One homegrown beauty brand won big at the Woolworths Supplier of the Year Awards.
MCoBeauty, a luxe-for-less makeup brand launched by serial entrepreneur Shelley Sullivan, took home the Everyday Needs – Small/Med Supplier of the Year award.
Since launching the brand in 2016, the brand has gone from strength to strength, with Retail Beauty recently reporting that the business recorded its most successful financial results ever in FY21.
“It’s been a huge year for us with the launch of our new natural skincare range in September, as well as the extension of our hair accessories line and our Limited Edition collections,” Shelley said.
Shelley credited MCoBeauty’s disruptive digital and social media marketing strategy as being key to the brand’s success.
Retail Beauty sat down with Shelley for an exclusive interview following the win to find out more.
What has made the five-year-old brand the number one fastest-growing brand in Woolworths’ cosmetics category?
We have achieved more than 76 per cent growth over the past 12 months and that’s something I’m incredibly proud of. I believe it’s a combination of creating really innovative products with great formulations that are just as good as luxury brands, at an affordable price point, as well as our disruptive digital and social media marketing strategy. Plus, our packaging is really, really cute. I think a lot of our competitors underestimate the power of modern, fresh packaging. Everyone wants products that look good in their bathroom cabinets and on Instagram.
Why is XtendLash Mascara Woolworths’ number one top selling product across the entire cosmetics category?
Every five minutes we sell eight tubes of XtendLash and it’s truly become a cult favourite. Once people try it, they get hooked and they don’t go back! The tubular formula is life-changing. So many women go for decades dealing with mascara that smudges, that flakes and gives them panda eyes by lunchtime, but XtendLash doesn’t do that. Most mascaras simply coat the lashes in a black pigment, and that’s what ends up all over your face halfway through the day. But XtendLash coats each individual lash in a synthetic polymer or a “tube” and it stays put all day long. It comes off with warm water in the shower and looks like these little black flecks that you just wipe off in two seconds.
Tell us a bit about your marketing strategy?
We do very little above the line marketing and channel most of our budget into social media and digital. We work with fabulous ambassadors who genuinely love our products and speak authentically to their audiences about why they love them – and it works. And the very nature of both our skincare and our makeup products is that they are hugely transformative – and that visual transformation translates really well on Instagram.
How has Celeste Barber catapulted the brand into the global sphere?
Well, Celeste has 8.5 million Instagram followers and a huge amount of her audience is based overseas, so she introduced us to a whole new international market. We have people all over the world buying our products now, and a big part of that is Celeste. Celeste is just so authentic – and she was a fan of our products before she started working with us – and because people can tell she genuinely loves and uses our products everyday, the partnership has worked. That, and she is so obsessed with XtendLash. Celeste filming herself on her Instagram stories showing how amazing our mascara makes her lashes look helped make XtendLash go viral.
A full list of the Woolworths Supplier of the Year Awards below:
- Overall Supplier of the Year: Chobani
- Chilled Supplier of the Year: Chobani
- Sustainability Supplier of the Year: Mulgowie Farming Company
- Fruit & Veg Supplier of the Year: Mulgowie Farming Company
- New Product Launch of the Year: Avalanche Bubble Tea
- Supply Partner of the Year: Allied Pinnacle
- Woolworths Food Company Supplier of the Year: PM Fresh Pty Ltd
- Meat/Seafood Supplier of the Year: Supafin Seafoods
- Grocery Food – Large Supplier of the Year: Gourmet Food
- Grocery Food – Small Supplier of the Year: Sealord
- Everyday Needs – Large Supplier of the Year: Reckitt Hygiene
- Everyday Needs – Small/Med Supplier of the Year: MCoBeauty
- Cartology Campaign of the Year: Dettol/Reckitt Health
- Account Manager of the Year: Matt Anderson (McCain)
- Woolworths Category Manager of the Year: Alok Vaidya (Cheese)
- Integrated Supply Partner of the Year: Oscar Leonor (Energizer)