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Lancôme has an unexpected new ambassador. After years of partnering with A-list Hollywood actors, from Julia Roberts to Lupita Nyong'o and Penelope Cruz, the L’Oréal-owned beauty brand is turning to 21-year-old American YouTube star and fashion cool kid Emma Chamberlain to help it target Gen Z.
Chamberlain will feature in a four-episode web series on Lancôme’s YouTube channel, with shorter formats for Instagram and TikTok. In the series, titled How do you say beauty in French, she is shown visiting the Lancôme offices and exploring Paris — shot and edited using her signature raw style, characterised by dynamic cuts, with very little retouching. It is a far cry from the recent, heavily directed ad for Lancôme’s blockbuster fragrance La Vie est Belle, in which Roberts gazes at a sparkling Eiffel Tower from a barge on the Seine. “With Emma, we wouldn't do an institutional campaign,” Lancôme International president Françoise Lehmann tells Vogue Business. The influencer will appear in digital content and campaigns for Lancôme’s skincare and makeup throughout 2023 and 2024.
As new formats for digital content continue to rise in prominence, the role of brand ambassadors is evolving beyond polished 30-second commercials. Dior’s new campaign for its Lady 95.22 handbag, for example, features celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaking about feminism and femininity, with the handbag appearing only at the end. Meanwhile, beauty megabrands are seeking ways to fight back against the influx of smaller direct-to-consumer players that talk to their digital native audiences in a less crafted way.
Chamberlain launched her YouTube channel at the age of 16, and now counts 11.9 million subscribers (plus 16.3 million followers on Instagram). She founded a coffee brand in 2020, and hosts her own podcast, Anything goes with Emma Chamberlain. Her secret sauce? Her authenticity and relatability; speaking to her community about everything from her glamorous red carpet moments to mental health and her skin issues. Of the Lancôme partnership, Chamberlain said in a statement: “I have always had my own notion of beauty and didn’t project myself within the beauty industry because of the duality that I show, mixing comfort with being nicely put together. Hence why, when Lancôme came to me, I felt so honoured and excited that the brand understood and appreciated who I am.”
Her relatability has given her a wide reach. In September 2022, she was the top influencer at the Met Gala with a media impact value of nearly $16 million, according to tech and social data analytics provider Launchmetrics. “She has a cheeky tone, and there is a lot of generosity and substance in her videos,” says Lancôme’s Lehmann.
Lancôme is the second largest beauty brand worldwide, behind L’Oréal Paris and ahead of Estée Lauder, Chanel and Dior, according to Pierre Tegnér, consumer equity analyst at financial services firm Oddo-BHF. According to industry sources, Lancôme’s annual sales topped €4 billion in 2022 and are expected to hit €5 billion by 2025.
With Chamberlain, Lancôme is targeting the highly valued Gen Z beauty customer, notably in Asia. “Our teams in Asia love her spontaneity and edge… Under-30-year-olds are not the core of our clientele in Europe and in the US, but they are in Asia, with huge potential. They are highly prescriptive in terms of image,” Lehmann explains. She adds that Gen Z customers are “shaping a new aesthetic” that is linked to different content formats, such as TikTok — a departure after “50 years of a very cinematic aesthetic”.
Lancôme’s roster of Hollywood brand ambassadors has, nevertheless, been impressive and many have turned into long-term partnerships. Roberts, Cruz and Nyong’o, along with Isabella Rossellini and Lily Collins, have all been ambassadors for over eight years. “Brand ambassadors are key for us,” says Lehmann. “They are the cornerstone of the Lancôme approach. They are not only faces but there is a match between their own values and those of the brand. They have fought to succeed in their lives; they believed in it.”
Chamberlain has a two-year contract, which is typical for Lancôme global brand ambassadors and often renewed, says Lehmann. Lancôme is set to reveal two other new brand ambassadors next month. “There’s a real shift towards pop culture in the choices that we are making. What we’re excited about is that people are saying, “I didn't expect that from you and that's cool,” says Lehmann. To wit, a new twist to the glossy campaigns for La Vie est Belle, set to be unveiled in March and still featuring Roberts. “La Vie est Belle takes a turn in its communication. You’ll see,” Lehmann teases.
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