How Shiseido led women to embrace slow aging through KOLs
Shiseido has already built awareness for its groundbreaking Vital Perfection line. It then wanted to build on this by boosting engagement and conversion by partnering with Near for a KOL campaign that highlighted Shiseido’s message of embracing slow aging.
*KOL = Key Opinion Leaders aka Influencers / Content Creators
Launched in 1872, Shiseido has been leading and shaping the Japanese beauty industry for over 150 years with its unmatched innovations in skincare and cosmetics. It blends art and science to create meaningful and transformative beauty experiences that evolve with the times.
The brand believes that beauty should bring joy, fulfillment, and energy, and is thus committed to making people everywhere happier and the world a better, more beautiful place.
Shiseido seeks deeper engagement with Vital Perfection
Shiseido had already worked on building awareness for their Vital Perfection line of skin lifting and firming products. This time around, they sought to step up their efforts by aiming for engagement and conversion.
As a premium brand with a sought-after product line, Shiseido wanted an agency to manage X-deal partnerships with key opinion leaders (KOLs), from sourcing and negotiations to overall KOL strategy and content creation.
Near achieves extraordinary results
Near stepped in to handle end-to-end KOL management for the Vital Perfection campaign with a special challenge: securing influencer partnerships purely through X-deal partnerships. Despite KOLs typically expecting (and requiring) monetary compensation for their work, the team successfully negotiated the desired partnerships with our handpicked lower and upper mid-tier KOLs, who were excited to work with a well-known and highly respected beauty brand like Shiseido.
Securing these trusted partnerships helped Near exceed the forecasted number of posts from all influencers by 87.5%, all while incurring zero media spend to maximize brand exposure. The goal was a total of 40 content outputs, but it instead reached a total of 75. The combination of operational efficiency, high-quality content, and authentic creator partnerships helped Near achieve not just sales but also brand affinity for Shiseido.
Not anti-aging, but slow aging
The Vital Perfection campaign had a singular, yet striking message for women: Embrace slow aging and honor your beauty at every stage of your life.
Near chose Instagram and TikTok as the primary platforms to showcase educational and emotionally driven content. The chosen KOLs targeted specific age groups, from young women in their 20s to middle-aged women. We encouraged each KOL to highlight scenarios true to their current stage in life, making each content more resonant to other women facing similar challenges and encouraging a celebration of each person’s beauty.
Featured KOL: @soapywaterdo
From engagements to conversions
Since the campaign’s goal was not only to increase engagement but also conversions for the Vital Perfection product line, the Near team helped generate unique voucher code links for KOLs to plug into their videos and Stories. This effectively directed viewers to exclusive discounts on Shiseido’s e-commerce platforms.
Overall, the campaign surpassed internal targets and industry benchmarks as high as 4.62x beyond KPIs, proving that the combination of a strong product and a campaign message that rings true creates tremendous value for the brand.
Featured KOL: @piaildefonso
Near’s lessons for timeless appeal
Tell a focused story. That is, ensure that your content highlights what the product does and what it’s for clearly and concisely. Since Vital Perfection is a line of facial products, we needed the content to maintain a sustained visual and narrative emphasis on the face so that viewers understand how and where to use the product for best results.
What’s personal is universal. The strongest results from this campaign were from KOLs who showcased personal experiences. The more honest the content is, the more relatable it becomes to the audience. People are primarily drawn in by real stories, not just “cool” brands.
Know your product’s value. X-deal partnerships only succeed when both parties have a clear grasp of what they are giving and receiving. When you know what makes your product stand out, you can better assert its value to collaborators and negotiate partnerships that mutually benefit your brand and the other party.
