Makeup By Mario

 
 

The Most Anticipated PRODUCT Launch Ever from the Leading MAkeup Brand in Sephora

Brands That Get You partnered up with School House, a talented agency that specializes in beauty, on the launch campaign for Makeup by Mario’s first foundation — a hugely important and highly anticipated release for the beauty brand that’s been breaking records at Sephora.

If you don’t know who Mario Dedivanovic is, you’ve definitely seen his makeup magic at work. Known as the man behind Kim Kardashian's signature look, Mario was her key makeup artist for more than a decade. Today, Mario is one of the most acclaimed, followed, and influential makeup artists in the world.

People have literally been asking for Mario’s foundation since he started the brand. Anticipation for this launch was extremely high, and the development of this product had been extremely personal for Mario.

As Makeup by Mario’s first foundation launches, we wanted to give it a campaign moment that was as bold, fresh, and worthy as it deserved to be.

Our Process

We analyzed what made the product most unique:

  • Through our conversations with Mario, we learned how he had been intimately involved in the high-tech development of this product for the past two years.

  • Mario had gone the extra mile to ensure that his shades were more true to human skin tones than any other foundation — adding more warmth to all undertones and testing on hundreds of people.

  • He also fixed the problems he saw with other foundation formulas, like how they tend to dry the out skin and “oxidize” throughout the day (which means the foundation turns a different color and what looked natural at 8AM looks not-so-much at 5 PM)

We also considered what was most special about Mario himself:

  • As a makeup artist with more than twenty years of expertise, Mario has developed a distinctly ownable point of view on beauty.

  • Mario simplifies his techniques to make them accessible to all.

And we took inspiration from this quote in particular:

Based on this inspiration, here’s what we developed.

OUR KEY INSIGHT 

The true magic of Mario is how he makes artistry effortless. He translates his depth of understanding as a student of human skin tones and his enriched experience from 22 years of makeup mastery to pioneering products and techniques that are genuinely accessible to all. 

OUR CONCEPT DIRECTION 

In this concept, we let Mario’s expertise and light shine through his artistry and personal touch. 

OUR GUIDING WORDS FOR THE CREATIVE

Presence. Uncovered. Focus. Detail.

OUR EDITORIAL

OUR VISUALS

We planned to use clean and bright in-the-studio lighting that combined hard and soft, to show off skin that looked fresh and picked up highlights.

We wanted to showcase models of all skin tones and to place Mario and his hands in the shots—literally — to emphasize his presence and expertise.

We also loved using soft-flowing product textures to create dramatic reveals.

How It Came to Life

Here’s how the campaign looked in teasers and during launch week.

KEEPING THE CAMPAIGN GOING strong

Then came the big question — how to take the initial launch moment and prolong its impact by making it last longer.

To tackle this, we stepped back and approached the product storytelling from five different angles:

  • Angle #1: Affinity with Consumer Preferences
    What about the product aligns with something our consumer prefers in our product category?

  • Angle #2: Signature Usage Experience
    What is so special about the ways people use and interact with the product?

  • Angle #3: Philosophical Difference
    What essential elements of Mario and the brand’s philosophy went into the product? How are these elements expressed in the final product?

  • Angle #4: Formula Superiority
    What is so unique about the product that clearly makes it better than the competition?

  • Angle #5: Affinity with Consumer’s Beliefs
    How does the product connect to something the consumer believes about herself, her community, or her world?

Then, for each of these angles, we thought deeply about the product itself, Mario’s approach, and Mario’s customers to develop a Key Insight that would drive that storyline.

Here is a Key Insight example, using Angle #1

In the complexion category, we knew that customers are currently shifting away from the heavily contoured look and Insta-filtered face. They’re gravitating towards more natural looks that let their beauty radiate.

Thus, our insight for this became:

Based on the Key Insight, we created Editorial Examples for three key marketing placements:

  • Email

  • Paid Social

  • Homepage

Here is an Editorial Example, using Angle #1

Using the same Key Insight, you can create even more editorial content.

Here are the two emails Makeup By Mario sent based on Angle #1.

And here’s the Homepage with different featured images based on Angle #1.

You can storyline lots of social content that makes sense for the time you’re running this message.

For Angle #1, some social content ideas you could brainstorm might be:

  • Ask customers what makes them feel most naturally luminous

  • Videos of Mario talking about why it was important to him that his foundation makes you look naturally luminous

  • Application videos that focus on natural luminosity

While you’re exploring all of the angles, you may find that you have MULTIPLE Key Insights for a single angle. This happened to us as we approached the campaing for Makeup by Mario. Both Angle #3: Philosophical Difference and Angle #4: Formula Superiority had multiple Key Insights. And this is great news — means you have MORE storylines to work with for your marketing.

Here’s what we developed for Angle #3: Philosophical Difference:

Here’s what we broke out for Angle #4: Formula Superiority:

Bonus: You might create some new ownable language on this journey.

Deep diving into the storylines allowed us to coin some new terms for Mario to use throughout his marketing — including shade-selection anxiety, multi-match approach, and Moisture-Grip™ Technology (which they trademarked).