Virtual vision of beauty responsibility in action
15 Feb 2022 --- With its launch of BeautySphere – which offers a virtual journey through digital landscapes – P&G aims to give consumers the opportunity to learn about what it considers are the interconnected values of responsible beauty. These include sustainability, safety, transparency, quality and performance, equality and inclusion and wellbeing. As part of its goal, P&G hosts a variety of content that aims to offer a real-world view of these values in action.
“Just as with everything we do at P&G Beauty, BeautySphere was created by listening to what our consumers are asking for: their definitions of quality and personalization have changed, and so have their expectations,” says Jen Chamberlain, Senior Director of Beauty Industry Relations and Trend Intelligence at P&G. “They are more often looking for online experiences that are engaging and experiential.”
Click to EnlargeVisitors can take a virtual journey through digital landscapes. Source: P&G
As P&G’s beauty brands have experimented with their digital and virtual presences for some time now, the company saw BeautySphere as the next step in that journey. “We are constantly challenging ourselves to create meaningful experiences that offer new, cutting edge ways for consumers to engage with our brands, products and values,” shares Chamberlain.
Detailing how the final concept was created, Chamberlain notes: “We envisioned BeautySphere as an experiential, experimental world where people can engage with our brands while also learning about innovation programs like Responsible Beauty, our platform for being a positive force for beauty in the world.”
P&G explains that its first iteration of BeautySphere focuses on telling the story of responsible beauty through examples of the work its brands are doing. For instance, the brand notes its partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew to authenticate botanicals in its Herbal Essences products. BeautySphere also hopes to be a virtual place that consumers can go to make a positive difference in the real world.
Immersive interaction
The site was developed in just under six months. It was spearheaded by P&G’s global design leader Alexis Schrimpf, who took the idea to Global CEO Alex Keith. With top level support, Schrimpf formed a small team of passionate internal experts spanning such fields as brand-building, communications and digitization. They worked with trusted external partners to visualize BeautySphere as it is today, building it from the ground up.
The launch focuses on consumer interaction and understanding, aligning with P&G’s strategy and business model for 2022. “At P&G, we love connecting with and learning from consumers, and creating exciting, engaging new ways for them to interact with and be inspired by our brands, making BeautySphere a natural fit with our ongoing strategies and business models,” says Chamberlain. “We believe spaces like BeautySphere represent the future of brand building: immersive, gamified, and mutually rewarding.”
P&G has two key goals and aims for BeautySphere. First, its hopes to find new and surprising ways for people to connect with its brands, products and values. The company believes spaces like the one it has created represent the future of brand building. Second and related, it is a space for experimentation for the company too, as P&G will continue to operate and update BeautySphere over time.
“We’re excited to learn from consumers as they explore BeautySphere, especially to hear from them on what they’d like to see next. It’s a world we’ll continue to create and innovate in,” Chamberlain states. “We’ve deliberately chosen to center the initial stage of BeautySphere on learning, discovery and enabling acts of good.”
It is not initially about product education or sales. “That’s not to say we won’t explore those possibilities in the future, but we’re excited about the opportunity BeautySphere gives every visitor to do an act of good by simply completing the Kew Gardens journey: for every completed journey, Herbal Essences will plant a real tree plant in Veracruz,” details Chamberlain. “This experiential yet educational approach - blended with acts of good - is grounded in our Responsible Beauty platform and is something we’ll continue to explore in partnership with our consumers.”
With the launch of BeautySphere, P&G is recognizing key trends, including a desire for more experiential, immersive digital experiences and interest in supporting corporate social responsibility programs. As Chamberlain puts it: “Consumers are keener to understand the values behind the brands and companies they purchase from, and increasingly seek that information in the form of engaging stories and gamified experiences,” highlights Chamberlain.
By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe, BPC Insights Senior Journalist
