How Summer Fridays rewrote the beauty brand playbook
I'm now convinced that this is the most successful influencer skincare brand.
The global beauty industry generates US$430 billion in revenue. By 2027, it is expected to reach US$580 billion.
For an industry of this size, and with that much consumer appetite, doing this brand deep-dive into Summer Fridays highlighted the lack of critical analysis in the space.
My past brand deep-dives have included fashion brands Khaite, Toteme and Reformation and there is plenty of critique and commentary and business news to draw from. Summer Fridays is my first beauty one, and to me, it is one of the most exciting beauty brands out there:
It has received a strategic investment from TSG Partners announced last month.
Its Lip Butter Balm was the most searched-for lip care product on Google in 2023 and one is sold every eight seconds worldwide.
While celebrity influencers have been found to have the lowest level of trust among consumers, Summer Fridays bucks the trend: working on this has made it so clear to me that it is perhaps the most successful influencer-founded skincare brand. I’d even go so far to say that it has surpassed most other celebrity-founded skincare brands.
It had the highest EMV of any beauty brand in 2023.
Retail sales in 2023 were US$150 million, and for 2024 they are on track for US$200 million.
I know I’m biased but maybe this is my favourite brand deep-dive yet??
Working on this really highlighted to me how there is just not that much business and marketing analysis out there. The brand founders themselves have been interviewed at length, but it’s more about their morning routine or their favourite beauty picks rather than their business savvy, which they clearly have a lot of. Either that they’re coy about it, or… people just don’t think to ask? Who knows.
But, my brand deep-dives are more than just re-hashing research because anyone can do that. Instead, I want to look at what’s happened, and reflect and analyse on strategies, their marketing, how they did it.
As this edition includes advice, analysis and critique that I’ve developed from my experience working in both editorial and brand-side which I do charge as part of my consulting work, the majority of this article is paywalled.
I do a brand deep-dive once a month, so if you find this interesting, you can consider becoming a paid subscriber here.
I read Teri Agins’ landmark 2000 book, The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever when I was in high school which transformed how I viewed fashion. It’s more than the clothes you put on your back, and yes, while it is a craft, it really opened my eyes to the world of business and the marketing the propels it.
Basically, the fashion industry can survive the way it is because of the beauty industry. Most fashion brands are likely not making money from its ready-to-wear let alone couture. What’s funding it? Its beauty line. Most women won’t be able to fathom buying a Chanel suit, but a lipstick or nail polish or to splurge on a fragrance? Sure! No wonder Hermès launched their own beauty line in 2020. Beauty is big business.
HOW IT STARTED
Let’s take you back to Instagram in 2016. Do a scroll on your own account. Cringe, I know. We all used some overly saturated filter, thinking we had moved on for Valencia. 2016 was the year when Instagram had changed its logo from a vintage-looking camera lens to a two-dimensional line logo with a pink and orange ombre background. Instagram users were unimpressed, with New York Times publishing an article about it titled, “The Great Instagram Logo Freakout of 2016”.
Fashionista, then one of the reigning digital-first fashion publications, released a list of top fashion bloggers including Chiara Ferragni, Aimee Song and Chriselle Lim. The word ‘influencer’ in terms of social media and digital marketing was still not in mainstream use, beginning in 2015 and only picking up in 2017.
This is the year when Marianne Hewitt and Lauren Ireland started talking about starting a beauty brand together.
They were both bloggers as they were called back then; Hewitt also had a Youtube following and both had burgeoning careers as television hosts, which likely took a backseat with their growing Instagram platforms. They didn’t have the type of backgrounds that one might assume would found a multi-million dollar beauty brand.
Skincare founders are often:
a) Subject experts, like aesthetician Kate Somerville or dermatologists like Dr Dennis Gross. The list for this one is long.
b) Beauty industry alumni like Amy Liu of Tower 28 who worked in marketing for Kate Somerville, L’Oreal and Josie Maran, or Laney Crowell of Saie who was in global communications for Estee Lauder. Sasha Plavsic of Ilia worked in branding for fashion and beauty.
c) Former beauty media, such as Emily Weiss who came from W and Vogue prior to starting her editorial platform, Into The Gloss, Julie Schott of Starface who used to be a Elle magazine beauty editor, and New York Times beauty writer Bee Shapiro who started fragrance line Ellis Brooklyn. And of course, Australia’s own Zoë Foster Blake who has Go-To.
d) Former corporate world. I know I’m conflating a lot here; Fiona Co Chan of Youthforia came from enterprise sales, finance/bankers. Nancy Twine of Briogeo was an investment banker and New Zealand’s Emma Lewisham was at technology company Brother.
e) Celebrities, like Hailey Bieber, Miranda Kerr. Or you know, Rihanna and Gwyneth Paltrow. At every level of celebrity, there will be a beauty brand.
Influencers on the other hand are more likely to collaborate with an existing brand or launch a makeup, such as Huda, since the first wave of beauty bloggers started off as makeup aficionados. The visual impact of makeup meant it was ideal for social media, whereas skincare blogging lagged behind. I’m actually struggling to name another major skincare brand founded by an influencer.
The paywall begins here. Subjects I have covered include:
influencer brands
EMV
social media-first
DTC/wholesale
wellness
how Summer Fridays addresses 5 major beauty industry trends
hero product
Gen Z beauty
As this edition includes advice, analysis and critique that I’ve developed from my experience working in both editorial and brand-side which I do charge as part of my consulting work, the majority of this article is paywalled.
I do a brand deep-dive once a month, so if you find this interesting, you can consider becoming a paid subscriber here. As a paid subscriber you will have access to all archives, the brand deep-dive, and a my special series on evolving your personal style and taste as part of your identity, Style Strategy.
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