Looking to win more prestigious editorial beauty awards for your brand? 💄✨ These coveted awards can build immense credibility, gravitas, and brand awareness – but they require forethought, time, and a strategy.
At our fashion and beauty PR agency VLIV Communications, we’ve submitted countless clients for coveted beauty awards – and many have won! – for top-tier outlets like Allure, Byrdie, SELF, and ELLE.
What are some things brands should keep in mind to maximize success and boost their chances of winning these reputable awards?
5 Things to Consider When Submitting For Beauty Awards
1. Beauty Editors’ Deadlines
Don’t miss these! Editors are quite strict – keep an eye on the cutoff and be sure to gather assets far before that. Some editors require quite in-depth submissions, so you’ll want to ensure you give yourself enough time to prepare
2. Beauty Product Launch Date
Editors tend to either want the newest of the new (think – sometimes even pre-launch) or best-selling hero products. Read their guidelines carefully – they often discard submissions that don’t abide by their dates. If they’re looking for September 2022 to September 2023 launches, and you have something that launched in July 2022…sadly, you’re most likely out of luck. That said, many editors do look for best-sellers or fan favorites. Submit the best of the best you’ve got for those!
3. Beauty Samples for Editor Testing
Keeping that in mind, editors need to test the product. If a brand is looking to submit something that hasn’t launched yet, consider a prototype or lab sample so that editors can at least try the formula. Beauty brands often need to send product to multiple testers, and many editors are willing to work with brands who don’t have final packaging.
4. Content Writing for Beauty Awards
Some outlets require in-depth applications with many questions about the formulation – be prepared for this, and again, set aside time! This can often be the most time-consuming part of the process and one you want to ensure to have nailed down. This is where a skilled PR/comms team can really shine – we’ll take your responses and ensure they’re captivating for editors. We’ll keep it authentic to your brand, while crafting copy that will resonate with beauty media.
5. Budget for Editorial and Industry Beauty Awards Submissions
Many editorial awards are free to submit, but not all of them are. Industry awards such as CEW, Glossy, BeautyMatter, and Beauty Independent often require a submission fee, while the heavy-hitting consumer outlets like Allure and Good Housekeeping charge for certain applications as well. Another thing to keep in mind? Licensing fees to use the awards seal. Many outlets require beauty brands to license the seal for use in promotional materials. This can include the brand website and product packaging. Plan for costs/licensing fees in your marketing budget – a beauty PR agency can help advise with this.
If you’d like to learn more about setting your brand up to win prestigious beauty awards, feel free to email us at lindsey@vlivcommunications.com to set up a call where we’ll discuss a strategy.
And get on the list here for The VLIV Edit, where we share tips and trends on the beauty and fashion PR space.
