The real world is going online and driving change upon us, which is more than just a physical shift. Not only the way we communicate, but also the content is changing. Brand communication is not an exception to this trend. In the online world, communication is not one sided. Brands cannot get their message heard unless the audience wants to hear. In other words, brands need to lure their target audience, namely customers - whether by taking on a completely new look, delivering valuable information or building compelling attractiveness.
Unfortunately, brand attractiveness is largely reliant on the brand's degree of awareness. Popular brands, mostly among millennials and Generation Z, for example Apple and Nike can easily attract customers and encourage their active participation in the digital channel as they did offline. For lesser-known brands though, not on top of the mind of customers, their only resource is the content they create. It should be new and useful and at the same time, aligned with their branding.
Amorepacific has a reputation known far and wide as a leading beauty company in Korea but the company has decided to start from scratch in terms of customer communication in the digital world. The main question though was how to initiate it when customers today are growing tired of overly branded content via mobile and online platforms.
The solution Amorepacific found was Cosmetics ASMR on Amorepacific YouTube channel titled Beauty Point. It was a whole new kind of ASMR video created by Amorepacific in-house venture team. The team wanted to show the texture of cosmetics without actually demonstrating them on the skin and eventually, developed a distinctive ASMR video that triggers a tingling sensation through the breaking and pouring of cosmetics. Unlike other beauty YouTube channels that focus on the features of products, Beauty Point is dedicated to destruction, which gives an incredible experience of aesthetic chills.
The channel hit the spot. It took about one month to create an episode of the ‘Healing Times’ series but it was worth all the effort. With its fresh idea, originality, and addicting aspects, it captured millennials and Generation Z. (Nearly 90% of subscribers are teens and young adults in their 20s and 30s!) Especially Pink special episode of Healing Times featuring the breaking of pink-colored cosmetics of Mamonde, eSpoir and other brands of Amorepacific recorded 10 million views in just one month after its posting in last May. This series of wonderful wordless videos even fascinated international viewers. It has been only a while since the first video was posted, but it has almost 800,000 subscribers as of mid-September 2020. More surprisingly, it is a company YouTube channel with nothing else but only ASMR videos.
In 2020, Amorepacific R&D Center and SCM (Supply Chain Management) started a YouTube channel named LAB. point to kindly answer the questions from those who have at least once wondered about who makes cosmetics, where they are made and how. It unveils the rhythmical flow of manufacturing and distribution process that’s normally secretive, and gives a glance over a researcher somehow turning natural ingredients into hand cream at the corner of a peaceful Hanok, a traditional Korean style house. The channel mostly offers videos on various R&D and manufacturing stories, conveying messages subtly and effectively but mostly without spoken words.
YouTube is merely one of the available channels for digital branding. Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are among the most commonly used channels but there are much more. It is this great diversity of digital channels that is driving further evolution of digital branding. It will change the way brands communicate, interact with customers, create and deliver their content.
Amorepacific CEO Suh Kyung-bae talked about coping in the world of rapid change. And he shared the meaning of ‘falling forward’. Like almost everything else, brand communication will change and there will be always someone to make the first move, create new trend and mark milestone. Hopefully Amorepacific will be the one.