Reddit Case Study: Benefit Cosmetics

This reddit case study focuses on a simple and well-received user-generated content thread by Benefit Cosmetics.

In early June 2014, Benefit Cosmetics ran a simple ad encouraging users to “Show us your best winged liner looks!” for the chance to win some new Benefit Cosmetics mascara products.

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The ad was served to beauty subreddits like MakeupAddiction and Beauty, within which posting selfies of makeup efforts is already a common user activity. Thus, this ad from Benefit wisely didn’t require the audience to learn a new activity within that context, which would have been a hurdle for user engagement.

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Within two weeks the ad had generated over 70 comments, made up of a mixture of winged liner look submissions and (overwhelmingly positive) comments and reactions from other users.

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This Benefit Cosmetics ad demonstrated ideals of user-generated content campaigns in that it

  1. encouraged an act of content creation that the community already found valuable (as evidenced by the many selfie makeup posts within BeautyAddiction),
  2. produced content that the community found valuable (as evidenced by the overwhelmingly positive reception of audience submissions), and
  3. was clearly brand-relevant.

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