Big Name Beauty Brands Take it to the Consumer for Fresh Product Ideas

SAN DIEGO (Business Wire EON/PRWEB ) May 21, 2008 -- Smashbox, the cutting edge cosmetics line, and Sephora, the leading retail beauty chain, today announced the launch of round one of the “Are You the Next Beauty Guru?” campaign powered by social media advertising platform Brickfish™. The campaign, located at www.smashbox.com/beautyguru, invites beauty mavens to create videos, develop commercials or submit blogs with photos showcasing their visions for the next must-have beauty products. The grand prize winner will receive a bevy of prizes including a one week apprenticeship at Smashbox Cosmetics to design the official Smashbox Fashion Week Makeup Palette and an all-expenses-paid three-day trip for two to Los Angeles to attend Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in March 2009 for the star-studded debut of their palette, which will be sold exclusively at Sephora nationwide and featured in the Sephora catalog.

Smashbox and Sephora have long been at the forefront of beauty innovation, so creating a social media campaign is the perfect way to connect emerging beauty mavens with each other

“Many Smashbox makeup fans have the product savvy and vibrant personalities of true beauty gurus, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the winner to showcase his or her talents at a glamorous Fashion Week launch event,” said Davis Factor of Smashbox. “The winner will instantly get nationwide exposure since their palette will be sold and promoted at Sephora, the biggest beauty retailer in the country! We can’t wait to see some amazing creativity. We’re confident a large variety of fun and exciting entries will lead to an explosive campaign.”

The Smashbox Beauty Guru will be chosen during the second round of the campaign, which begins June 25. In addition to the grand prize winner, the Smashbox and Sephora expert panel will be giving away Smashbox Swag Bags to the top 10 scores from round one, for the most viral entries, and to weekly sweepstakes winners who sign up to receive emails from Smashbox and Sephora.

Brands and agencies use Brickfish’s platform to launch online advertising and marketing campaigns targeted at the social networking audience. The campaigns are designed to spark the creation of brand-focused User-Generated Content (UGC), such as blogs, images, video and audio. Brickfish’s content sharing tools enable anyone to view and review submissions, vote on their favorites, and share them with friends and peers using email, Instant Message and postings on social networking sites. This powerful viral marketing vehicle generates unprecedented brand awareness and online and offline calls-to-action from lead generation to sales.

“Smashbox and Sephora have long been at the forefront of beauty innovation, so creating a social media campaign is the perfect way to connect emerging beauty mavens with each other,” said Brian Dunn, CEO of Brickfish. “The ‘Are You the Next Beauty Guru?’ campaign will spark conversation on hundreds of social networking sites producing highly original and inspired product ideas. Inviting consumers into the campaign will give Smashbox and Sephora a unique way to engage with their consumers and build brand loyalty.”

The “Are You the Next Beauty Guru? Round 1” campaign ends June 20. For more information about Brickfish, visit www.Brickfish.com.

About Smashbox

Smashbox Photo Studios and Smashbox Cosmetics were founded by the great-grandsons of makeup legend Max Factor, Dean and Davis Factor. Smashbox Cosmetics knows beauty. The world-famous makeup artists and the Hollywood faces that frequent Smashbox Studios are the inspirations behind the development of the Smashbox Cosmetics line. Dean and Davis are carrying on their heritage by establishing the world of photography, magazine editorial shoots and world-class beauty products in their hometown of Los Angeles.

About Sephora

Sephora, the beauty authority, revolutionized the global beauty industry with its unique retail concept rooted in a powerful combination of unparalleled brand and product assortment, distinctive store design and the beauty expertise of its sales consultants. Sephora offers clients a choice of more than 200 classic and emerging beauty brands across a broad range of product categories including skincare, makeup, fragrance, bath & body, hair care, smile care and tools, as well as the company’s own private label. Sephora was founded in France in 1969 and acquired by Paris-based LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's leading luxury products group, in 1997. Now, celebrating their 10th Anniversary in 2008, Sephora America operates more than 200 stores in the United States and Canada, and the world’s top beauty website, Sephora.com. Sephora Europe has more than 500 stores within 12 countries and has established 30 locations in China. Thanks to Sephora’s recent partnerships with HSN, a global multi-channel retailing giant, and JCPenney, one of America’s largest department stores, the beauty authority is now accessible to more clients than ever before.

About Brickfish

Brickfish™ is a social media advertising platform that taps into the power of consumer driven marketing on the Internet. Our patent-pending technologies provide brands and agencies with a single source solution to leverage the power of social media sites and User-Generated Content for truly effective online marketing efforts that drive awareness, analytics and action. Clients use the Brickfish platform to launch online advertising and marketing campaigns that spark the creation of brand-focused UGC, such as blogs, images, video and audio. This content is virally shared from consumer to consumer via hundreds of social media sites, blogs, email, IM and more. Campaign participants generate meaningful brand dialogue by creating, reviewing, sharing, voting upon, and watching brand-relevant content. These interactions are tracked with our Viral Map™ technology, which then provides detailed analytics on campaign reach, performance and demographics. This viral, consumer driven, marketing approach has proven to be 5 to 10 times more effective than existing online advertising methods such as display ads and search optimization. Scores of brands have hosted successful campaigns on the Brickfish platform, including Kodak, Intuit, Samsung, Qualcomm, ELLE, Universal, Givenchy, Aussie, and more.

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