Cosmetics Tie-ins Boost Music Acts

LOS ANGELES‹All that glitters might not be gold, but it can be an attractive vehicle for building a customer base. Whether it's nail polishes, fragrances, or lipsticks, the beauty industry is looking to musical acts to help peddle its latest shades; the record industry, meanwhile, is opening its arms to inventive ways to reach new fans via cosmetic tie-ins.
The following relationships between artists and cosmetic companies have either already begun or will launch in the next month: Brandy and Cover Girl; Gravity Kills and Urban Decay; Celine Dion and Avon; "N Sync and Maybelline; Tyrese and Tommy Hilfiger (cologne); Dimitri From Paris and Yves Saint Laurent (cologne); Sweetbox and Lanc"me; and Pure Sugar and Ripe.
For many of these companies‹such as Lanc"me, Avon, Urban Decay, and Ripe‹teaming with the music industry is a first. Lois Mander, Lanc"me's spokeswoman, says the beauty industry "is getting more creative about reaching different sections of the population. Music is one of the ways to put a message across and reach another group."
Wende Zomnir, creative director of the 3-year-old Urban Decay, agrees. "Urban Decay is all about cutting edge, which is what music is. It's funky colors and experimentation, and it's about being an individual," she says. "We've done tie-ins with movies, but we were never really happy with them. It
didn't reflect who we were. This Gravity Kills promotion is perfect for us."
Following in the footsteps of Salt N' Pepa and Ziggy Marley, R&B/pop star Brandy has teamed with Cover Girl. "The No. 1 goal going into the second record ["Never S-a-y Never," released in June on Atlantic] was to expand her into a multimedia superstar, to cross her over in terms of awareness in all parts of America," says Ron Shapiro, executive VP/GM of Atlantic. "Cover Girl became another way to put her on the map."
The Brandy/Cover Girl relationship was born out of an alliance Atlantic made with the Wilhelmina modeling agency in April, which aimed to land modeling deals for some of the label's artists. "This is the most prominent [result] of the deal," says Shapiro. "It's a multimillion-dollar television advertising campaign."
Brandy sings in the commercial (which began airing in late August and runs through December), which is titled "Brandy Presents Bewitch, Bejewel, Bedazzle."
The next phase of the campaign is the debut of a lipstick named after the singer, Cherry Brandy, and she will appear in more TV spots throughout the next year, as well as in a full-blown print advertising campaign. A spring 1999 campaign is also in the works, which will feature another Brandy song for a Cover Girl mascara in a TV commercial.
URBAN DECAY ROCKS OUT
With nail colors named Roach, Smog, and Gash, Urban Decay is best known for its young, cutting-edge rock'n'roll vibe. The company furthers that image with an alliance with industrial rockers Gravity Kills for a black, metallic nail color named Perversion after the band's latest TVT Records album.
The promotion began Oct. 1 in 175 major music retail chains, as well as a number of mom-and-pop stores in 100 markets, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and St. Louis. With the purchase of the album "Perversion," the consumer gets a free bottle of Perversion nail polish.
"I approached them because of the name of the album. If you are familiar with the names of their colors, it just fit," says Nadine Gelineau, director of product management and artist development at TVT.
Urban Decay's Zomnir says the goal for the project is to expand the company's customer base. "I think it fits in with most rock bands because there's this marriage between rock music and fashion anyway," says Jeff Scheel, lead singer of Gravity Kills. "And guys wear [nail polish]. Anyway, I will be wearing it."
Urban Decay is also launching a holiday heavy metal collection of nail polishes, lip glosses, and eye shadows named after Kiss, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden, the Cult, AC/DC, and Ozzy Osbourne. However, the artists haven't sanctioned these names in this case. "We picked names that we couldn't get in trouble with," says Zomnir. "We knew it would be a nightmare to license the names, so we used names like Kiss, which is not just the band, but a word. We do hope they will feel like it's a tribute, though."
MAYBELLINE GETS "N SYNC
Even mainstream beauty promotions aren't only for female artists. The all-male pop group "N Sync has landed a deal with Maybelline. "It's very poppy music that caters to a younger audience, and Maybelline is launching a product line targeted to a young demo, 12-17 [year-old] girls, which is "N Sync's audience," says Joe DiMuro, VP of product development at the act's label, RCA.
The product involved is Maybelline's Cosmic Edge line. The campaign includes a contest with point-of-purchase displays in 4,200 CVS stores nationwide Dec. 1-31. The winner gets four tickets and backstage passes to an "N Sync concert in a U.S. major market. Helping promote the contest are 60-second radio spots airing on top 40 stations in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other major markets and a 35 million circulation, free-standing insert in newspapers.
AVON SPONSORS CELINE
In its 112-year history, Avon has never sponsored a concert tour until this year, with Dion. The first leg of her Let's Talk About Love world tour wraps up in late October. She then heads to Asia, Australia, and New Zealand before returning to North America and Europe in July 1999.
The relationship includes radio contests and product giveaways at concert venues. "This was our first time doing this, so our initial fear was that people would just toss [the samples] on the floor," says Susan Arnot Heaney, a spokeswoman for Avon. "But everyone has been taking them, so, for us, it's already been very successful. Celine is the perfect person for Avon; it's just a perfect fit."
HILFIGER TAPS TYRESE
R&B newcomer/model Tyrese is included in a Tommy Hilfiger campaign for Tommy cologne. A disc featuring two songs, "Nobody Else" and "I Can't Go On," from Tyrese's self-titled RCA debut, released Sept. 29, is being given away as a gift-with-purchase at 2,000 Federated department stores in the U.S. (including Macy's and Bloomingdale's) between Oct. 12 and late November. A TV campaign for the product will also feature the singer.
French DJ Dimitri From Paris has penned the theme song ("Une Very Stylish Fille") for Yves Saint Laurent's new men's fragrance, dubbed Live Jazz, which began appearing in TV ads outside of the U.S. last fall and in the U.S. in July. From now through Christmas, 7,700 Live Jazz CD samplers featuring "Une Very Stylish Fille" and "Une Woman's Paradis" will be available at department stores nationwide. Approximately 2,000 will be sold as part of a gift pack, and the rest will be given away with purchases.
"If five people buy the album because of this, it increases Dimitri's awareness in a way we wouldn't have gotten before, without costing us anything," says Peter Galvin, VP of product development at Atlantic, which released his "Sacre Bleu" on Feb. 17. "This could open him up to more fashion-related possibilities, like having him DJ at fashion shows."
Dimitri is slated to DJ at a Karl Lagerfeld party Nov. 4 at New York's Limelight.
SWEETBOX SAYS OUI!
When Lanc"me went looking for a fresh sound and to help launch its new youthful, floral fragrance, ' Oui!, RCA's Sweetbox seemed the natural choice. "We're targeting a younger audience we call "Generation O,' for optimistic girls probably 16 and upward," says Lanc"me's Mander. "Sweetbox's song "Everything's Gonna Be Alright' fit perfectly into the concept and strategy."
"Everything's Gonna Be Alright," the first single from Sweetbox's self-titled debut (released by RCA Sept. 15), was licensed for one year for use in the TV and print campaign, worth $3 million, for the fragrance in July, but the company is taking the partnership with the act even further.
In the December issue of Seventeen magazine, Lanc"me will provide a (Eth)-page "advertorial" on Sweetbox adjacent to a full-page ad for ' Oui! RCA will provide 50,000 Sweetbox CD samplers featuring "Everything" and 30-second snippets of four other tracks and offer it as a gift-with-purchase at 1,000 Federated department stores nationwide. Sweetbox will also perform Oct. 28 at the opening of a Lanc"me boutique at Bloomingdale's in New York.
"The launch was successful; we were really happy with it," says RCA's DiMuro. "It drove PDs at radio to take notice of the track; the timing was impeccable. We weren't going to release the album until later, but we moved up the date to take advantage of the exposure."