Answer to Q2 of #RFTweet #PitchAloft. See the great success of our holistic process in action for Laura Mercier Cosmetics.

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A Case Study for

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3. Kaplow’s Holistic Planning Process
OBJECTIVE MEASURES TARGETS MOTIVATIONS INSIGHTS IDEA PROGRAM REPORTING
What How Who Why What What How How
change do will we are the target does each will convince our is the will we convey will we know if
we want be able to audience(s) audience do what audiences to communication our idea to our our program is
to create? measure this? it does today change their idea? audiences working?
behavior
In this new media landscape, successful programs should communicate one insight-driven
Communication Idea holistically across traditional and digital channels to create
change in the target audiences of our clients.
This allows us to develop a deep understanding of our target audiences and
communicate with them in an effective dialogue that will motivate them to take action
that is aligned with the objectives of our clients.
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4. Challenge
How do you give voice to a
founder’s vision, empowering
women everywhere to embrace
their unique beauty?
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5. Communication Idea
The artistic heritage of Laura Mercier helps you
to bring out your natural classic beauty
by accentuating your unique qualities.
This is “the art of the flawless face”.
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6. 360˚ Holistic Program Overview
Deep & Rich
Media
Relationships
Experiential Social Media
The Art
of the
Flawless
Face
Laura Inspires Content Creation &
Influencers Distribution
Standing Out in
the Crowd
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7. Communications Strategy
Build and amplify brand awareness globally through PR initiatives
that elevate the brand’s profile in the industry
Spotlight and leverage brand founder and ambassadors to
“story-tell” brand message
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8. PR Overview
Create and implement a comprehensive global strategy and roadmap for the brand
Partner and align with media, influencers and strategic alliances to communicate brand
positioning and increase brand awareness
Showcase Product Consumer-Facing
Influencers of Artistry
Portfolio Artistry / Events
• Partner with media through • Solidify red carpet glamour • Partner and support other
strategic and relationship- positioning business channels to amplify
building events reach (i.e. digital, sales)
• Target select influencers to
• Showcase brand’s artistic begin building network of • Identify outside events that
inspiration and product ambassadors reach target audience
portfolio through strategic
media outreach • Develop strategic brand
alliances
• Flawless Face
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9. Where It All Begins: Laura Inspires Influencers
Develop a Red Carpet-centric program that builds relationships
and allows Laura Mercier to develop a leadership position
around celebrity beauty which targets two groups:
• Celebrities who embody the Laura Mercier aesthetic
• Key gatekeepers (agents, managers, publicists, makeup artists)
Create and offer exclusive product selection that targets select
influencers to build a network of ambassadors and strategic
brand alliances which serves to:
• Showcase the product portfolio through curated product gifting
• Generate on-site pre-event, live red carpet and post-event buzz
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10. Results That Continue to Deliver
• Red Carpet programs outreach resulted in more than 85 million media impressions
• Emmy’s influencer seeding to Kathie Lee and Hoda resulted in TODAY Show features &
invitation to participate at their exclusive “Favorite Things” event
• Brand has been on Today Show 8 times since December 2011
Makeup artist, Brett Freedman, turns
Julia Stiles into a modern-day Veronica
Lake with Laura Mercier.
“I applied Laura Mercier’s Lip Pencil in
Leading beauty sites showed their readers Plumberry all over Julia’s lips to give them a Gwen Flamberg, Beauty Director of US Weekly magazine tweeted
how to recreate Claire’s look. matte, old-Hollywood feel,” said Freedman. about Claire’s gorgeous Laura Mercier lip colour.
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11. Deep and Rich Media Relationships
• Leverage Laura Mercier’s visit to New York to educate and excite a select group of top-tier
media about Laura Mercier’s history, philosophy and key seasonal collections via intimate and
small-scale events that allow for genuine brand story-telling and emotional connections
• Most senior-level media attendance
• Immediate buzz-building via live, on-site tweets
• Laura speaks to each, individually, to gain insights and knowledge
• Kaplow then works to develop customized stories relevant to each of reporter’s outlet
• Results: Ongoing proactive and impactful dialogue with influential media that reaches the
target audience to help drive deep coverage around the product portfolio showcasing brand
artistry and expertise
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12. Standing Out In the Crowd
• Elevate brand profile and enhanced brand positioning through targeted and strategic brand
alliances with select influencers to build a network of brand ambassadors consisting of
tastemakers, celebrities, personalities, and gatekeepers
• Backstage at Fashion Week (Jenny Packman, Pamela Roland)
• Showroom seeding programs with Marchesa
• Results: More than 80 million impressions
• Social Media: 846,000 impressions (Twitter), 18,000 Fashion Week video views, Behind-the-
scenes photos reached 30,000 fans.
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13. Impressions
Total Laura Mercier Impressions:
More the 1 Billion
(no multiplier)
A 171% increase Year-over-Year (so far)
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14. Content Creation & Distribution
Extending The Story Through
Laura’s Brand Ambassadors
Make-up Artist Videos
Details: To engage Laura Mercier fans with original
content, we created 26 videos for use on all of the
brand’s social media channels and LauraMercier.com
Videos included Global Makeup Artist bios/Q&A’s and
various packages from Fashion’s Night Out and
Flawless in Manhattan events-extending already
existing traditional outreach
Immediate Results: YouTube video views increased
by 10,000 new subscribers increased by over 400
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15. Video Production & Distribution
Examples:
Laura Mercier: Flawless in Manhattan
Consumer Activation
Laura Mercier: Jerry Johnson on Laura’s Philosophy
Laura Mercier: How to Achieve ‘the Smoky Eye’
Social Media Content
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16. Social Media Overview
We engaged consumers in a conversation about the Laura
Mercier brand, accentuating natural beauty, art, culture and the
Art of the Flawless face.
We also asked them to share their secrets to a Flawless Face
along with Laura and her Makeup Artists to drive engagement,
brand love and advocacy.
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17. Begin With Listening To Glean Insights
This study examined what consumers were saying about the brand and its competitors as well
as how often they were being mentioned. It ensured we had a full grasp of the beauty landscape
in order to inform our social media strategies and content for Laura Mercier. We recommend
conducting these on a quarterly basis.
What We Learned:
•Conversations about Laura Mercier occur mostly on microblogs (such as Twitter), blogs and
other websites involving skincare, health, and nutrition
•The term “flawless face” is included in 6-10% of the total Laura Mercier mentions each month
•Conversations about Laura Mercier change from quarter to quarter. Between Oct-Dec, the
discussions grew about saving money on products, likely due to holiday sales and promotions.
This year, the talk is mostly focused on emotions connected to the brand, with words like “love,”
“kiss,” and “passion,” and home-connections, with words like “house,” “bathroom,” and “bath”
mentioned often 17

18. Develop Brand Voice
• A consistent brand voice helps us better relate to our consumers and ensure that our
conversation and content is authentic and relatable.
• Utilizing our knowledge of the brand and insights data, we created a document detailing our
recommendation for the Laura Mercier “voice” on all social channels as well as content
themes that would engage our fans
Who is Laura Mercier online?:
The voice of Laura Mercier is sophisticated and refined.
Inspirations:
Laura Mercier, Carla Bruni
She is:
•Discrete • Chic
•Epicurean • Feminine
•Poised • Accessible
•Authentic • Cultured
•Expert • Inspiring
•Wise • Creative
•Self Accepting • Discerning
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19. Develop Content Strategy
We engage our audiences with conversation around the following topics, combining brand-
appropriate topics that our target is interested in with “The Art of the Flawless Face” messaging
to stimulate discussion and build brand advocacy.
Laura Mercier Social Media Content Strategy
Facebook & Twitter
Award/Hollywood
Live Updates from Partnerships with
Glamour Lifestyle Tips
Events Key Influencers
Call-Outs
Quotes/Tips
Promotions/First to Tips/How-To’s Sensory Experiences
Inspiration from
Know Invites from MUAs (art and culture)
Laura
Key Media Quotes from Product Highlights/ Secret Question
Placements Inspiring Women Recommendations and Answer
Open-Ended Fan Recognition/
Fill in the Blank
Questions Reviews
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20. Holistic “Secret Share” Campaign
Details: Took a holistic 360˚ approach to create a fluid Secret Share
campaign across social media channels showcasing the fall ad messaging. This
allowed us to delve into Laura Mercier’s story and voice while empowering
women to own their individual beauty
• A default Facebook tab created to mirror the fall ad went live the day
September magazines were shipped. The tab invited new visitors to share
their beauty secrets before we shared Laura’s and asked provocative
questions to elicit responses. The campaign built anticipation and helped us
learn what our fans love about beauty
• Created a unique hashtag, #secretshare on Twitter with secrets directed
not only to followers, but to well-known figures in the beauty world, calling
attention to editors, celebrity fans,influencers and bloggers
Immediate Results:
• Facebook engagement rose 60%,
• Likes increased 58%, post views increased 36%
• Gained 823 Twitter followers, earned 700 mentions and 158 retweets
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21. Emerging Platforms
• Pinterest is the fastest growing social media platform for
our target and allows us to reach her where she is already
spending her time; it is also the highest driver for
website traffic for many large brands, above Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube
• We know how much fans love learning about Laura and
Pinterest offers us the opportunity to tell Laura’s story in a
highly visual manner.
• We are establishing a presence for Laura Mercier on
Pinterest by building boards that highlight not only her story,
but those of the Makeup Artists and the brand’s extensive
array of available products
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22. Making it all Work Together: Flawless in Manhattan
Strategy:
Execute events to educate editors and consumers about the brand’s founder, heritage and the Art of the Flawless
Face
Execution:
• We coordinated and message-trained 26 brand ambassadors to interact with consumers in Manhattan and drive
them to retail
• To leverage integrated events across 24 Laura Mercier retailers, drive in-store traffic and build buzz, Kdrive live
tweeted from Flawless in Manhattan Global Makeup Artist locations throughout the day
• Tweets included event announcements, images and tips, and promoted a planned Twitter Chat with Alexis
Comforti
• Video footage was also shot and edited for future content seeding
Results:
•PR outreach resulted in 62,000 short-lead/online impressions for one evening event
•Gained 105 Twitter followers, earned 142 mentions and 42 retweets
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23. Holistic Program Results
Overall Results
• Credited for a 30% increase at counter, in-store sales
• Coverage resulting in more than ONE BILLION media impressions (no multiplier used), a
171% increase over PY
• Increased Facebook fan base by over 165%
• Grew Twitter followers by over 350%
• YouTube subscribers increased from 0 to 1,106
• Launched initial 4 boards on Pinterest garnering over 1000 Total followers in 4 weeks
• 60% overall increase in engagement on all platforms
• Nearly 30 ongoing influencer relationships with key high-profile decision makers, tastemakers and
gatekeepers including Kathy Lee and Hoda, A-list celebrity artists and influencers and high-profile fashion
leaders
• Feature coverage of “Flawless Face” messaging which highlights product images and positive tonality
with brand ambassadors/spokespeople (100% positive tonality, 90% visuals, 98% key message pull-through,
98% link to purchase)
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