Rihanna: A trailblazer in the world of beauty marketing
A summary of all of Rihanna’s marketing power-moves, as well as commentary on her role on leading the makeup industry forward.
SIGMA, CC BY 3.0
Rihanna posing next to what I believe is the Fenty Beauty “Match Stix Shimmer Stick” in the shade Confetti– part of her brand promoted during the Super Bowl
If you’ve set foot in any Sephora recently, spent hours scrolling through videos on BeautyTok, or if you are a makeup artist in the making yourself, chances are you’ve heard of Fenty Beauty. The brand created by Rihanna has become extremely popular over the past couple of years, largely due to its wide shade range and variety of high-quality and arguably affordable products. The rise in demand and interest in this business endeavor has kept Rihanna fairly busy in recent times, and the public eye has begun to think of her as a businesswoman rather than a singer. Fans of the artists were pretty surprised at the fact that she would perform at the NFL Super Bowl 57th half-time show, and many were thrilled at the possibility of the artist having a comeback era. However, even the artist’s performance included clever nods to her makeup brand, and she has been deemed a marketing god.
Rihanna’s genius marketing came into play at about minute 8:20 of her performance, when she touched up her makeup with Fenty Beauty’s Invisimatte Blotting powder. This small moment sparked a wave of interest in the brand across the internet, with Google searches increasing 883% according to Forbes. Many people were amazed and almost baffled at the shameless plug from the artist, and the bold move to have an ad within your performance, something never seen before from a celebrity makeup brand. This tiny action was an extremely smart way to bypass the cost of a Super Bowl ad, which has been steadily increasing in the past couple of years.
However, Rihanna’s marketing plans went into effect on the World Wide Web prior to her act. Leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, the Fenty Beauty TikTok highly publicized the event, posting both makeup and non-makeup related footage. They posted behind-the-scenes videos of Rihanna’s rehearsals, as well as promotional videos of their new football-themed makeup line– the Fenty Game Day collection. This new launch includes many of the staple Fenty products but with football imagery engraved in them, they can be bought individually or all together in their limited-edition Showstopp’r Kit.
The launch made many social media users question whether Rihanna’s target audience would really buy into the idea of beauty products engraved with football symbolism– After all, would her costumers even care about the merging of beauty and contact sports? The sales have proved that yes, they did. Most of the products were- and still are- sold out on both the Fenty Beauty website and Sephora.
Rihanna also invited well-known beauty influencers to the Super bowl, including users @BretmanRock, @Mikaylanogeira, and my queen and savior, @Golloria. The latter was particularly vocal about Rihanna summoning her presence, and shared mini-vlogs throughout the day to document her feelings, outfit, and concert experience.
In my opinion, the reason why this move was so powerful and historic is because the world of beauty for a long time has been about setting unrealistically high standards, putting people down, and uplifting primarily white & thin bodies. Rihanna’s brand was revolutionary for the time period it launched in and constantly showcases models of all races, genders, and body types. Fenty Beauty itself sends the message that beauty is for everyone, and this idea being amplified by someone with such influence is so important, especially when done in a space where you wouldn’t expect it. Her marketing is effective because her unconventional ways are bound to stick with you and have an impact in the viewers
This year so far has marked a before and after in the beauty industry. Another honorable mention of a brand paving the way for new techniques in beauty advertising is E.L.F Cosmetics. The brand had a 30-second ad in the Super Bowl starring Jennifer Coolidge. It was a short comedic skit in which the White Lotus actress tries their new Power Grip Primer, and is blown away at the literal sticky mess it creates. E.L.F has been extremely popular on BeautyTok as of recently due to it’s high-quality and affordable products–as well as their ability to produce dupes faster than Shein’s child-labor run factories.
Although everything in business is designed to make money ( #CapitalismBabe ), the fact that these brands have started taking a more fun, relatable approach to their marketing definitely sets them apart in this transitional period. It will be very interesting to follow up and see how other companies will react to this. Will we be seeing more beauty commercials in the Super Bowl future?
