My Market Insight, the company for data, commentary and analysis across various media platforms, has revealed its weekly beauty insight today with a focus on Skincare. Consumer magazines and online publications produced 43% of all Skincare PR mentions in December 2016. Compared to December 2015, consumer magazines experienced a 14% decrease in mentions (1,013 to 870), whilst online publications increased by 25% (720 to 899). In December 2016, skincare products produced 24% (4,036) of all beauty mentions across all media channels (see graph below). Face care non-medicated dominates skincare PR, producing 53% (2179) of all mentions.

In December 2016, Elemis and Givenchy received the most skincare PR mentions in print publications with 32 mentions each. However, neither brand had a product in the top 10 most mentioned products. Therefore, this indicates that they both focus on the breadth of their product range (Elemis had 22 whilst Givenchy had 21 different products that achieved PR in December) rather than pushing their resources on an individual product. When compared to December 2015, the Givenchy brand grew it’s PR presence the most, growing their skincare PR mentions by 700%. Their overall advertising value equivalent rose from £5,784 (December 2015) to £22,352 (December 2016).

When compared to their print performance, it is clear that Clinique have an online focused PR strategy. Their online PR mentions increased by 109% compared to December 2015, from 23 to 48 mentions. Clinique’s most popular online publication was refinery29.uk who contributed 5 mentions. However, express.co.uk offered the highest AVE to Clinique (£7,101), whilst refinery29.uk contributed £179.

Soap & Glory’s PR activity is clearly social media driven when compared to their print and online performance. Achieving 144 mentions on social media and having 5 products in the top 10 most mentioned highlights their social dominance. Soap & Glory predominantly focuses on Twitter for its PR activity (55% of their social mentions) whilst Instagram and YouTube represent 41% and 4% respectively.

In December 2016, print publications as a whole saw a 10% decrease in skincare PR mentions when compared to 2015. When compared to the previous year, LOOK experienced the highest increase in skincare mentions (163%). Their most mentioned brand was Sienna X. The Sunday Times' Style, offered the highest PR AVE to the skincare category valued at £78,271. They offered the most PR AVE to the brand Caudalie worth £5,830. Interestingly, in the previous year, Style ran no PR for the Caudalie brand. ES Magazine increased their AVE value for the skincare category by 405% in comparison to December 2015, from £8,125 to £41,055. At a brand level, Elemis achieved the highest AVE in print publications with a total value of £37,331. Elemis gained most of its PR AVE from Sunday Mirror's Notebook who contributed £4,442 in December, with 14,035,608 impressions refinery29.uk delivered the highest number of skincare PR mentions in December. Their most mentioned product was Origins Original Skin Retexturizing Mask with Rose Clay. In December, dailymail.co.uk offered the highest AVE to the skincare category with a value of £102,821 (see below coverage). However, compared to November 2016 skincare brands saw a 25% decrease in their AVE value in online publications. This is due to skincare mentions experiencing a decline of 19% whilst weight of coverage dropped 31% (240 pages in November to 166 in December).

In December 2016, social platforms experienced an 11% increase in skincare PR mentions when compared to November. The Soap & Glory brand was at the forefront of this growth achieving 144 mentions in December vs 7 in November. Burt’s Bees also influenced the evolution by achieving 97 mentions compared to 4 in November (per previous graph). As previously mentioned, Soap & Glory focuses their PR activity on social media and they have the highest share of voice across all social platforms. Soap & Glory achieved 88% of their mentions from social media compared to 2% from consumer magazines.

Beauty blogger ReallyRee’s Twitter page talked the most about skincare across all social influencers and her most retweeted product was Neal’s Yard Frankincense Intense Range, which achieved 9 retweets. In December 2016, Zoella received the most Twitter actions for a single skincare mention, which displays her social media prowess. Zoella’s skincare PR mention was for Bath and Body Works Gingerbread Latte Ultra Shea Body Cream, which in turn became the most popular skincare product on Twitter with 12,976 likes and 1,630 retweets. However, the most mentioned product on Twitter was Burt’s Bees Lip Balm (23 mentions) which received 37 Likes and 7 retweets.

Although, YouTube produced the least amount of skincare mentions in December 2016 (250), its engagement with the audience is unchallenged. When comparing YouTube’s action count against Twitter, who had the most skincare mentions, it is clear the engagement on YouTube is significantly higher making it an important platform for brands to have a presence on. Caroline Hirons, beauty expert and blogger, achieved the highest number of likes for the skincare category on Instagram in December. Her most popular product was Kate Somerville’s Goat Milk Cream, achieving 6,189 likes. However, the most liked products across Instagram was Hourglass’s Veil Mineral Primer and Bobbi Brown’s Face Base. They achieved 18,753 likes from a single post from KaushalBeauty.

DIARY directory subscribers can find skincare brands listed in DIARY directory. 

My Market Insight delivers to the beauty industry, a PR and Communications business tool that can track any brand in the market across print, online and social media. If these insights interest you, call for more information. You can gain access to My Market Insight's data for as little as £750 and one of the many benefits of being a DIARY directory member is being eligible to receive a 20% discount!

Leo Eckley, leonora.eckley@mymarketinsight.com / 020-8831 7570