Beauty & Cosmetics TV Advertising

From February to April 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic first began, the number of national TV ad airings in the beauty (i.e., hair care and body care) and cosmetics category decreased 79% to 3.6K, and didn’t reach 16K again until October 2021. Despite the near-constant ebb and flow of category airings through 2022, EDO has noted that there are now 20 unique advertisers in this sector, which has doubled since 2019.

As the industry’s TV advertising continues to evolve in 2022, EDO has reviewed the last two and a half years’ worth of cosmetics ad data to identify what’s working for these advertisers.

Beauty and cosmetics TV advertising trends during Covid-19

EDO noted three core trends for beauty and cosmetics advertisers from 2020 to 2021: 

1. Less for more. Despite beauty advertisers investing less in TV advertising in 2021, they actually generated more incremental online search. While number of airings decreased 5% in 2021 year-over-year, online searches increased by 73%. 
2. D2C beauty gets the spotlight. New advertisers such as IL MAKIAGE and Thrive Causemetics took advantage of stay-at-home shoppers from 2020 to 2021. Thrive began TV advertising in September 2020 and consistently spent anywhere from $82K to $468K per month until December 2021. EDO has not captured TV ads for the brand since the holiday season.
   IL MAKIAGE began advertising in July 2021  with an estimated $122K, and its spending peaked at $583K in March 2022.
3. Daytime programming proves a worthwhile investment. The top three daytime soaps for this category by incremental online search efficacy are General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, and The Bold and The Beautiful. Since 2020, these three shows have helped beauty and cosmetics brands generate a combined nearly two million online searches.

L’Oreal uses the right creative messaging

EDO data has confirmed that the right creative messaging in cosmetics can drive a strong consumer engagement with a brand. For example, in 2021, a viewer who watched the typical L’Oreal Paris brand spot — which focuses on general brand image versus promoting specific products —was 61% more likely to search online for L’Oreal Paris in comparison to a viewer who saw the typical L’Oreal Paris product spot. 

One brand spot that stood out in 2021 was the L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth. Despite only airing the spot three times, the brand generated 6,700 incremental online searches for L’Oreal Paris, and TV viewers were an average of 183% more likely to search online for the brand in comparison to the average L’Oreal Paris spot. 

Spanish-language programming often overlooked

Spanish-language TV (SLTV) is ripe for success across the beauty advertising industry. In fact, Telemundo generated the most searches for the beauty category in 2021, with 767K searches. It generated even more the next year, with 775K searches. 

EDO also analyzed data across all dayparts on national linear TV since 2021 and found that a typical TV viewer who saw a beauty and cosmetics’ TV ad airing on SLTV is 17% more likely to search online for the advertiser in comparison to someone who saw the ad on English-language TV (ELTV). 

In reviewing best-performing networks for beauty and cosmetics advertisers, EDO found that brands generated as much as 22% more search from ads aired on Univision in comparison to broadcast and cable networks. Additionally, a beauty and cosmetic advertiser would require, on average, 2.5 ads on the average cable network to generate the same amount of search as one ad on Univision.

Know what triggers consumer behavior

EDO can help beauty and cosmetics advertisers optimize media plans across Convergent TV platforms and generate greater value from creative efforts and media decisions. Our always-on data informs brands how their ads are performing at every step of the consumer journey. In a shifting beauty and cosmetics TV ad landscape, advertisers can trust EDO to know what works.

Check out EDO’s insights page for more case studies and other data insights reports.