1. Farsali – $4,247,645
2. Lush – $2,883,116

3. Clinique – $1,934,027
4. SK-II – $1,788,260

5. Kiehl’s – $1,731,178

6. EOS – $1,485,285
7. Tatcha – $1,375,509

8. Murad – $1,372,589

9. Loving Tan – $1,362 ,979
10. The Body Shop – $1,283,996

Tribe Dynamics shared the top skin care brands on social media for the month of May, revealing their Earned Media Value (EMV), a prescribed metric that quantifies the estimated value of publicity gained through digital earned media and its respective engagement levels. Tribe’s holistic approach assigns a specific dollar value to each piece of content, based on the publishing channel’s perceived value of digital word-of-mouth to brands within the industry. EMV serves as a tool for benchmarking across marketing activities and across brands. Here, some key learnings from two brands to place on May’s leaderboard, Kiehl’s and SK-II.

Brand Spotlights

Kiehl’s Celebrates Anniversary in Style


Kiehl’s stayed busy in May, continuing its successful influencer outreach strategies while mobilizing its larger community around the brand’s 165th anniversary. This concerted campaign took several flashy forms over the course of the month, united by its signature #Kiehls165 banner. The first cause for celebration was the announcement of Kiehl’s’ collaboration with fashion industry icon Nick Wooster (nickwooster on Instagram), who teased an upcoming project at the brand’s launch party for the new Age Defender product. From there, festivities intensified with the three-day “World of Kiehl’s” event in NYC, which brought influencers from all around the world to celebrate 165 years of Kiehl’s products. Kiehl’s treated its global cohort to a panoply of brand-themed parties, kicking off the proceedings with a lavish brunch. Australian fashion photographer and brand ambassador zanitazanita gushed about the “fabulous” brunch as a chance to meet influencers from “25 countries,” stating that she was “excited to share new products and beauty experiences over the next three days.” New York-based fashion designer vashtie joined the fun, posing with a vintage neon sign and encouraging her followers to help wish Kiehl’s “a happy bornday.” Globetrotting beauty guru dearlinette posed for photos in Kiehl’s’ beautifully maintained gardens, while German fashionista catsanddogsblog sang the brand’s praises on Instagram, thanking Kiehl’s for showing her a wonderful time in New York. By handpicking an effortlessly cool crop of international influencers to show off its characteristically appealing branding, Kiehl’s generated excitement around its anniversary and celebrated in style. Moreover, the brand’s Instagramworthy events and attention to influencer preferences helped to build not only a successful campaign, but a close-knit and productive influencer family. In total, the #Kiehls165 campaigndrove $107.6K EMV in May.


SK-II Builds Brand Family with Mother’s Day Campaign

By consistently engaging ambassadors with exciting product sends and emotionally compelling events, SK-II generated bunches of love in May — not just for the brand’s products, but in the lives of its influencers. One standout initiative came from SK-II Asia, which tugged at heartstrings with a thoughtful and emotional campaign. In honor of Mother’s Day, the brand organized a host of lovely brunches and events across Southeast Asia for influencers and their mothers. These events were promoted around the theme #changedestiny, a hashtag that the brand had previously utilized for a number of different campaigns, and this time highlighted how mothers play an integral role in the futures of their children. The visually stunning series of brunches, which featured sparkling chandeliers, fleets of white tablecloths, and exquisite flower arrangements not only furthered SK-II’s presence among the audiences of popular influencers, but brought out genuine loyalty between these influencers and the brand. In their posts, influencers displayed a greater degree of emotion than they would for less personally driven campaigns. Instagrammer karenkh0 shared a colorful snapshot of an SKII- organized Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea at the Kuala Lumpur Ritz Carlton, while stylish social media star nellielim posed with her mother over a lavish banquet at Singapore’s South Beach Hotel. The brand also collaborated directly with certain influencers on motherhood-themed campaigns, including developing a #changedestiny necklace with designer yoyokulala and a parenting blog with food artist leesamantha. Through engaging these influencers around the topics they care about the most, SK-II laid the foundation for an active, affectionate brand family. The #changedestiny campaign resulted in $112.6K EMV, along with dozens of happy moms.

To view the full report, please click here.