Rimmel sees a 44% sales lift from Bazaarvoice's Influenster community

Rimmel sees a significant sales lift with user-generated content from Bazaarvoice’s Influenster community

To quantify the importance of peer-to-peer recommendations in the purchasing decisions of consumers, Bazaarvoice partnered with market research company IRI to measure the impact of ratings, reviews, and visual social content in driving incremental sales for Rimmel, a Coty-owned global color cosmetics brand.

The study measured a sampling campaign that targeted Influenster community members in two test markets who fit the products’ audience parameters. The results demonstrated that ratings, reviews, and visual user-generated content from everyday consumers not only drives incremental sales on sampled products, but also a halo effect for the brand, as products outside of the campaign also experienced sales increases.

Driving high quality content with a hyper-targeted sampling campaign

Rimmel tapped into Bazaarvoice’s Influenster community of more than six million engaged members, comprised of everyday consumers who participate in product discussions, create content about the products they discover, and connect with brands and one another.

The campaign goals included raising awareness of Rimmel’s new Wonder Ombre Holographic eyeliner and revitalizing consumer interest in one of its core mascara products.

Bazaarvoice curated and sent custom sampling boxes (VoxBoxes) to a hyper-targeted group of 2,000 women (18- to 30-year-old beauty enthusiasts living in key markets). Recipients were encouraged to share their honest opinions on the products sampled via reviews and social media content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.

The brand collected 1,200+ product reviews, which were displayed on Influenster, the brand’s site, and syndicated to retail partner sites. The campaign also resulted in 15.7 million impressions across 2,400 social posts from consumers.

Proving the ROI of word-of-mouth content

According to the study, the campaign drove a 44% higher sales lift for the featured products versus the IRI benchmark for average digital campaigns in the beauty category and a 69% higher sales lift for the product categories in which the sampled products compete versus the IRI benchmark, demonstrating a positive halo effect.

It also resulted in more customer advocacy, brand awareness in social channels, and purchase intent. Among the campaign participants who answered a post-campaign survey, 73% said they were likely to purchase something from Rimmel in the next six months.

The success confirms that activating key consumers at scale to create user-generated content, rather than relying on macro influencers, has significant brand-building and sales potential—ultimately validating the enduring power of word-of-mouth content.