Sephora

SEPHORiA: House of Beauty

2023

SEPHORiA is Sephora’s biggest beauty event of the year—a place to meet your beauty icons, learn about innovative products, and collect endless samples and swag. In 2023, we created a large-scale, hybrid version of SEPHORiA: House of Beauty for the first time ever.

The in person event in Manhattan and the simultaneous launch of the global, gamified, virtual experience (created in partnership with Demodern) pleasantly disrupted the beauty space and cemented SEPHORiA's position as the ultimate beauty festival. Inspired by the energy of a New York Apartment Co-op, the "house" encouraged makeup artists and beauty lovers to explore the 50+ brands in 6 themed rooms, 10 Master Classes, and countless photo opps and interactive experiences. 

The Ask

Transform Sephora’s biggest beauty event of the year – SEPHORiA – into a hybrid experience for the first time ever for an international community of beauty lovers. Build an approachable, interactive, fun and socially-driven hybrid beauty environment that celebrates diversity, encourages positive brand perception, and highlights Sephora’s product differentiation as a premium beauty event. 

The Landscape

SEPHORiA: House of Beauty has grown exponentially since its launch, starting as a live ticketed event in Los Angeles in 2018 and 2019 before pivoting to virtual in 2021 and 2022. As the next evolution for Sephora’s flagship event, OBE was asked to unite SEPHORiA into a cohesive hybrid experience with the in-person portion occurring in New York City while the highly engaging, gamified SEPHORiA Virtual portion was available to the wider global audience. This hybrid approach was destined to be more connected, more innovative, and more expansive than ever before, cementing SEPHORiA as the leading beauty event in the United States.

Objectives

• Engagement: Drive active participation and meaningful interactions across all digital and in-person touchpoints to prove experience value.  

• Awareness: Build up compelling content and conversations that extend beyond the experience to reach a wider audience and create new brand opportunities. 

• Sentiment: Influence the Sephora narrative and positioning in favor of brand loyalty, inclusivity, and innovation. 

Insights

• Access to exclusive Sephora brands was the most loved aspect of past events for consumers.  

• Communal experiences were essential to define SEPHORiA as a place for the beauty community to express themselves, connect and belong.  

• More interactive moments and gamification elements were a priority, with attendees wanting to see more games and opportunities to earn perks.  

Concept

Creatively, we evolved the “House of Beauty” signature to capture the essence of New York City. Our “Apartment” replaced the traditional house, inspired by artist co-ops, where aspiring makeup artists could learn from professional makeup artists and where street signs were used for wayfinding. The virtual experience drew from the NYC apartment but broadened the appeal with surreal and playful elements.

Both the virtual and in-person experiences mimicked an urban apartment with six themed rooms featuring over 50 unique interactions and photo ops. In both environments, we immersed attendees in a chic and stunning space where they could engage with their favorite parts of a beauty event – meeting beauty icons, learning about the newest products, and enjoying incredible swag. 

Leveraging these insights, OBE created an environment where attendees could explore the Sephora brand and prestige product offering, express themselves creatively and celebrate the Sephora Beauty Insider community. 

Execution: In Person

First, we secured an accessible venue in the Lower East Side, which connected to a local marketplace to encourage attendees to support small businesses. 

We then crafted a design system and attendee journey that layered the SEPHORiA: House of Beauty narrative into the architecture of the venue. We meticulously curated our rooms—ensuring our brand booths, photo ops, and sponsor activations kept beauty fans engaged and wondering, “What’s next?” Our stage hosted live and broadcasted “Master Classes” to educate the SEPHORiA audience. 

And since no “House” party is complete without an unforgettable kickoff, we invited special guests, press, and influencers to a preview night in partnership with Sephora Credit Card, featuring a Chandon champagne sampling.

Execution: Virtual

Working with expert interactive partners, Demodern, OBE recreated “The Apartment” in an immersive, mobile-optimized Metaverse environment that mirrored and extended the in-person experience for global attendees. 

Users customized their avatars by choosing from options that represented themselves. Hair options like afros and dreadlocks or badges that celebrated the LGBTQIA community ensured all felt welcome and empowered to pursue their beauty style. Our community then engaged with each other and shared their beauty knowledge through moderated chat areas, which also hosted Sephora representatives.

In addition to much of the same exclusive content available at the in-person event, virtual attendees could play multiplayer mini games in branded zones and unlock a one-of-a-kind NFT for an exclusive reward. To ensure the content didn’t feel like marketing, while maximizing brand content engagement, the entire experience was gamified and connected with Sephora’s existing Beauty Insider loyalty program. Users collected hidden lipsticks by exploring the environment and watching brand videos (captioned in 6 languages), which earned them Sephora Beauty Insider perks. 

Results

In-person ticket sales and virtual registration exceeded our expectations, plus encouraging feedback ensured that those who attended enjoyed their experience and felt it was a great way to get closer to the brands they love.

The overall takeaways from the event were not only exciting in terms of deepening engagement but solidified a real sense of togetherness amongst this audience, a truly communal and spirited group of beauty aficionados.

Awards

2024 BizBash Event Experience Awards - Best Beauty Brand Activation

2024 BizBash Event Experience Awards - Best Millennial / Gen Z Event

2024 BizBash Event Experience Awards - Best Virtual Brand Activation

2024 Digiday Content Marketing Awards - Finalist - Best Multi-Channel Strategy

2024 Digiday Content Marketing Awards - Finalist - Best Branded Content Site - B2C

2024 Ex Awards - Silver - Best Use of Event Technology

2024 Event Marketer Experience Design Awards - Bronze - Creative Use of Technology: Best Virtual Event or Livestream

2024 Shorty Awards - Finalist - Metaverse: Immersive

2024 Shorty Awards - Gold - Strategy & Engagement: Event & Experiential

2024 The Drum Awards - Gold - Experiential: Hybrid Event

Editorial

BizBash - Why Sephora Went Hybrid With Its Big Beauty Event

Event Marketer - A New Era of Beauty Events is Being Defined by Fans, Not Brands