Project Overview
Luxury skin care brand SK-II strategically opened a Pop Up Studio on each coast (NY & SF) specifically designed to bring an enhanced brand experience to new beauty enthusiasts. Rather than sell product, the Pop Up Studios were designed to educate consumers on the brand story, and launch a new breakthrough digital skin analysis tool that measures your skin’s score across the five dimensions of ageless skin, enabling a customized skin care ritual.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
SK-II is a well known luxury skin care brand from Japan, favored by A-list celebrities including Academy Award winner, and brand ambassador, Cate Blanchett. Although loved by millions of women globally, the brand has no established awareness or presence in the US. The ‘Secret Key’ to SK-II is PiteraTM, a natural, nutrient-rich liquid that was discovered after scientists, by chance in a sake brewery, noticed that the aged sake brewers had astonishingly soft and youthful hands, despite their wrinkled faces.
Project Brief
SK-II, a well known luxury skin brand from Japan, has no established awareness or presence in the US. The project aimed to raise awareness among US consumers, introduce them to SK-II products and help them create a customized skin care regimen with its state-of-the-art skin analysis tool.
SK-II has no stand alone retail locations, being sold exclusively in select high end department stores and online. At the retail counters, consumers receive complimentary services such as facials and skin consultations with our Beauty Imaging SystemTM. This unique device predicts the skin’s visible age to help tailor a regimen exclusively for an individual’s skin concerns. Given limited distribution, the brand was looking for a way to bring this service to new consumers – via an innovative, low barrier exploratory experience.
Pop Up needed to be inviting, modular for events, convey the brands rich story, on luxury equity, and feel unique to the discerning NYC and SF shoppers. While the campaign would be supported via geo targeted digital media plan and social activation, robust press days, and beauty editor events, foot traffic by consumers not already familiar with the brand would by the primary success metric.
Project Innovation/Need
In a cluttered skin care market with long purchase cycles we found an interactive way to engage with consumers that closes the lengthy gap between awareness and trial, and then gains traction through word of mouth recommendations. We took a model that works for luxury skin care (skin counselors at our retail counters), eliminated the biggest pressure point by not having products to purchase at the pop up, gave her a quantifiable reason to believe through the Beauty Imagining System consultation, and then increased retail sales by directing her to our permanent SK-II counters for purchase and follow up consultations. This all resulting in increased awareness, trial, and brand loyalty in an extremely condensed time period.
Design Challenge
SK-II was asking consumers to walk into a space where they did not know the brand – and that did not look like a typical retail store. Given low brand awareness, environment needed to be in a high traffic luxury area, with high street visibility, and enticing. At the same time the actual consultations needed to be in semi private areas since they are very personal. KBS+, our experiential design agency, found a prestige way to achieve both objectives. We choose spaces with floor to ceiling windows and leveraged signage, music, lighting, programming like sake experts and massages, and guest appearances like Kate Bosworth to help bring her in. High impact visuals were then used to partition the space for consultations.
User Experience
SK-II Skin Counselors were on hand to provide consumers with information on the brand and products. All services provided were complimentary: Beauty Imaging System skin consultations, masks, facials, Interactive product testing, SK-II product samples, and massages. To enhance the authenticity of “complimentary” there was no product to purchase in the pop up, although purchases could be made online via tablet, by request, or at the nearest SK-II counter.
SK-II has achieved record numbers of consultations in the Pop Up Studios, with customers spending an average of 30 minutes to an hour in a one on one consultation learning about SK-II’s history, brand, products as well as their skin. There is no other touch point that could engage a consumer to learn so much about the brand, without actually being at one of our retail counters. In additional press and media impressions with top beauty publications have been unprecedented for the brand in the US.
Marketing - Branded Experience
This award celebrates creative and innovative design for branded experiences intended to persuade an audience to purchase or take some action upon products, ideas or services. Consideration given to the technical, conceptual and aesthetic elements, user experience, audience engagement and message delivery.
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