Luxie Beauty Is Taking Part In Coachella With Boxycharm. Will Its Involvement Be Worthwhile?

Darren Naylor is leaving San Jose today to head to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the eastern Riverside County city Indio, Calif., for the sixth time. This year, he’s not going for fun, although he hopes to have some, but in his professional capacity as the director of business development at Luxie Beauty, which is taking part in Coachella in collaboration with beauty subscription box company Boxycharm.

The makeup brush brand is the atypical emerging player in a sea of corporate sponsors that includes HP, Heineken and L’Oréal-owned NYX Professional Makeup sparing little expense to get in front of famous faces and 250,000 festival goers over six days of music (Janelle Monáe, Kacey Musgraves, Childish Gambino and Billie Eilish are on the schedule) across two weeks. Luxie’s involvement comes as it’s moving from a direct-to-consumer to retail distribution model, facing a slumping makeup brush segment and rethinking its event strategy. Amid the changes, Naylor is in the mood to experiment.

“You’re always looking for ways to be innovative and unique with your marketing approach to continue your brand momentum. Coachella is one of the biggest music and art festivals in the world that garners a wide and diverse audience of 20- to 33-year-olds, but is also specifically attended by bloggers, influencers and celebrities,” he says. “Naturally, a California-based brand that’s target demo will be in attendance has thought about how to capitalize on that, but may not be in the position that a legacy brand is to do so.”

Luxie must capitalize on Coachella on a budget. Its partnership with Boxycharm helps defray costs and labor. Boxycharm has recruited 15 influencers to join its Coachella efforts, and the beauty brand Pur is participating as well. Among the 15 influencers are Manny MUA, Nicol Concilio, Jadey Wadey and Christen Dominique. Luxie’s Coachella costs cover dropping merchandise into the influencers’ hotel rooms, sponsoring their bus, VIP festival passes for staff, and appearances at the Revolve and Bootsy Bellows parties. A Bootsy Bellows sponsorship costs $60,000. Luxie isn’t a sponsor, and its total Coachella budget is under $100,000.

“I know about Revolve, Levi’s and these really big names that throw parties, but they are very different from mid-size indie brands that don’t have a couple of million dollars to throw at an event for the weekend,” says Naylor. “What I’m trying to figure out is whether it’s beneficial for a mid-size indie brand to be active at Coachella.”

Luxie is zeroing in on several key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate its Coachella presence. Naylor outlines it will examine earned media value (EMV), its social media following, influencer and retailer relationships, and sales of new products to determine if its festival activities are worthwhile. The brand is introducing three products at Coachella: a festival-themed Summer Daze Set in tan and pink, and a Travel Set. The festival-themed brushes are in Boxycharm’s boxes this month. Following its Coachella experience, Beauty Independent will check back in with Luxie on its KPI results.

“I know about Revolve, Levi’s and these really big names that throw parties, but they are very different from mid-size indie brands that don’t have a couple of million dollars to throw at an event for the weekend. What I’m trying to figure out is whether it’s beneficial for a mid-size indie brand to be active at Coachella.”

When it comes to EMV, rising beauty brands have gained traction at Coachella. Lime Crime partnered with Galore to host a party at the Lazy C Ranch last year and generated nearly $274,000 in EMV, according to influencer-tracking technology firm Tribe Dynamics. LASplash Cosmetics, Juvia’s Place, Lit Cosmetics and Iconic London showed up at Coachella in 2018, too, and yielded EMV ranging from $100,100 to almost $187,000.

Smaller beauty brands may be better poised this year to achieve exposure than in prior years. As detailed by Glossy, larger beauty and fashion brands are scaling back Coachella activations. H&M is sitting on the Coachella sidelines after sponsoring the festival from 2014 to 2018, and Sephora, the official beauty partner last year, is shrinking its role this year and sponsoring Rachel Zoe’s party ZOEasis instead. With larger brands moderating their Coachella endeavors, the actions of ankle biters may get more play.

The large brand pullback “does create an opening. The fun and creative initiatives are often coming from the independent brands because they don’t have the resources to do elaborately-budgeted events,” says Conor Begley, co-founder of Tribe Dynamics, elaborating, “Although it’s difficult to cut through the noise of Coachella posts that feature big-name brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills and NYX Professional Makeup, smaller brands have found organic success with products suited for the festival season (think eye-catching shimmer and bright, vivid colors). And while the recent decline in branded Coachella activations opens an opportunity for smaller brands to host memorable experiences, these brands can also make a splash at the festival by simply helping influencers get festival-ready using their products.”

For Luxie, Naylor suggests the riskiest aspect of Coachella participation is influencer posts. “Influencers aren’t required to go crazy about everything we’re giving them. They are very particular about their real estate,” he says. “If you are Kylie, they are going to post about it. When you are a smaller brand, you can’t guarantee that’s going to happen.” As Luxie veers away from Gen Beauty, the beauty event put on by subscription box service Ipsy that’s being reimagined in a smaller format, though, its appetite for tolerating the risk of Coachella is greater.

To Naylor, perhaps the most important marker of Coachella success is product sales. Born online in 2014, Luxie has been pushing into retailers recently. During the past 12 months, its retail partnerships have increased in excess of 50%, and its upcoming calendar is packed with major retail launches. Globally, Luxie is rolling out to the Middle East, Nordic countries and Australia. Its festival set will sell at Revolve, Asos and PrettyLittleThing.

“We have all of these retail partners, which is great, and we are establishing PR, which is also going to be great, but you need to generate buzz and excitement around your brand that’s going to promote sell-through across your retailers,” says Naylor. “Until you get to the point where people are organically looking for you, you are dependent on marketing dollars. If you can establish yourself as a cool brand that’s different from your competitors, you can get organic growth and sell-through.”