Prescriptives, Inc., a division of Estee Lauder Corp., has launched a video campaign to promote its mascara, with four videos featuring Jillian Veran, a makeup artist and the director of artistry for Prescriptives, offering makeup tips as she applies mascara to a model.
The videos, which run at a Prescriptives site and YouTube, began playing September 28 in association with the introduction of a new mascara.
The videos, which run a little longer than a minute each, feature humorous dialogue from Veran as she applies the makeup. “They wanted it to be lighthearted and instructive,” said Renée Torrière,
casting director at Shadow Casting/New York, who oversaw the production of the videos, which were shot by Glenn Schuster, who runs Industrial Strength/Montclair, NJ, a production company.
Sari Sternschein, e-commerce director at Prescriptives, said the videos are being utilized to highlight four mascaras that are used to create different looks. “The purpose is to help customers find the perfect mascara, while providing them with expert tips to get the look, using coordinating products, such as eye color and eye liner.”
Schuster said the videos were shot in hi-def with a Panasonic HVX200 camera. “We shot directly to cards, off loaded it to a laptop and backed up the files on hard drive,” he said. “Once it was backed up, we reformatted the cards and continued shooting. There was no videotape involved.”
He said, “They wanted to keep the videos light and the makeup artist had a fun personality. They were amused by the outtakes and the ad lib moments, so we kept them as bloopers.” The bloopers appear at the end of some of the videos.
The videos are intended for “any woman who wears mascara or even the woman who is intimidated by mascara and needs expert advice,” Sternschein said.
The videos are part of an exclusive online campaign for the products. “Since mascara is such a cult product for women, we have chosen to focus our advertising efforts completely online,” she said.
This is the first time the company has used online video advertising. “Video is an amazing asset for us because a consumer can see a product in action, how it applies, what the effect is on the skin,” she said. “It’s a more interactive shopping experience for any customer that researches a product online before shopping in-store.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More