Wanna be an In Girl?

Sephora is a chain of beauty product stores founded in France in 1969. Since then, it has expanded into 16 different countries. Sephora has many loyal customers and wanted to find a way to capitalize on that. They decided to use viral marketing to build a more expansive network of shoppers. They turned to Popular Media Inc. to help create the buzz among their loyal customers about their In Girl consumer panel.

Existing customers were given the opportunity to join the In Girl consumer panel. As a member of the panel, customers receive free Sephora products to review, an In Girl t-shirt, and access to exclusive online surveys. Winners were determined by who got the most nominations from friends. The idea behind the whole campaign was to get existing customers interested in being on the In Girl consumer panel and get them to use their online social networks for nominations. Customers used sites like MySpace, Facebook, and blogs to spread the word. The nomination directed the people nominating someone to Sephora.com. In the process of nominating someone, each person was asked questions about themselves, the person they were nominating, and the size of their social networks.



So what about the results? The consumer panel generated a response rate three times higher than banner ads or click-through email campaigns. According to Sephora, the average participant generated 2.5 brand impressions online. The most influential candidates recruited more than 100 new brand enthusiasts. This campaign makes a lot of sense because they are using something they already have, loyal customers, to use their social networks to promote the brand. They not only gained customers from this campaign, but also insights into the social networks of their customers. Sephora was smart to recognize the viral potential of their customers. This is just another example of the power and potential of viral marketing.


























A promotional picture from the campaign

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