'No Filters' and what it wants to tell us.

The messaging within Skin+Me's 'No Filters' campaign is illustrated across their digital platforms. Skin+Me have effectively communicated the campaign's objectives within the design-based decisions featured on the firm's Instagram. These decisions include the close-up imagery showcased of the campaign faces, paying attention to the skin rather than other image elements. This decision highlights the campaign's focus on the real consumers, their genuine skincare experiences, and their unedited skin. Marketing research conducted in 2020 supports the use of imagery to aid key messaging, stating that imagery can capture the attention of viewers on social media platforms (Li and Xie, 2019). Thus, using imagery will allow attention to be drawn to the clear messaging that correlates to the campaign's objectives. Consumer attention to brand messaging can be argued as fundamental for Skin+Me to gauge consumer traction regarding awareness as to what the brand stands for, in the hopes of consumers buying into the company.

Although imagery is featured within the campaign, the nature of the visuals can be disputed as needing to be more distinctive for viewers to recognise that this is a brand-new campaign. Whereby, the use of close-up imagery, the colour palettes and the fonts used are similar to the elements within the firm's regular social media posts. Founder and president of digital agency: Relevance states the importance of undertaking bold digital marketing strategies post-COVID-19 to effectively capture the attention of consumers (Romagnoli, 2020). Therefore, to gain the stated benefits of using imagery, Skin+Me's visuals must stand out to ensure viewers recognise this is a new campaign with strategic imagery that holds key messaging behind it.

Skin+Me's Instagram Grid

If Skin+Me were to expand globally, its campaign messaging must adapt accordingly. A possible adaptation could include having different sets of individuals from each country the firm would be shipping to as the faces of this campaign. These individuals could speak in their own language within the interview-style videos featured on Skin+Me's social media. This adapted messaging could create feelings of authentic relatability amongst individuals from different countries when viewing this campaign. Feelings of relatability could trigger positive rapport between consumers and Skin+Me, creating the potential for strong ties to be established with consumers (Detienne, 2023). Under these circumstances, it can be suggested that if Skin+Me were to expand to a global market, the potential messaging adaptions could benefit the relationship Skin+Me would have with its global audience.

The pledges made within Skin+Me's 'No Filters' campaign are similar to the practices becoming commonplace in the global skincare industry. For instance, global personal care brand Dove launched their 'Real Beauty Pledge' in 2017, promising to avoid using edited models and instead showcase real women and their genuine skin (Dove, 2017). Internationally renowned skincare brand Olay followed in Dove's footsteps and, in 2021, committed to zero skin retouching in their advertisements (Olay, 2021). On these grounds, the core of the messaging within the 'No Filters' campaign is something global skincare brands are embedding into their regular business operations. As a result, the decision to place Skin+Me's No Filters pledges within a temporary marketing campaign creates a sense of impermanence within these promises. This temporary messaging may be threatened by global skincare brands that have already implemented permanent messaging relating to the use of no filters within their marketing content.

'No Filters' pledge posted on Skin+Me Instagram (Skin+Me, 2023e)