Activated through Revlon’s Facebook community, the ColorBurst Lip Butter Bump app takes the social media approach into the physical world by allowing fans of the brand to literally reach our and touch their friends in order to snag some free lipstick samples.

The mobile app allows people to ‘bump’ their smart phones together for the reward of submitting their contact information to Revlon and receiving one of 2000 available free samples of ColorBurst Lip Butter.

“We set out to bring online sampling and product seeding into the real world using smart phones,” says Mark MacSmith, Digital Planner for VML Australia. “Being at the forefront of emerging technology, we were aware that the Bump API had become available for use on third party apps. Bump became the engine for our Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter app.”

Demographics

Supporting a makeup brand, it’s no surprise that the ColorBurst app has very specific demographics in mind. “[The target demographic is] 18-24 year old women looking for the holy grail of lip color—shiny color and a buttery balm,” says MacSmith. “Research showed that lip products and mobile phones are the two things that girls can’t leave home without.”

By bringing the two together the app hopes to achieve maximum appeal to its desired audience and generate word-of-mouth interest.

Resources

Though the wider Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter campaign has been conceived by George Patterson Y&R Sydney, digital agency VML was given responsible for the app creation and build itself.

“VML create and build all our digital work in-house,” says MacSmith. “So all departments had a hand in launching the app: Planning, creative, account service, production, and the development team.” 

Social activation

The broader Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter campaign has incorporated TV, print and Facebook. However, the app itself took an almost exclusively social focus for its activation.

“We announced the app availability to our Facebook audience and prompted them to download and use it with a friend to get samples,” says MacSmith. “We didn’t run any paid media promoting the app for the first five days, so our Revlon Facebook community drove 70% of the initial interactions and samples. We then used mobile display and select blogger outreach for the next four days to push the campaign out to a larger audience.”

The heavy focus on social media is explained by the recognition that brands need to maintain a relationship with their biggest advocates. “They provide valuable feedback and insights, influence future marketing and product launches for Revlon,” says MacSmith. “This is why the Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter Bump app was shared exclusively with our Facebook community for the first five days of launch.”

Aims and Measurements

The campaign’s success is being measured against a number of different metrics, from how much earned media was generated, to the total app downloads and shares. “The best outtake from the results is that for every ‘bump’ that took place, two girls had to have a conversation about Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter,” says MacSmith.

This execution is being viewed as something of an exploration and its outcomes will help shape Revlon’s future use of mobile to engage with customers. Says MacSmith, “the ColorBurst Lip Butter Bump app was a great way to test the waters, showing how young female Australian’s engage with new innovation.”

Outcomes

Although full the full results haven’t been released just yet, the initial numbers are strong. VML reports that all 2000 samples were given away in just nine days and that more than 80% of the overall traffic to the app downloads was derived from earned media—demonstrating the potential effectiveness of social engagement.

“Social media is crucial to foster brand affinity and engagement with your audience,” say MacSmith. “As the online word and the real word continue to collide, social media will play and even greater role of brand building.”