00:00Essence and Ulta Beauty have teamed up for an amazing mentor partnership called Girls
00:05United Beautiful Possibilities.
00:07After spending some time meeting the girls and seeing them develop their amazing capsule
00:11collection, we invited them to New York City to the Essence offices, where they can get
00:16a sneak peek into what it takes to market and launch a brand from our Executive Director
00:22of Live Events, Candice Montgomery.
00:24Welcome to Essence, guys.
00:26I'm so excited to have you.
00:27Are you excited?
00:28Yes.
00:29When you have a makeup collection coming, a critical part of launching a makeup collection
00:34is how we engage with consumer and get people excited about it in the live experience.
00:39And that's my job here.
00:40So a lot of the aspects that go into putting an event together are similar to what goes
00:45into putting your product together, like color, packaging, environment, to help make your product
00:51pop.
00:52Then you need a promotional plan, a marketing plan for that event.
00:55And in order for you to get this done, you're going to have to think about all of these things
00:59at the same time so it can be successful.
01:02So we're going to take a second and think about an event that we have coming up, Beauty
01:06Carnival.
01:07It is the first time ever where thousands of black women will be able to come into a space
01:12and experience all things Essence Beauty.
01:15Everything black beauty right at your fingertips.
01:18And you guys get a first hand opportunity to see what's going to be happening there.
01:22Wow.
01:23The biggest takeaway from what I learned from Candice was that there's like essential skills
01:27to everything.
01:28So like teamwork, creativity, cooperation, brainstorming, all those things that you learn like in school
01:34or from experiences really all come together especially for big events like Essence's Beauty
01:38Carnival.
01:39So I'm going to take you guys on a site visit so we can figure out where we're going to
01:43have Beauty Carnival this year and we're going to put into action some of the elements that
01:47we talked about.
01:48Do you guys want to do that?
01:49Yes.
01:50Okay ladies, so let's take a look at one of the options for Beauty Carnival.
01:57So here we have a nice blank slate.
01:59What do you guys think?
02:00It's huge.
02:01It's huge.
02:02I like it.
02:03Respecting thousands of people, we need a large space.
02:07This here is an entrance, natural entrance, nice set up for the guests to come in and out.
02:13We can set up a registration desk.
02:15So let's see what else.
02:16On our floor plan we have the stage, right?
02:19That is probably one of the most important areas inside of this space because that's
02:23going to be the center point where all the activity, all the conversations, performances
02:28are happening.
02:29So we need a great space where everyone can see.
02:32Stage probably back here against the wall.
02:34That's a good idea.
02:36Would you do it?
02:37Yes.
02:38Okay, then I'm in.
02:39I'm all sold on that.
02:40Also the photo activations, where do we think any of the photo activations could go?
02:43I'm looking at the layout that we were given and it seems like it's definitely going
02:47to take a good bit of space, especially because a lot of people are going to line up for it
02:51and be really excited.
02:52So I think it should probably be somewhere back towards that area just so that people
02:56who are at the stage, people who are dancing with the DJ and stuff, don't have to be crowded
03:00by all the people waiting for the photo booth.
03:02Super smart.
03:03Thinking about flow.
03:04Perfect.
03:05And it's very convenient that everything is white, so it'll be easier to like make
03:08everything more colorful.
03:09Mm-hmm.
03:10The color palette is very, very vibrant.
03:12Yes.
03:13It's also a lot of texture.
03:14Mm-hmm.
03:15The white space definitely allows us to kind of bring all of that to life.
03:18Actually being able to go to the venue to see how everything is going to be put together.
03:23This can be placed here.
03:24This can be placed there.
03:25It was like a realistic feeling like I was actually planning it.
03:29It was really good.
03:30So now I have a little bit of a surprise.
03:33Oh.
03:34Why don't you guys follow me over here?
03:36Guys, I want to introduce you to the founder and CEO of Beauty Bakery, Kashmir and Nicole.
03:42Hi, baby.
03:43Kashmir and Nicole, having her like right in front of me was so crazy.
03:47So as she mentioned, I'm the CEO and founder of Beauty Bakery Cosmetics brand.
03:51I founded the company in 2011 and Beauty Bakery was born after years of being a teenage entrepreneur.
03:59When I think back to your age and how driven I was at that point, I'm just like so proud
04:06of you guys.
04:07You have no idea how rare you are.
04:10So why do you think that live events and activations are so important when you're launching a brand?
04:14I think it gives the customer an opportunity to connect with your brand.
04:18Everything that may have been online becomes real for them and now they can touch it and
04:23feel it and they can conclude what they want.
04:26Would I buy that?
04:27Ask for honest feedback from people and don't take offense to it.
04:31Use that to grow, to fuel you.
04:34That is what it's for.
04:35It's not meant to knock you down.
04:37Honesty is going to take you really far, especially if you can check yourself.
04:40No one else will need to check you.
04:42That was a word.
04:43It really was.
04:44The best part of my day was the conversation that we had with Kashmir.
04:48She basically showed me that no obstacles can stop you if your purpose is your purpose,
04:52that as long as your vision is aligned to it, that you're going to get there.
04:56So ladies, I have one more surprise.
04:58We are absolutely not done yet.
05:00Oh my God.
05:01I'd like to introduce you to Christine from Ulta Beauty.
05:04Hi ladies.
05:05How are you?
05:06I'm good.
05:07How are you?
05:08I'm Christine.
05:09I'm the head of social and content marketing for Ulta Beauty.
05:12So you have been spending all day with Candice talking about bringing live events to life
05:18and what that entails.
05:20Things like Beauty Carnival.
05:21So ladies, you are going to be on stage revealing the entire collection you're creating with us
05:27at Beauty Carnival.
05:28Really?
05:29In front of over 10,000 attendees.
05:30You said 10,000?
05:31Yes.
05:32When Christine said that I was going to be on stage in front of 10,000 people launching
05:36my product, I was honestly shook.
05:38Like, I was a little terrified but like excited at the same time.
05:42So I want you guys to look under the table because we have your prototypes here today
05:48for you guys to check out.
05:49What?
05:50To be able to see our ideas come to life was incredible.
05:54It was a dream.
05:55It made me so happy to see that something I had been thinking about and working on was
05:59finally real and I could hold it and touch it and play with it in my hands.
06:03So I'm super excited to share with you guys the illustration that you guys created
06:07with Lacey.
06:09It looks awesome.
06:10It was really beautiful to see what Lacey came up with for our capsule collection because
06:14she really captured what we wanted to do and that was to represent each and every woman.
06:19Is this really ours?
06:20Like, this is amazing.
06:21To be honest, I'm all out of surprises and I really look forward to seeing you all at
06:27Beauty Carnival.
06:28Yes.
06:29Same for Beauty Carnival.
06:30I'm ready to see what it's like.
06:31Tune in for the next episode of Girls United Beautiful Possibilities where the girls will hit
06:36the stage and reveal their collection at Essence's Beauty Carnival.
06:40You won't want to miss it.
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