Skincare is confusing. Ask five people what retinol actually does and you’ll probably get six answers, and a thirty second ad isn’t going to settle it. Which may be why a growing number of beauty brands have decided they need longer than thirty seconds.
Podcasts seem like a strange place to look. Beauty is all about how things look, and a podcast gives you nothing to look at. But it’s working for a few Australian brands, in a few quite different ways.
Why It Works
Think about how people actually listen. Someone’s talking straight into your ears while you’re driving, folding washing or pretending to exercise. Marketing Brew reported that the banter between hosts is a big part of building trust, and trust is handy when you’re asking someone to spend real money on a serum.
Plenty of people are listening too. 55% of Australians now consume podcasts monthly, up from 52% a year earlier.
Adore Beauty and MECCA
Retailers have an obvious head start, since they’re already surrounded by brands and founders who’d probably happily come in for a chat.
Adore Beauty has Beauty IQ Uncensored, hosted by Hannah and Mel and pitched as a candid look at beauty in all its facets. MECCA’s version is MECCA Talks, made with Acast, and it’s mostly brand founders, industry experts and MECCA’s own specialists. One episode had Glossier founder Emily Weiss in the studio to mark Glossier’s Australian launch.
Interviewing a founder just as her brand lands on your shelves is a very polite way to sell something. Sneaky, but polite.
Dermaviduals
Not a retailer? Doesn’t matter. Dermaviduals founders Reika Roberts and Simone Vescio host The Business of Skin, and they’ve been at it since 2020. The brand says it’s a staple in more than 400 skincare clinics, so it isn’t exactly a garage start-up. Still, hearing from the people who started a company beats most ads that company could run.
Clinique and Mamamia
Clinique took a different route. It teamed up with Mamamia and OMD Sydney on No Filter, with Clinique segments covering the skincare worries Australians care about most. The topics weren’t guesses either. OMD Create combined keyword search data with social listening to find the top six concerns.
Mia Freedman appeared alongside Clinique’s Janet Pardo, and the Clinique episodes have reportedly clocked more than 300,000 downloads. Decent haul for a chat about skin.
Vixin Beauty and The Australian Women’s Weekly
The lowest effort option is to stick your name on someone else’s show. Vixin Beauty became founding partner of Love Stories, the Weekly’s first podcast, in February. It’s video-led, hosted by deputy editor Tiffany Dunk, and it’s about relationships, not beauty.
So how does that help a skincare brand? Hard to say. But Vixin gets in front of the magazine’s audience without making a single episode, and its founder Charmaine Caldwell has said the show’s focus on connection is personal to her.
About Face
Obagi Australia went the expert route. Dr Peter Dixon, a plastic surgeon and skin consultant with three decades of experience, hosts About Face, with SoundCartel’s Executive Producer Heather Dawson as co-host. According to the SoundCartel case study, the show busts skincare myths and sorts fact from fiction in plain language, and the audience is growing. There aren’t any download figures, so we’ll take that on faith.
What Makes a Good One
Glossy noticed that beauty brands tend to steer listeners away from the brand and towards bigger topics like wellness and entrepreneurship. The product stays in the background, like a host who throws a great party and only brings up the kitchenware business if you ask.
Anyone who’s sat through a podcast that’s really a long ad will understand why. The good ones have a real expert or founder talking. The bad ones sound like a marketing team reading a script. Audio matters too, because nobody sticks around for a show that sounds like it was recorded in a stairwell.
The Bottom Line
So there are three ways in: make your own show, team up with someone who already has an audience, or sponsor a show that’s running. Your own show gives you control, plus a deadline every fortnight. The other two are quicker, but you don’t get much say in what’s discussed.
If a show of your own sounds appealing, the Podcasting for Brands page is a decent place to start. Do it well and maybe those five people will finally agree on what retinol does.
