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In its 19th year, Supergoop wants to own the summer season.
To do so, it’s begun a phased campaign that will take the sunscreen-in-every-format brand from the doorsteps of influencers’ homes in Los Angeles to the festival grounds of this weekend’s Governor’s Ball music festival in Queens, New York. The brand will also show up in hotels, the Hamptons, and in 270 Sephora locations this summer.
The genesis for the campaign came from third-party consumer research showing that, even though awareness around the importance of SPF has grown tremendously and there are more products from more brands than ever, “there’s still a big barrier to entry, as far as wearing it every single day,” said Supergoop CMO Britany LeBlanc.
“We know that the No. 1 reason why people don’t [wear sunscreen] is because they haven’t found one they actually love and want to wear every single day,” she said.
As Supergoop sells nearly 50 different sunscreens, its first step was ensuring it wasn’t overwhelming customers. “We realized we need to help people navigate through the collection to find the perfect SPF for them,” LeBlanc said. “Some people love [the clear formula of] Unseen, while some people don’t love its texture. Some people really want a mineral sunscreen. Some people love [the tinted] Glowscreen, and for some people, it’s too glowy.”
“There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all SPF, and we certainly can’t accomplish our mission of changing the way the world thinks about it with just one formula,” said Supergoop founder Holly Thaggard. “So that’s why we’ve made over 40 formulas, to better cater to the variety of skin types, tones and activities there are. … But with our breadth of offerings comes the responsibility to help people navigate it and find their new favorite, or favorites, and that’s what this [summer’s] campaign is all about.”
Supergoop sold a majority stake to Blackstone in 2021. In February of this year, Lisa Sequino, formerly CEO of J.Lo Beauty, was appointed its new CEO, replacing Amanda Baldwin who left for Olaplex. The brand had reached $250 million in revenue in 2022, up 65% on 2021 figures.
The sunscreen category has become more competitive. Upstart brands Vacation and Dune also focus solely on sunscreen, and, it seems, every skin-care brand has come out with a facial SPF. Summer Fridays, Kiehl’s, Inn Beauty Project and Glow Recipe are among brands with new or popular offerings. As reported by Glossy in April, Launchmetrics found that Elta MD, Neutrogena, Kopari and Black Girl Sunscreen, along with Supergoop, are behind the buzziest products in the category.
“The marketing team’s brilliant idea [for summer] was to say, ‘Let’s be a [sunscreen] concierge and help find the sunscreen for you,” including in Sephora, LeBlanc said.
As part of the campaign, in late May, L.A.-based influencers received an in-home sunscreen concierge experience. Bellhops in yellow suiting visited five influencers, who participated in paid partnerships with the brand. A brand employee joined these visits, providing on-the-spot product recommendations. The influencers included Christina Kirkman (1.7 million TikTok followers), Mariale Marrero (6 million Instagram followers), Monica Ravichandran (aka @glow_bymonica; 369,000 Instagram followers), Aysha Harun (512,000 Instagram followers) and Christen Dominique (2.2 million Instagram followers).
“Because we have so many options, we’ve found that [influencers] will explore and find the products they love. Glow by Monica [mentions in her post] how awesome it is that we have so many brown-girl-friendly products, while Christina Kirkman has totally different products that are her favorites,” LeBlanc said. It would be “very chaotic” to have each influencer talk about all of the brand’s dozens of products, but allowing them to focus on their favorites showed consumers that they can find a formula that best suits them, she said.
The brand sought to replicate the same experience on a larger scale, for smaller influencers and everyday consumers.
To that end, the brand is gifting 300 smaller creators and friends of the brand VIP “yellow cards” allowing them to request unlimited sunscreen throughout the summer, via email. The concierge on the other end of the email will be available to provide recommendations based on the user’s needs or skin concerns. The approach has the environmentally-friendly advantage of giving people products they actually want and will therefore use, she said. These gifts are not paid partnerships, however, so the influencers are not required to post.
To reach consumers, the brand will hit nearly 300 Sephora locations, including setting up an activation outside of the retailer’s Meatpacking District location in NYC.
Another goal is to reinforce the notion that sunscreen is not only for “beaches and bikinis,” as Thaggard often says.
The brand has activated at Coachella in the past, but this summer, it chose to sponsor Gov Ball as the festival’s “official SPF.” It will bring around 30 influencers to the event, who will have access to a private on-grounds suite. It will also host an on-site concierge-inspired setup where festival guests can sample products and interact with brand employees. “It’s a fun way to celebrate being outside and in an urban setting that’s not the beach,” LeBlanc said.
Before the festival, on Thursday, the brand hosted a gifting suite at the New York Edition hotel where influencers could stock up on some of the brand’s bestsellers, receive custom-painted versions of its 18-ounce pump Play SPF and snack on Swedish candy from Bon Bon, before taking it all home in embroidered tote bags. The intention was to allow guests the chance to “have a little bit more of an intimate experience with [the brand] before going the concert, which is really about enjoying the [music],” LeBlanc said.
And the summer of Supergoop won’t end at Gov Ball. Supergoop is teaming with rental clothing company Nuuly to introduce its products to new customers. It will include samples of its products in Nuuly orders for a month starting in mid-July. From its research, LeBlanc said, the brand learned that its target customer is “this chaotic girlie who’s exploring the world and wants to try a lot of different makeup and sunscreen options [without having] to commit too much.”
“[Fashion partnerships are] a fun way to say, ‘You can change your sunscreen as quickly as you change your outfits,'” LeBlanc said. “You can be the glowy girl one day, and the next day you can use Unseen Sunscreen, which pairs beautifully with any makeup look you want.”
Supergoop is also doubling down on hospitality partnerships: It is advertising and offering sampling on the Hampton Jitney beginning in mid-July. It will partner with Lifehouse Hotels hotels to offer SPF sampling within guest rooms, as well as to host pop-up events at select locations throughout the summer. The brand will also host six influencers and their plus ones for a weekend at the Montauk Beach House this month. It will also have sampling and a pop-up event at this property, too.
Of the campaign and all its moving parts LeBlanc said, “For us, the challenge is always how to keep SPF interesting and tell the story in new ways. The space has become crowded, which is exciting because more people are talking about sunscreen. So we [aim to] stay innovative and a step ahead by twisting the story and doing new cool things.”
Collabs of the week
Crown Affair x MZ Wallace
Packing just got a bit easier, at least when it comes to your hair needs, thanks to this co-branded set designed by the classic bag brand MZ Wallace and the cool-girl hair brand Crown Affair. The kit features MZ Wallace’s Large Vanity case in black, with an interior in Crown Affair’s signature mint green. Inside are three of Crown Affair’s silk hair ties, its flat lay-worthy comb, and minis of its shampoo and conditioner.
“MZ Wallace has always been at the intersection of design, quality and functionality — they design products that reflect how people actually move through the world,” said Crown Affair, founder Dianna Cohen. “That’s [similar to] one of our core goals at Crown Affair: to make elegant, intuitive solutions for your hair to allow you to move through the world with more ease.”
In the past, Crown Affair has collaborated with Jennifer Behr on a headband and DS&Durga on a limited-edition hair oil. “I’ve always been drawn to working with heritage brands that are the best at what they do,” Cohen said. Shop it here.
Saysh x Ba&sh
Saysh, the sneaker brand created for women by 11-time Olympic medalist Alyson Felix, has teamed with French brand Ba&sh on a limited-edition sneaker. The shoe, which is called the Saba and comes in two colorways, will be available on July 9, just weeks before the Olympics begin on July 26.
“Ba&sh is a brand that aligns so well with Saysh in honoring that success looks different for every woman, and so does every wardrobe,” Felix told Glossy. “Together we continue to celebrate moms around the world and all that it takes to be a mother.”
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