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Avon looks to omnichannel campaign, mobile video to anchor rebrand

Direct-selling beauty company Avon has launched a new omnichannel campaign for the purposes of recruiting Avon representatives and updating its brand image.

The This is Boss Life campaign is Avon?s latest attempt at reinventing a brand profile that some say is beginning to stale, especially in its recruiting efforts to young women. The campaign is focused on traditional broadcast, print, radio and digital platforms, including the sharing of television content as mobile video.

?YouTube is a critical platform for the beauty industry in particular with vloggers, tutorials, and hauls dominating the screens of beauty fans," said Giulia Prati, research lead for beauty at L2inc

"With video increasingly being consumed on mobile, I would predict this to be a smart place to allocate budget, advertising in pre-roll and around popular videos consumed by the brand's target demographic."

A new narrative
This is Boss Life includes mobile-optimized videos featuring women of all ages looking for fulfillment outside of their passionless nine-to-five jobs. They then discover brand-new lives as Avon representatives, a path that gives them the ability to be their own boss.

The shots are filmed like music videos, set to the tune of Gloria Gaynor?s classic hit song ?I Will Survive,? with altered lyrics like, ??Oh as long as I?ve got Avon and the newest shade of gloss/I?ve got passion, can?t you see?/?Cause my future?s up to me/Yeah, I?m a Boss.?

A screenshot from one of the campaign's mobile-optimized spots

The print portion of the campaign will target varied groups through stories of success across all age ranges. For example, an ad featuring a millennial named Georgiana features her story of paying off college loans through the earnings from her Avon business, and continuing her relationship with Avon part-time to this day.

While the press release does not specifically mention whether the print ads will be featured on social media, Avon would do well to display them on its Facebook and Instagram channels at some point. 

The campaign launched to representatives all across the U.S. in the form of a Facebook event. The 60-second digital and 30-second broadcast ads launched on October 7, and the print ads will debut beginning in November in select women?s magazines. 

Avon?s social media handles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will also be promoting the campaign through community engagement, promoted YouTube videos and custom social media filters.

The campaign marks a significant rebrand for Avon

Rebrand and revive
Avon? one of the few brands which still has direct sales baked into its brand identity? is looking bring its perception into the present. The campaign also highlights the brand separation of New Avon, Avon?s North American arm that branched off into a separate company in March. 

The rift in brand presence provides an opportunity for Avon to shed any perception of its antiquated ?Avon Lady? and target a more youthful workforce who might be too young to find the prospect of selling Avon laughable.

While this is Avon?s most explicit attempt at a rebrand, many of the trappings of Avon?s social media approach still persist. Last year, it debuted an empowerment campaign? Beauty for a Purpose? encouraged social media users to get involved in a conversation surrounding female empowerment with its representatives and its customers (see story).

Another beauty retailer, Sephora, is also trying to engage in social outreach. This month it expands its complimentary Classes for Confidence program to more than 85 Sephora stores nationwide, partnering with various non-profit organizations to help spread a message of attainable workplace beauty and confidence (see story).

"Avon is tapping into something special here? the rise of contingent or self-employed workforce," said Michael Becker, managing partner at mCordis. "Embracing the contingent workforce has been most recently popularized by the likes of Airbnb, Uber and a host of other crowd and sharing economy services.

"Mobile is a perfect medium to get the message across. Avon's existing and prospective workforce is inherently mobile, so Avon is going where they are. The creative visuals and formats being used in the campaign, especially video, will play well with their target audience. 

"Speaking of target audience, with Avon?s long history they understand their audience extremely well. They?ll be able to take this understanding of the individual and overlay it on their mobile outreach, which should be extremely effective. 

"Mobile, with the latest advancements of attribution measurement and cross-device targeting, is one of? if not the? most effective tool to cut through the clutter and get the message right where it counts--in the hands, social feeds and media channels of the people that matter most to the brand."