For the past several years, Base Beauty Creative Agency and our top-rated beauty podcast, WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY™, have acted as proud media partners of Kisaco’s Beauty Connect event series. As a result we’ve become familiar with the wonderful event coordinators, several of the service provider attendees and beauty/wellness industry participants who attend regularly.
Last month I attended the LA conference — my first in-person event in nearly twenty months! While I’m always impressed with the smart and positive people I meet through this program, this year’s networking opportunities felt even more inclusive than ever before. After so many virtual meet-and-greets, it was clear the crowd was eager to honor the event’s name and connect to the fullest! We conversed without worrying our Zoom backgrounds had spliced off our hand gestures, exchanged actual business cards, and even got to compliment each other’s shoe choices!
I had some very insightful conversations with leaders in packaging development focused on the next innovations towards a sustainable future for beauty, smart brand founders who explained their product benefits, retailers, investors, and fellow service providers hopeful to optimize the efforts of the brands and their marketing teams.
The two-day event offered separate tracks for attendees — one focused on Product Development and one focused on Brand Innovation. I was honored to chair the Product Development track, sharing opening remarks about the state of the industry and what our clients experience each day, as well as introducing the panels throughout the program. I learned so much from each of the speakers and from each conversation that I had. Here are my top 5 takeaways:
- A personalization strategy will be the key to continued connection with your consumers. I chaired a panel on this topic and have posted more insights here.
- The Vitamin C ingredient trend is not going away any time soon! And your skin will thank you for that.
- The path to sustainability for our industry is a long and winding one — expect to be patient while taking baby steps towards this large and important goal.
- Consumers crave the science behind your brand! Connect your product development and marketing teams to ensure you’re transparent in explaining the details they want to hear.
- Retail is not dead! If you’ve leaned heavily into attracting online shoppers, now may be an exciting time to leverage brick and mortar as an opportunity to revitalize a fan base or create a new one with experiential marketing and influencer activations.
We’re looking forward to continued collaboration with upcoming Kisaco events. Feel free to reach out if you have questions or are interested in getting involved!