggesting that narrative-led content outperforms product-demonstration formats during emotionally charged seasonal periods.

  4. 4

    **Brief scope can expand through agency input.** The in-store retail component was identified by Buttermilk during planning rather than specified at briefing, per its case study, indicating that creator agencies with category knowledge can extend campaign value beyond the initial mandate.

  5. 5

    **Organic distribution can deliver above-benchmark results when creator-audience fit is high.** No paid amplification is described in the source materials; the results reported were achieved through earned distribution alone, suggesting that tight creator-product alignment reduces the dependence on paid support.

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