BEAUTY REINVENTION: MAC ROLLOUT INTO BOOTS

One of the things that makes our job pretty exciting here at Impact, is working on top-secret retail display projects for global brands. We were all super excited when we were asked by beauty superstar MAC to help them with their top-secret launch into one of the UK’s largest retailers, Boots.

With Boots flagship stores hosting the biggest names in beauty and makeup in one space, MAC was looking to make an entrance with an impressive shopping experience.

High Street ‘Beauty Reinvention’

The partnership between MAC and Boots was part of Boots continuing ‘Beauty Reinvention’, which included ‘bold plans to reinvent beauty on the high street’. The initiative was part of Boots strategy to boost its beauty business, stepping away from its focus on pharmacy and evolving for the millennial consumer.

For MAC, with their launch into this high street retailer they hoped to make their brand and prestige cosmetics ‘more accessible’ to new customers, make-up newbies and aficionados alike and bring their products closer to consumers. The launch was also to happily coincide with National Lipstick Day!

The two brands aligned for this project in MAC’s continued focus on interactivity and engaging the consumer experience and Boots continued mission as part of the Beauty Reinvention to allow customers to ‘browse and play’ and to ‘remove traditional beauty counters and replace them with trending zones, discovery areas, and live demonstration areas.’

Preparing For An Impact

For this project, Impact was asked to help produce a double-sided retail display that was to be in all top tier Boots stores, one side face products and the other lip products, with an end bay to hero selected products. The counter was to be in line with the global MAC design for its product display and it would include new bespoke ‘hero’ areas to creatively present selected new and best-selling products.

We started the project by creating the layouts of stock on the display, producing their planograms to the most desirable layout ensuring the hero products were strategically positioned and quantities of each SKU were optimised. Time was extremely tight, but our teams all have an in-depth knowledge of the range and were able to turn this around in a very short space of time.

We also developed a new, updateable end display to launch and highlight product on the end bays. MAC gave us a flat visual for these areas and we brought their vision to life with development visuals using carefully selected materials that we recommended to fit the brand and their display.

Staying Safe & Keeping It Colourful

The project was launched during the Covid-19 era, so one challenge with the display was the use of testers. We worked with MAC to keep the testers within the counter safely, as we knew the importance of their presence in the MAC experience, enhancing the display visually and allowing customers to see the real colours and admire the colourful variety of shades. To overcome the safety risk they may pose, the testers were all covered with clear lids and sealed to encourage a ‘no-touch’ environment and keep customers safe.

The Secret To Success

A well-kept secret, when the launch was finally announced it was met with an incredible excitement and described as Boots’ most sought-after launch ever, with 48,000 people signing up to the waiting list to be the first to hear news on the launch. The counter display was rolled out to the top tier 20 Boots stores and is set to be distributed to more in the future. The launch and first installs proved be a great success for the brand’s launch into Boots and we are excited to be working with MAC again in the future for exciting new launches, so watch this space!