THAILAND. Shiseido Travel Retail has launched the NARS Lip Gallery, the latest animation from the NARS make-up brand designed to revolutionise the lip experience.
The animation, making its world premiere in Bangkok’s King Power Downtown Rangnam Complex, runs from 7 May to 7 June. NARS is the third brand to feature in King Power’s stunning atrium site, and the first to focus solely on the make-up category.
Underpinning the animation is a two-way O2O (Online-2-Offline and Offline-2-Online) strategy, which creates “a virtuous circle of virality, amplification and experience”, the Japanese beauty company said. The aim is to drive footfall to the Rangnam animation and support the development of the fast-growing NARS brand in the Asia Pacific region.
Shiseido Travel Retail General Manager Asia Pacific Kenji Calméjane commented: “NARS’s commitment to growing the make-up segment is brought to life at Rangnam, with particular emphasis on capturing dynamic female Chinese Millennial travellers. We are delighted to extend our amazing partnership with King Power, who share the same conviction as us when it comes to innovation and shopper engagement. Today in Rangnam, we are providing a tangible glimpse into the future for the beauty category in travel retail, with such a multi-faceted and comprehensive O2O execution.”
King Power International Senior Executive Vice President Susan Whelan said: “King Power International Group is the pioneer and leader in bringing unforgettable duty free shopping experiences to millions of Chinese tourists who visit the Kingdom of Thailand every year. We are also at the forefront of the digital revolution of the duty free industry. We are proud to join with Shiseido Travel Retail to create yet another world-first animation.
“The NARS Lip Gallery is a highly sophisticated campaign that has generated significant buzz about the King Power shopping experience in Thailand’s main source market of China, driving future growth of tourism to Thailand and attracting more shoppers to King Power’s stores”
“We are proud to join with Shiseido Travel Retail to create yet another world-first animation” – King Power International Senior Executive Vice President Susan Whelan
The NARS Lip Gallery concept
According to Shiseido Travel Retail’s consumer insights, make-up usage among Chinese consumers has been increasing by around +20% in recent years. Lip products are the most popular make-up item in China, with 44.5% of female Chinese using lipsticks/lip colour. Lip products are also the leading entry item into the make-up category for Chinese consumers, making them ideal for category recruitment, the beauty company noted.
Shiseido Travel Retail has built its NARS Lip Gallery O2O strategy around Chinese Millennial traveller journeys, creating digital and physical touchpoints pre-, during and post-trip. These multi-faceted consumer interactions help to capture extensive data and live insights on Millennial preferences, such as their favourite shades and engagement drivers. These findings will further enrich future projects, including the continued roll-out of the NARS Lip Gallery across Asia Pacific this year, Shiseido Travel Retail added.
“We are providing a tangible glimpse into the future for the beauty category in travel retail, with such a multi-faceted and comprehensive O2O execution” – Shiseido Travel Retail General Manager Asia Pacific Kenji Calméjane
The Rangnam animation presents NARS’s Lip Icons as an ode to the brand’s history, harking back to the launch of the first range of NARS lipsticks in Barneys New York in 1994. Every lipstick creation by founder François Nars began with a story, and now, the brand is inviting shoppers to create their own stories and discover their favourite iconic lip looks at the NARS Lip Gallery.
The new animation outpost has been designed to take consumers on “an interactive and engaging journey” in four steps:
1. Explore NARS’s iconic lip colours, textures and finishes digitally
Consumers are encouraged to explore the brand’s wide range of lip products through the NARS ‘Lips to Style’ Virtual Lip Trial application at https://discover.narstravelretail.com/.
The app uses augmented reality (AR) and gamification to allow users to try on different trending lip shades, play a game to “perfect their pout” in an instant and then take a selfie highlighting their selected lip shade. The selfie can be emailed and shared on social media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, QQ, Facebook and others. They can also register and redeem a complimentary lip makeover on their next trip to Bangkok.
Armed with insights revealing that 72% of Chinese travellers research online when planning trips, Shiseido Travel Retail has invested in a targeted online presence to drive web traffic to the Virtual Lip Trial app. This includes online and social media advertising on pre-trip websites such as C-trip, iPinyou and Travel+, as well as a high-profile presence on kingpower.com.
In addition to the Virtual Lip Trial app, Shiseido Travel Retail has developed a dedicated campaign page at https://www.narstravelretail.com/th/en/.
2. Play at the entrance to the NARS Lip Gallery
Shoppers are greeted at the Rangnam atrium by the eye-catching NARS installation, with disruptive and immersive features such as the giant Digital Lip Wall. Powered by motion sensors, the Lip Wall lets shoppers interact with a cluster of floating lips in a dynamic and fluid cloud of kisses which mirror their body movements. Shoppers can animate the cloud around the screen, as the lip colours change according to the live trends of the most popular shades selected on the Virtual Lip Trial app.
Shoppers can choose to scan a QR code on their mobile device or use an iPad next to the Digital Lip Wall to access the Virtual Lip Trial app. A digital photo with the message “With Love from Bangkok” creates a sense of place. The photo can be saved by scanning the QR code or be sent via e-mail, and then shared on their social media. There is then a final call-to-action for visitors to get a complimentary lip makeover on-site.
The NARS Virtual Lip Trial app and Digital Lip Wall both serve to capture data on trending lip shades among Chinese Millennials, according to Shiseido Travel Retail.
3. Engage and discover the new Lip Bar
Taking centre stage inside the stand is the new NARS ‘Lips to Style’ Lip Bar, where the brand’s leading make-up artists conduct complimentary make-up workshops for shoppers.
In line with NARS’s 2018 ‘Always on Lips’ strategy for travel retail, the new Lip Bar enables shoppers to discover NARS Lip Icons offering seven lip finishes across eight lip product categories: Velvet Matte Lip Pencil, Satin Lip Pencil, Audacious Lipstick, Satin Lipstick, Sheer Lipstick, Semi-Matte Lipstick, Velvet Lip Glide and Powermatte Lip Pigment.
4. Celebrate and share the new lip look at the photo booth
Lastly, after the lip makeover, shoppers are invited to capture fun moments at the photo booth station, which features a giant red lip couch and different NARS props. They are then presented with their printed photos and encouraged to share them on social media.
[Click to view a video of the NARS Lip Gallery concept]
Leveraging the power of influencers at the official launch
On 16 May, Shiseido Travel Retail and King Power International celebrated the official launch of the NARS Lip Gallery with a high-profile event, attended by The Moodie Davitt Report* as the sole travel retail media representative.
Among the invited guests were several influential Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) from Thailand and China, who leveraged their social media reach to drive awareness of the atrium activation. Live-streaming and social media presence, in addition to digital communication from King Power to its database of VIP members, created buzz around the atrium activation and encouraged Chinese Millennials back in China to participate in the Virtual Lip Trial.
Thai beauty blogger Amata ‘Pear’ Chittasenee – better known as ‘Pearypie’ on social media – was invited to host the lip makeover demonstration and share beauty tips. Pearypie was chosen for her strong social media reach of 1.5 million followers on Instagram and for her make-up expertise and popular beauty tutorials on Youtube.
Prominent Chinese fashion and beauty KOLs 格格Fan and Junkey also attended the event, live-streaming the day’s activities to Chinese consumers via the Yizhibo platform – they achieved a combined viewership of more than 11 million live-stream views.
This KOL amplification allowed Shiseido Travel Retail to reach out to a far wider audience, especially the Chinese, which is an important target market for the beauty company, it added.
*FOOTNOTE: The Moodie Davitt Report provided instantaneous coverage of the King Power Rangnam event via Instagram Stories – check out the ‘NARS’ Story Highlight on our Instagram page.
