2023 Winner
GoldBest in Retail
SilverPlanning with Purpose
BronzeBest in Experiential/Stunts - Budget Over $100,000
Sephora
"Sephora Illumination"
Zulu Alpha Kilo / Zenith Media
"Sephora Illumination"
Zulu Alpha Kilo / Zenith Media
Sephora is a leading retailer of beauty and personal care products, with a mission to expand the way the world sees beauty through its belief, they Belong to Something Beautiful.
In 2023, Sephora wanted to grow customers by championing all beauty through their proprietary shade-matching tool, Colour iQ.
Colour iQ is an advanced technology for matching makeup to skin tone. Current shade matching only accounts for depth and undertone of skin colour, excluding those with darker skin. Colour iQ uses a specialized camera to capture skin shade, using depth, undertone, and saturation. Using AI, it recommends the best shade for a wider range of skin colours. With Canada being one of the most diverse countries in the world, Colour iQ is nuanced enough to capture every Canadian’s beauty.
Their brand objectives were to increase awareness and improve perceptions of inclusivity (+5%). Their campaign goal was to get people to complete their Colour iQ scan (+20%).
Colour iQ was a technical product with functional attributes, but they needed to tell an emotional story that aligned with Sephora’s higher-level brand beliefs.
They learned that, even within Canada’s diverse population, many Canadians feel unseen by the beauty industry, including 63% women of colour – and most struggle to find makeup that complements their skin tone, especially for BIPOC individuals, of whom 80% struggle. With Colour iQ’s advanced tone-matching capabilities, Sephora could address that gap.
Building on the belief that beauty thrives in diversity, they positioned Colour iQ as a tool for belonging and inclusivity. The campaign was built around the insight that the uniqueness of your skin tone is a defining part of your beauty.
They set out to show Canadians that they’re even more beautiful together, with all campaign touchpoints planned to create a sense of inclusivity and celebrate Canada’s diversity.
Their concept visualized existing data from 140,000+ unique Colour iQ scans, in a demonstration of belonging, to engage consumers of all backgrounds.
The marquee element was an immersive digital installation akin to a work of art, to make the experience as beautiful as they wanted people to feel. Located in Yorkville, with a high concentration of museums, galleries, and retail, it was the perfect destination for a week-long event to showcase Colour iQ and push people to the Sephora store across the street.
Their interactive experience showcased 140,000+ Canadian color matches, each turned into a point of light across four enormous screens where visitor interactions brought the data to life in
motion and sound.
The installation was complemented by a press event and influencers panel with brand founders, as well as a partnership with leading entertainment show eTalk, whose diverse cast integrated a segment showcasing the installation and Colour iQ technology.
Television and online video featured a captivating world of illuminated lights. Social activity included TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. In support of their mass online video tactics, they reached diverse communities via their DE&I PMP and ZEFR’s context-first approach connecting to multicultural communities as they browsed content both locally and from their home country in their preferred language. Digital out-of-home boards extended the motif with city-specific executions that encouraged people to find their shade in-store.
The campaign paralleled the innovation of Colour iQ shade-matching technology.
To reflect the advancements in Sephora’s Colour iQ shade-matching technology, they worked with Paris-based production studio SUPERBIEN to create an interactive experience in which the 140,000+ Canadian colour matches were turned into points of light across four enormous screens. Visitors brought the data to life through their hand motions, ensuring each person’s interaction was unique and pulled them in to want to belong. The experience was designed to be beautiful and sharable, reflecting the passion of the category making the activation feel more like an art exhibit than experiential advertising.
The campaign showcased the incredible spectrum of beauty that exists in Canada, and empowered people to feel confident in their unique beauty.
It put Sephora on people’s minds and improved brand perceptions: The campaign earned 239 million impressions across news, fashion, and entertainment media, 40M social impressions, 12% believe Sephora to be an inclusive brand and 11% believe Sephora is a brand for someone like them.
Importantly, it brought new people into the brand, tracked through participation in Colour iQ scans both on-site and in-store. Sephora Bloor, the store closest to the activation site, experienced a 174% increase in Colour iQ scans following the campaign and in-store scans increased by 60% nationally during the campaign period.
Overall, the activation demonstrated that the celebration of individual beauty can drive business and inclusion simultaneously.
In 2023, Sephora wanted to grow customers by championing all beauty through their proprietary shade-matching tool, Colour iQ.
Colour iQ is an advanced technology for matching makeup to skin tone. Current shade matching only accounts for depth and undertone of skin colour, excluding those with darker skin. Colour iQ uses a specialized camera to capture skin shade, using depth, undertone, and saturation. Using AI, it recommends the best shade for a wider range of skin colours. With Canada being one of the most diverse countries in the world, Colour iQ is nuanced enough to capture every Canadian’s beauty.
Their brand objectives were to increase awareness and improve perceptions of inclusivity (+5%). Their campaign goal was to get people to complete their Colour iQ scan (+20%).
Colour iQ was a technical product with functional attributes, but they needed to tell an emotional story that aligned with Sephora’s higher-level brand beliefs.
They learned that, even within Canada’s diverse population, many Canadians feel unseen by the beauty industry, including 63% women of colour – and most struggle to find makeup that complements their skin tone, especially for BIPOC individuals, of whom 80% struggle. With Colour iQ’s advanced tone-matching capabilities, Sephora could address that gap.
Building on the belief that beauty thrives in diversity, they positioned Colour iQ as a tool for belonging and inclusivity. The campaign was built around the insight that the uniqueness of your skin tone is a defining part of your beauty.
They set out to show Canadians that they’re even more beautiful together, with all campaign touchpoints planned to create a sense of inclusivity and celebrate Canada’s diversity.
Their concept visualized existing data from 140,000+ unique Colour iQ scans, in a demonstration of belonging, to engage consumers of all backgrounds.
The marquee element was an immersive digital installation akin to a work of art, to make the experience as beautiful as they wanted people to feel. Located in Yorkville, with a high concentration of museums, galleries, and retail, it was the perfect destination for a week-long event to showcase Colour iQ and push people to the Sephora store across the street.
Their interactive experience showcased 140,000+ Canadian color matches, each turned into a point of light across four enormous screens where visitor interactions brought the data to life in
motion and sound.
The installation was complemented by a press event and influencers panel with brand founders, as well as a partnership with leading entertainment show eTalk, whose diverse cast integrated a segment showcasing the installation and Colour iQ technology.
Television and online video featured a captivating world of illuminated lights. Social activity included TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. In support of their mass online video tactics, they reached diverse communities via their DE&I PMP and ZEFR’s context-first approach connecting to multicultural communities as they browsed content both locally and from their home country in their preferred language. Digital out-of-home boards extended the motif with city-specific executions that encouraged people to find their shade in-store.
The campaign paralleled the innovation of Colour iQ shade-matching technology.
To reflect the advancements in Sephora’s Colour iQ shade-matching technology, they worked with Paris-based production studio SUPERBIEN to create an interactive experience in which the 140,000+ Canadian colour matches were turned into points of light across four enormous screens. Visitors brought the data to life through their hand motions, ensuring each person’s interaction was unique and pulled them in to want to belong. The experience was designed to be beautiful and sharable, reflecting the passion of the category making the activation feel more like an art exhibit than experiential advertising.
The campaign showcased the incredible spectrum of beauty that exists in Canada, and empowered people to feel confident in their unique beauty.
It put Sephora on people’s minds and improved brand perceptions: The campaign earned 239 million impressions across news, fashion, and entertainment media, 40M social impressions, 12% believe Sephora to be an inclusive brand and 11% believe Sephora is a brand for someone like them.
Importantly, it brought new people into the brand, tracked through participation in Colour iQ scans both on-site and in-store. Sephora Bloor, the store closest to the activation site, experienced a 174% increase in Colour iQ scans following the campaign and in-store scans increased by 60% nationally during the campaign period.
Overall, the activation demonstrated that the celebration of individual beauty can drive business and inclusion simultaneously.
Credits
Agency: Zulu Alpha KiloCreative Chairman: Zak Mroueh
Chief Creative Officer: Brian Murray, Jenny Glover
Chief Design Officer: Stephanie Yung
Associate Creative Director/Copywriter: Christina Roche
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Andrea Por
Designer: Ana-Marija Matic
Managing Director, Zulubot: Leslie Uy
Director of Interactive Production, Zulubot: Ece Inan
Account Team: Lisa Walton-Rixon, Shauna McKenna, Chris Rosario, Mike Sutton
Strategy Director: Heather Segal, Patrick Henderson, Elyssa Seidman
Media Agency: Zenith Media
Media Team: Nicole Macpherson, Rahmeen Fazal, Nima Bellefeuille
Client: Sephora Canada
Clients: Allison Litzinger, Vanessa Mosakos, Caitlin Lindsay, Candice Dixon
PR Agency: Middle Child
PR Team: Jackie Kleinberg, Courtney Steinhart, Laura Linden
Director of Integrated Production: Ola Stodulska
Agency Producer: Teresa Bayley, Jesse Brook
Production House: Zulubot
Executive Producer: Adam Palmer
Director: Jimmy Vi
Director of Photography: Jack Chen
Line Producer: Adam Rodness
Production Manager: Roman Hul
Coordinator: Steve Goetz
Photographer: Genevieve Charbonneau – Fuze Reps
Photography Producer: Daniela Favot
Offline Edit Company: Zulubot
Offline Edit Producer: Siddhi Patel
Editor: Micah Rix-Hayes
Editor Assistant: Adrian Gluvakovich
Colour Transfer Company: Alter Ego
Colourist: Eric Whipp, Andrew Ross
Colour Producer: Genna McAuliffe
Online Company: Fort York
Online Artists: Marco Polsinelli, Serina Choi
Online Producer: Erica Bourgault-Assaf
Recording Studio: Pirate Sound
Creative Director / Engineer: Ian Boddy
Voice Director: Alex Nursall
Audio Producer: Maggie Blouin-Pearl
French Agency: The French Shop
Account Manager: Jessica Dubois
Production Coordinator: Jennifer Lankry
Creative Studio: Superbien
XM Agency: Wondermakr
Studio Mac Artist: Pavel Petrycki
Studio Editor: Cecilia Bernach
Studio Retouching: Nabil Elsaadi
Printer: Seamliss Graphics