According to MAC Cosmetics’ Aida Moudachirou-Rébois, to be a successful marketer in 2022 is to be an early adopter. Technology has challenged, if not forced, brands to “actually listen to the consumer,” said Moudachirou-Rébois, senior vice president and global chief marketing officer at the Estée Lauder Companies’ owned brand. Now, she said, the consumer is more in charge than ever before.
When Moudachirou-Rébois began her career, marketing was “pretty flat,” she said. The launch of YouTube, in 2005, marked a turning point for the marketing of beauty products. For the first time, “consumers were hearing from other people they were considering their peers, which we now call influencers.” This opened access to the consumer in a different way, she said. “Brands went from dictating what they wanted the consumer to see,” to having to “catch up” to what people were saying organically.
“The power shifted completely,” she said. “Before, the brand might tell the consumer, ‘Here is how you use this mascara. You can only use it this way,’ to people saying, ‘You know what? I can use it on my brows, as well.’ It’s unleashed what I call unlimited creativity. And for a marketer, that’s the most exciting thing,” said Moudachirou-Rébois.
Today, MAC has 125 million followers across social media, and Moudachirou-Rébois has her sights set on gaming and the metaverse, which she sees as the next frontier, or social media 3.0. The possibilities are endless, she said, noting that 87% of Gen-Z consumers now spend time on gaming [platforms] daily and that over 41% of those are females. “it’s a gender-neutral space,” she said.
MAC has begun to explore this “playground,” she said. Last Halloween, MAC partnered with Xbox, enlisting makeup artists to create looks inspired by XBox characters. Another hallmark of MAC’s last year has been the success of the brand’s MACStack mascara, a March 2022 launch that went viral on TikTok. The buzz has been a testament to the power of her team, Moudachirou-Rébois said, noting that her friends are now tagging her when they’re lucky enough to find the product in stock.
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