How Bubble Skincare uses branding to court Gen Z

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend! Most brands don’t wait until just after Christmas to debut new products and a marketing campaign. But Bubble Skincare, the four-year-old brand known for its colorful packaging, strives to be unlike most brands. Created for Gen Z, Bubble has built a following by staying on top of the needs and desires of its target customers. In late December, that meant catering to those Gen Z customers home for the holidays and already bored. On social media, Bubble debuted its “Hide-and-go-Bubble” campaign that encouraged customers to seek out products at Ulta Beauty stores and create content on social. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bubble (@bubble) “Dec. 28 is kind of a day that you’d be thinking, ‘Wow, what a terrible day to launch a new product,’” said Lindsay St. Clair, Bubble’s executive creative director, on a recent episode of the Marketer’s Brief podcast. “But we’re like, actually, this is the best-case scenario for us because our age group is 14 to 24 and what are those people doing on Dec. 28? They’re at home. They’re like already sick of their parents. They are trying to figure out how to use their gift cards. They need to get out of the house.” She said Bubble had its best sales week at Ulta following the promotion. The campaign is just one recent example of how Bubble has become adept at connecting with the mindset of its target customer. When the brand first debuted four years ago, it conducted extensive consumer research to see what young shoppers wanted from their skincare brands. The answer was playful branding—Bubble’s moisturizer dispenses a flower when used—and approachability. “They wanted a brand that felt like they were reflected in the branding, in the experience in the marketing,” said St. Clair, who has been with Bubble since its beginning. “They wanted something that was fun.” She noted that the generation is very creative, having grown up with iPhones and the ability to easily create content. On the podcast, St. Clair also discusses the importance of physical retail for a direct-to-consumer brand—in addition to selling at Ulta, Bubble is in Walmart and CVS and Beauty Bay and Boots in the U.K. In addition, she discusses the recent controversy surrounding tweens and skincare marketing. Bubble has some moisturizer products that could appeal to younger Gen Alpha shoppers, but it also has products specifically designed for older age groups. The distinction is something the brand is taking into account with its marketing. “We’ve taken a lot of care into making sure that we're being responsible with our messaging and proactively recommending more simple skin care routine for anyone who’s younger,” she said. “So we’re starting to be putting more guidance on a lot of our products when it comes to age.” Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

How Bubble Skincare uses branding to court Gen Z

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