2021 tipped the scales in influencer marketing to follow larger industry trends, data shows.
According to year-end numbers from Tribe Dynamics, although makeup overall brought in higher EMV, even the top ranking brands saw double-digit declines. Skin care, on the other hand, saw growth in more ways than one.
“Right now, makeup is not doing very well,” said Conor Begley, cofounder of Tribe Dynamics. Conversely, skin care is mirroring the boom that color cosmetics saw years back. “If you look at the top 10 brands in skin care, almost half of them have been acquired in the past 12 months.”
Begley added that a handful of the top ranking skin care brands — Summer Fridays, Glow Recipe and, the recently acquired, Tula Skincare — shot into the top 10 list over the past few years, and show signs of staying power.
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With that in mind, though, Begley didn’t foresee makeup content creation waning in size below that of other categories. “Just because of the nature of the products, they’re more visual in nature, so they lend themselves to video,” he said. “I don’t see that changing. It doesn’t matter how sexy you make Native Deodorant, there’s just not that much to talk about, and there’s not much to do with it or display visually.”
For the year ahead, Begley still thinks skin care shows no signs of slowing. “There is definitely a movement happening in skin care for brands that have been social media-first skin care brands, and social media-first skin care brand acquisitions, such as Sol de Janeiro.”
Begley expects the trends to persist, barring any unforeseen circumstances. “These things are momentum plays, so unless there’s a big external event like COVID-19, you don’t expect to see dramatic shifts month-to-month, so I’m expecting a lot of the same,” he continued. “I have to imagine that makeup will level out at some point.”
Another monolith seeing declines is Instagram, he said. “TikTok continues to grow as a channel, and Instagram continues to decline as a channel,” Begley said.
Here, the top brands in influencer marketing in the U.S. for 2021, ranked by EMV.
Cosmetics
- ColourPop – $599,916,860.
- Anastasia Beverly Hills – $480,723,858.
- Morphe – $474,068,113.
- Benefit – $405,817,685.
- NYX Professional Makeup – $376,147,776.
- Fenty Beauty – $354,683,474
- Huda Beauty – $345,591,777.
- MAC Cosmetics – $324,357,037.
- Charlotte Tilbury – $283,832,710.
- Nars Cosmetics – $281,721,348.
Skin Care
- Tula Skincare – $96,452,733.
- Tatcha – $72,405,236.
- Glow Recipe – $65,498,975.
- Drunk Elephant – $54,670,220.
- Summer Fridays – $49,625,144.
- Youth to the People – $48,895,937.
- Dermalogica – $46,366,573.
- Fresh – $45,290,655.
- CeraVe – $44,657,835.
- Supergoop! – $43,298,733.
Hair Care
- Olaplex – $111,950,409.
- Redken – $97,236,574.
- Schwarzkopf Professional – $60,762,702.
- BondiBoost – $51,756,580.
- Pulp Riot – $47,580,079.
- Ouai – $42,656,274.
- Wella – $42,498,533.
- Brazilian Bond Builder – $39,744,932.
- Fanola – $32,718,323.
- K18 Hair – $31,277,121.
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