Digital influencers surpass celebrities as top choice for SEA beauty endorsements

Digital influencers have overtaken celebrities as the top choice for beauty brand endorsements and commercial collaborations in Southeast Asia. This comes as consumers are increasingly turning to influencers to access beauty trends, looks, content and expriences.According to Meltwater’s latest report titled “Beyond Skin Deep: Understanding the shopping journey of the Southeast Asian beauty buyer”, digital influencers also “[pack in] a punch with the ROI they are delivering to brands. Quoting Celebrity Intelligence, a platform for brand and talent partnerships, Meltwater’s report said 80% of survey respondents indicated that influencers are pivotal in shaping opinions and buying decisions of consumers. Also, 83% believe influencers are crucial to making beauty trends, looks and products “cool” to Millennial consumers. The report also found that for every US$1.30 spent on beauty influencers, brands receive an average return of US$11.80.Compared to influencers, celebrities are no longer as relatable to consumers, who have gotten savvy at spotting when they are being sold to. They would much rather hear from “real” individuals who are better at storytelling and offer a more honest and credible review, the report said.Across Southeast Asia, Instagram was also named the channel of choice for talent-led collaborations, with eight times more beauty influencers on Instagram than on Twitter.In Singapore, 94.6% of the influencers use Instagram followed by Twitter (4.7%) and YouTube (0.7%). Sahur Saleim scored the highest among beauty influencers (83 out of 100 points) who leverage Instagram to post beauty-related content such as looks, tutorials, masterclasses and giveaways. Due to her heavy usage of American brands, the report added that Sahur has begun to court a wide Western following.Meanwhile in Malaysia, Instagram is used by 94.5% of influencers followed by Twitter (3.2%) and YouTube (2.3%). Farhanah Firdaus was crowned the top influencer with a score of 89 out of 100 points. She is a multilingual makeup enthusiast who also produces beauty related content and curates fashion looks.According to Meltwater, consumers’ desire for authenticity and credibility means brands must go beyond just picking a pretty face with a large Instagram following. Instead, they need to be more strategic and take a data-led approach to the entire selection process. This is done by looking at how well an individual is performing in terms of engagement and influence, and bout incorporating a variety of data and insights to determine whether an influencer is the right fit.Top three beauty brands in Southeast AsiaEstée Lauder, Unilever and L’Oréal were named the top three beauty brands in Southeast Asia, accounting for nearly 39% and 49% of the market in the mass and premium categories, respectively. Meanwhile, lips received the most buzz of all product categories, with Estée Lauder’s range of brands leading the way followed by L’Oréal.J-Beauty is also making a comeback in Southeast Asia, with much of the growth being attributed to the rise in foreign tourists to Japan and consequent exposure of popular products through social media. According to Meltwater, this is a departure from the last decade when K-Beauty successfully cracked the global beauty market.Mimrah Mahmood, regional director, media solutions, Meltwater Asia Pacific said consumers today know when they are being sold to and would much rather hear from real people. As such, brands need to be more strategic in their talent collaborations, looking not only at vanity metrics like follower numbers, but also incorporating deeper insights such as average engagement per post, true reach, and demographic data to determine whether an influencer appeals to the right audience.(Photo courtesy: 123RF)