SWAN Beauty x Acquired Style’s Bachelorette Play
If you weren’t familiar with SWAN Beauty before, this past week on TiKTok made sure that changed. One could argue the only way to grab attention for a cosmetic mirror that records and analyzes the skin at a hefty $800 pricetag is to partner with an influencer on her extravagant Bachelorette party.
Acquired Style (née Brigette Pheloung), an account/person on TikTok with 1.8M followers, posted 26 pieces of content revolving her Bachelorette party on the platform. Things kicked off on Day 0 before “Acquired a Husband” began, a name which Pheloung coined her Bachelorette. Around a dozen of Pheloung’s friends joined her to prep for the party by acquiring spray tans. After a packing video and content using a top TikTok sound, we were ready to embark on Day 1 of AAH, where we learn that Pheloung, her twin sister and friends would be traveling to their destination via a branded private jet (Acquired Air, of course), courtesy of SWAN Beauty.
The above video, which was posted on April 23rd, is 20 seconds long, is set to a sound by Kim Kardashian, and follows Pheloung as she shows off the massive jet with key SWAN Beauty branding points. It has 1.4M views. The following video is of Pheloung doing a “mid-air refresh” using the SWAN Mirror, showcasing the app and it’s capabilities (with 800K views).
Google Trends shows that this is when people started to garner interest in SWAN Beauty as a brand, both in internet and Youtube searches, with a steep increase in interest as Phe & Phrends embarked on their Acquired Air Adventure to St. Barths.
I’m being snarky, but it’s all in good fun. The reality is I was glued to this content and cheering these girls on. If you had the opportunity like this, you would most certainly have taken it too—especially since this trip was likely zero cost to her friends/bridesmaids. I really wanted to know if Pheloung was getting paid for this endorsement or was gifted in kind by SWAN with the flight, accommodations, etc., especially since there’s no ad disclosure if any of her posts.
Granted, does she need it? Legally, yes. But as one commenter said to another, “How it it undisclosed? It’s open and obvious.” Fair! She’s on a branded jet for Christ’s sake, talking about that brand’s product. If we’re going to argue that society is obsessed with the intricacies of marketing, we also have to give the benefit of the doubt that most viewers know when something is an ad, especially since most influencers aren’t dedicating videos to one product or brand without some kind of incentive to, whether that be monetary or to stay on a PR list. It’s clear Pheloung didn’t decide to start talking about this mirror—on a PJ—because she got the itch to.
This also begs the question: how is this different from a brand trip? In my opinion, brand trips are the most effective when there’s a clear theme, not simply “influencers partying together.” For example, poppi’s MickMansion and Jake Estate at Coachella (for Micky Gordon and Jake Shane, respectively) were focused on two social media personalities that took over properties in the Palm Desert area for the festival. Said personalities and their friends got to stay there for the weekend. The people doing the heavy lifting were the brands, Micky and Jake, not a gaggle of influencers posting about loving poppi. It was clearly branded, but it was a brand awareness play than a focus on a specific flavor launch. And it worked.
The formula seems to be: creators with high engagement + a specialized experience tailored to them = people will talk. I think the Tarte x Saint James Reality Stars House during Coachella had a similar vibe, but the numbers on the brand’s content are signficantly are lower than poppi’s. No shade—I really liked this idea for the house, but I think poppi did an excellent job of going in with a dedicated social plan that made sense (think MTV Cribs) for their activation; Tarte’s content seemed to rely heavily on the reality stars themselves that were there vs. having a clear social direction, like setting up reality-style clips for the house guests to film.
Anyway, Pheloung shared that she met the founder of SWAN 7 months ago and that discussions were had about sponsoring the Bachelorette, although it’s unclear what that “sponsorship” technically means. She said that she uses the mirror herself and introduced her audience to it previously so that they were already familiar with the brand by the time the Bachelorette rolled around. Which is Influencing 101. I’m curious if the general public still believes this to be authentic anymore or if they assume it’s the long-game strategy when it comes to partnerships at this point. (The Easter egg effect, if you will.) Remember, despite people not reading anything but a headline, they can sniff out an ad from a mile away.
In numbers, this experience worked out for everyone involved: on top of the trip, Pheloung hit 1M followers. The EMV for SWAN, I’m told, from the start of the trip (and the beginning of Pheloung’s posts) were:
Total impressions: 26.2m (+4,366.9%)
Total EMV: $2.3m (+5,762.7%)
Instagram EMV: $892.1k (+2,500.1%)
TikTok EMV: $1.4m (+31,343%)
Since last Friday, Pheloung’s sister Danielle received 17,000+ followers on TikTok. I’m curious how the brand sees this investment vs. the return on it, how it translated to sales or memberships, plus how they plan to activate with influencers in the future.
Have a tip or story idea? Email me. kirbie@kirbiejohnson.com
SWAN Beauty Smart Mirror, $795
AI Skin Analysis, Face Mapping and AR Try-On Features
15’’ OLED Touchscreen
4K Camera
Full content studio with dual microphones and speakers to capture content
WiFi and Bluetooth Connectivity
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