Why beauty brands need to bet big on the Olympics

This article is part of our Vogue Business membership package. To enjoy unlimited access to our weekly Beauty Edit newsletter, which contains Member-only reporting and analysis, the Beauty Trend Tracker and Leadership Advice, sign up for Vogue Business membership here. With 15 million spectators expected in France and three billion viewers worldwide, the 2024 Paris Olympics are set to dominate this summer — and beauty brands want in. Expect to see Sephora (an outcome of LVMH’s official partnership), K18, Glossier and Aesop seize the opportunity to cement their position in the Olympics universe alongside P&G as programme sponsor. Each beauty player plans to strategically place advertisements, marketing campaigns, pop-ups, product exclusives, events and athlete partnerships in the lead-up to — and during — the games. All told, this might be the most beautified Olympics yet. For Antonia Baildam, TikTok’s brand partnerships manager, there is no better time for beauty to seize the opportunity in future games and sports, having seen athletes in a new light and witnessed the resulting audience investment. “Throughout the [2020] Tokyo Olympics, the cultural force was felt. For the first time, athletes would give insight into previously unseen spaces such as the dining halls and living quarters and showed new perspectives like #GRWM content prior to competing,” she explains. “With over 415,000 posts using the #Olympics hashtag, brands have the opportunity to tap into a vast, global and diverse audience.” Influencer marketing platform Kolsquare saw an equally compelling pickup during the last Olympic Games. The #Olympicspirit hashtag generated 2.1 billion views on TikTok and 6.1 billion in engagement across the official Olympics handles. “Social media has enabled a much richer storytelling around the Olympics with space in content to tell much more of the athlete’s behind-the-scenes stories, interests and family life. Beauty brands need to connect with the values and themes that’ll translate because today, inclusivity, feminism and environmental sustainability are at the heart,” says Kolsquare CEO and founder Quentin Bordage. Landmark moments P&G is approaching the games with an investment in marketing campaigns and a pop-up experience. “The global platform of Paris 2024 provides an unparalleled opportunity for our P&G beauty and grooming brands to reach billions of engaged consumers to demonstrate our product superiority on one of the world’s biggest stages,” says Artur Litarowicz, SVP of beauty care for Europe at P&G. The conglomerate, which is continuing its 10-year partnership with the Olympic and Paralympic Games, is creating more than 30 marketing campaigns across its portfolio that will be showcased in-store and online in over 40 countries globally. This year, P&G is also launching a beauty and grooming salon for athletes to undergo treatments from Head & Shoulders, Mielle Organics, Gillette and Braun. “We want [the athletes] to feel confident when they step out in front of the crowds,” explains Litarowicz. The company is also partnering with over 100 athletes and 150 global retailers on Olympic and Paralympic-inspired campaigns. This widespread and tiered investment from P&G is a testament to the diverse strategy required for taking on the relationship between beauty, grooming and sports. A consideration Millie Kendall, CEO of the British Beauty Council, sees as essential: “We’ll need to see our leading male sports figures align with grooming brands, but women in beauty, too.” Sephora will mark its global position in the games through a host of activations that’ll rely on customers, staff and competing athletes to emphasise a robust strategy aimed at aligning the two worlds. Meanwhile, K18 takes a more targeted approach, setting its sights on professional US gymnast Simone Biles, who was just announced brand ambassador. “This partnership is a testament to her resilience, inner strength and K18’s power of science and self-expression. [A quality] that coincided with her redemptive return following the Tokyo Olympics, and has all eyes set on her for Paris,” says Michelle Miller, SVP of global marketing at K18. Female athletes attract new audiences A beauty brand’s future in sports directly correlates with the increasing visibility and representation of female athletes because they attract new and younger audiences. In Lefty’s Sports as the Next Marketing Frontier report, female athletes’ engagement rates surpassed those of males by 14.3 per cent based on likes, comments and reshares during the women’s football season. The takeaway, most importantly, is that when Kolsquare overlaid #beauty and #sports across TikTok and Instagram, it generated 22 million content impressions. “The audience was predominantly female (60 per cent), aged 18 to 24 (38 per cent), and [aged] 25 to 35 (36 per cent),” says Bordage. The audience shift paints a promising picture for women in sport, and brands should see this as a chance to authentically align with leading female athletes. It’s an opportunity Glossier has already tapped as the first official beauty partner of the USA’s women’s basketball team, along with K18, honing in on fellow Team USA member Biles. “Consumers don’t want to be sold to, they want to be entertained and engaged. People inspire people and more importantly, it’s the personal stories that connect and build trust. K18 invests in people moving and driving culture and in the world of gymnastics, that’s Simone,” says Miller. In 2023, brand and athlete partnerships brought in $486 million in EMV (earned media value) for sports brands, $78.5 million for fashion, $21 million for gaming, and $61.9 million for food and beverages. Beauty and wellness partnerships accumulated $3.6 million in EMV according to Lefty. However, with the rising female influence and gender identity shift across the Olympic and Paralympic Games, there is ample growth potential for beauty brands to deliver inclusive values and out-of-the-box ambassadorships. “Athletes merge with the power of the influencer since they have qualified audiences on social and celebrity appeal due to their household names that are serious brand awareness drivers,” says Philip Atkins, founder of digital agency Phidel. “There are many opportunities for beauty brands as athletes are traditionally media savvy with a diverse follower base,” he adds. Brands can also feel assured regarding their return on investment (ROI), because as Atkins points out, consumers are used to athletes endorsing products. An emerging beauty category Another opportunity from the Olympic stage — and sports more generally — is the continued breakthrough in high-performance beauty products. “The rise in celebrity sports and performance lines are shifting focus, drawing attention to the needs of extreme weather and environmental conditions, as well as long-wearing, comfortable cosmetics,” says Lisa Payne, head of beauty at insights firm Stylus. Kelly Slater’s Freaks of Nature skincare brand, Wyn Beauty by Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka’s Kinlò and Venus Williams’s Eleven are among the early adopters in this space. “Think active cosmeceutical skincare, long-wear-yet-breathable foundation, SPF, waterproof mascara, hard-working hydrating serums, multitasking lip and cheek sticks — it’s an obvious win,” says Madeleine Boyd, VP of strategy for global beauty at Karla Otto. For Payne, this looks like active personal care categories revamped by indie brands to showcase innovative formulations in aesthetically pleasing packaging. “It now says as much about you as a beauty consumer as it does a sports enthusiast, when you pull out a Gun Ana Face Cream SPF 50 or an AKT London natural deodorant from your gym bag.” Both Gun Ana and AKT London represent a wider pool of emerging brands that are breaking into the industry just as beauty and sports collide. But brands that are hoping to enter the high-performance market can’t risk an unbalanced formulation. “In cosmetics, I would formulate high-performance products that contain polymers and film-formers that would help make makeup waterproof, sweatproof, chafe-proof and long wearing. You’d need to also find the balance between lasting hydration and combating oiliness, because athletes are exposed to intense weather conditions and intense movement,” explains Ron Robinson, cosmetic chemist and founder of skincare brand Beautystat. Without this, products will struggle to reach success. It doesn’t stop at products; brands should constantly seek out new ways to innovate gaps in the market. Both Gymshark and Actively Black (in partnership with Mielle Organics) have noted the need for expansion through sportswear and haircare tie-ups. They launched their sweat-wicking headbands with double-layered sweating-diffusing materials that minimise the sweating out of textured hair for those who find it difficult to retain their hairstyles when performing. “The beauty of the Olympics is that it engages a huge and diverse audience. The fact that the whole world stops for the Olympics and Paralympics means that whatever your brand is, chances are your target audience is watching,” Bordage says. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.

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