Audience Engagement Digital Publishing
2 mins read

Marie Claire launches free beauty sampling service to drive audience engagement

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Marie Claire UK, the UK’s number one beauty and fashion media brand, has launched Marie Claire Beauty Drawer, a new membership club for its readers.

Using the strapline, ‘Discover personalized beauty products, delivered direct to your door’, the beauty sampling service is designed to bring added value to the brand’s readership of 8M monthly readers whilst simultaneously delivering a highly personalized advertising channel for its brand partners.

Completely free of charge, members will also receive special offers and priority access to all Marie Claire beauty events, as well as being invited to purchase products at the Fabled by Marie Claire and other premium beauty destinations.

The first sampling campaign has been launched in conjunction with StriVectin, a collection of targeted beauty solutions for ageing and changing skin. To celebrate the launch, StriVectin has given away samples of its SD Advanced Plus Intensive Moisturizing Concentrate cream to the first 5000 people that signed up. More premium brands are set to participate in Beauty Drawer from September 2020 onwards.

The user journey for Beauty Drawer starts with members building a personal profile, followed by receiving free samples, then providing feedback that will allow Marie Claire to create a specially tailored sampling service for each individual reader based on their age and preferences.

The initiative is spearheaded by Emily Ferguson, Marie Claire’s E-Commerce Director, who says, “We wanted to create a personalized experience for our users to discover first-hand the latest beauty launches and cult favourites from our beauty editors, whilst adding insider knowledge and expertise on how to make beauty work best for each reader.”

Speaking to What’s New in Publishing, Ferguson added, “Beauty Drawer has been specially designed to create more engagement with our audience, who have already come to trust and rely on our expert editors’ advice, choices and selections. It also creates a powerful new advertising channel for our brand partners, and a significant wealth of audience data for us as a publisher.

“We have set a target of 6,000 sign-ups a month, but within two days of launch we are already at 11,200 sign-ups which is a tremendously encouraging start.”

Caroline Stent, MD of Marie Claire UK, says, “Our audience of affluent and discerning beauty consumers increasingly demands personalized products and experiences. With a deep understanding of their individual hair, skin, and make-up preferences, we’ll be able to reward our community with tailor-made content, product recommendations and physical product to experience and enjoy.”

The launch comes just weeks after the final completion of Future PLC’s takeover of Marie Claire from TI Media in a £140 million deal. Ferguson refused to be drawn on what role Future has played in the title’s sampling business although the publisher is renowned for pursuing its own tech stack and aggressively expanding its digital revenue streams.

Speaking to Digiday, independent media consultant Colin Morrison commented on the acquisition stating, “There is a big market (in women’s publishing) and room to do a much better job digitally than what we have seen,” said Morrison. “I expect Future has big plans for Marie Claire in digital terms.”