CASE STUDY: How AmorePacific created space for Cushion

Objective

First launched in 2008, the Cushion was created by the company’s R&D team, who wanted to provide customers with a better way to reapply sun cream and makeup.

R&D succeeded in creating a new format to address this, using a sponge material never before used in the cosmetics industry and creating an exclusive container for the sponge.

The biggest challenge was educating the market, and showcasing the innovative appeal the product offered despite the barrier of a novel format. 

Execution

Diverse marketing strategies were deployed, and one notable channel during the early stage was TV Home Shopping. This channel was effective in educating Korean consumers about the product.

Detailed visualizations of how to use the product and its novel benefits brought explosive reactions from beauty-savvy Korean consumers. This channel helped boost Cushion’s initial growth which reached 500,000 cumulative sales units in 2010.

But in mid-2015, the breakout campaign garnering a global audience was the Iope Air Cushion challenge, which featured a woman applying makeup in zero gravity and highlighted the product’s main benefit of easy application. [For the record, Campaign Asia-Pacific confirmed at the time that the video was actually shot not in a low-gravity airplane but in a studio using wires. - Ed.]

The video spoke to busy women around the world video and went viral, with more than 10 million views on YouTube to date. Digital agency Innored was responsible for the video.

Results

Cushion’s cumulative sales continued to skyrocket from 2010 onwards, to 1.7 million in 2011, 5.8 million in 2012, 11 million in 2013, and 23 million in 2014. 

AmorePacific Cushion achieved 80 million cumulative sales in 2015, which translates to one cushion sold every second.

Other qualitative results include Forbes recognizing AmorePacific as one of world’s most innovative companies and mentioning Cushion, as well as similar products becoming a category in their own right, with mass appeal around the world.