Pucker up: Shiseido gets millennials to kiss through their smartphones

The Japanese beauty giant has developed a concept called ‘Rouge Rouge Kiss Me​’, which plugs its Rouge Rouge lipstick range by getting consumers to create a kiss image on their mobile screen. They can then customise and share this image on various social media platforms, including Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and Whatsapp.

Consumers can ‘kiss’ a friend or loved one by nominating them to create a kiss image with them, which involves both smartphone users virtually selecting a lipstick shade and kissing their smartphone screens at the same moment, following a countdown timer.

The campaign has been timed alongside the global launch of the lipstick collection, and is intended to reach consumers worldwide, according to the company.

Embracing digital​

Shiseido is no stranger to embracing digital in its marketing campaigns and retail experiences, and has made particular efforts in the past few years to position itself as a market leader in this arena.

Some notable examples include its Beauty Tablet app​, developed last year in partnership with IBM. The app allows its 10,000 beauty consultants working in its retail outlets across Japan to offer customers a personalized service, collect consumer metrics and increase retail productivity.

More recently, the company launched Omotenashi Sound​ earlier this year - an aesthetic music software that responds to beauty consultants touching consumer skin during beauty counter skin care techniques.

Shiseido claims that when skin care treatment was given to 20 women for 20 minutes with the ‘sound’ on, in comparison with an ambient environment at a shop counter, feelings of the effects on the skin, psychological effects, and effects on the whole body, were identified.

Most recently of all, the beauty giant launched its ‘smile rating app’,​ which scores a user’s smile on a scale of 1 - 120, and is tipped for use in the hospitality industry.

Targeting millennials​

Shiseido notes that the latest in its digital offering is aimed specifically at targeting the youngest consumers, known as generation Z or millennials.

“As a brand, creating and increasing touch points of Gen Z is part of our growth plan, and our aim with Rouge Rouge Kiss Me is to make the makeup experience more fun for them,​” Hiroko Ozeki, international business planning head, told Luxury Daily​.

It follows hot on the heels of L’Oréal’s recent campaign also aimed at millennials​, involving the use of a Snapchat lens that allowed consumers to virtually apply its Infallible Silkissime eyeliner.