Beauty brands have been notably absent from women’s sport sponsorship in recent years, but it looks like the tide is turning. Make up companies like Il Makiage and Elf Beauty were early movers – as was Clinique.  

Ahead of this summer’s Women’s Rugby World Cup, kicking off next month at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, Clinique announced its partnership with England’s Red Roses and players Holly Aitchison, Maddie Feaunati and Jade Shekells. But rather than jumping into women’s sport by slapping a logo on a sports property, this is the latest chapter in a longer play for the brand.  

The Lionesses’ 2022 UEFA Euros win marked a turning point in the attention given to women’s sport in the UK, from fans and brands alike. At the same time, Clinique was weighing up how it could engage authentically without jumping on the bandwagon.  

This led to the brand launching ‘Game Face’, a grassroots women’s rugby campaign to provide funding for four girls’ rugby clubs. The campaign was fronted by Aitchison and created with sports creative agency Matta, which has worked with Clinique ever since. The platform has since expanded, with Clinique adding more players as ambassadors last year.  

Clinique’s Red Roses deal is the “next level” in the plan, says Karen Ehrlich, vice-president and general manager of skincare at Clinique-owner, the Estée Lauder Company.  

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“We started at grassroots and it’s not just about doing another advertising campaign,” she explains.

Led by insight showing how young girls and women didn’t feel confident in their bodies and skin – but 90% of young women playing sport feel confident – Clinique wanted to leverage its position in the beauty market to grow “brand love and consideration” in sports.  

“It’s about seeing how we can drive brand love and how we do it in a way that feels true to the brand,” Ehrlich adds.

So far, it’s working. The campaign has driven 70% brand affinity for Clinique and a 42% consideration rate, according to analysis by the Women’s Sport Trust shared earlier this month.  

Ehrlich was “very impressed and pleased” by the results for a range of reasons, but particularly because the brand’s work in grassroots was being “compared to the big sponsors” like Barclays and O2, and came out with one of the highest consideration scores among brand partners in women’s sport.  

We started at grassroots because we believe that we need to connect emotionally with this consumer, and if you don’t start with the community and with those stories, we’re not going to get our objective.

Karen Ehrlich, Estée Lauder 

It was also a way to prove the “credibility” of Clinique’s products, adds Ehrlich, putting them to the test in one of the most physically demanding sports.  

“We started at grassroots because we believe that we need to connect emotionally with this consumer, and if you don’t start with the community and with those stories, we’re not going to get our objective,” says Ehrlich.  

Clinique didn’t have an “awareness issue” to solve, she adds.

“[It’s about] trying to create real love and to demonstrate to everyone that if they have personalised routines using products that are guided by the dermatologist, from skincare to make up, they can really get to their goals from a skin point of view, and  feel empowered and confident so to face the world,” says Ehrlich. 

She began her career in marketing at the likes of Johnson & Johnson and Pernod Ricard, joining Clinique as marketing and consumer engagement director in 2019, before moving into general management.

“When you start with the marketing background, you’re always putting the consumer at the centre of everything you do and everything is a consequence of the consumer,” she says.

“That’s why we’re able to think about strategies that are holistic, but not only marketing strategies, that translate to retail strategies to online to education.”  

Start small

Starting at grassroots level offered Clinique the opportunity to effectively scrutinise what was “working or not” with Game Face, notes Ehrlich.

“It was super interesting, because we started small and we were able to see if this is cutting through,” she explains.

This gave the brand the space to “pivot” if it didn’t work, although the team “really believed rugby was the right space”.

When Clinique and the rugby clubs involved in Game Face published content on social media, the brand could “clearly see” the strength of engagement, which was often “higher than traditional pack shots”.  

“It’s not like about having sales tomorrow, but it’s about making sure that we’re connecting to the right consumers and they’re paying attention,” says Ehrlich.  

Engagement on 23 July when the Red Roses partnership was announced went “through the roof”, she reports, adding that’s “the best measure” of whether the brand is doing something right. 

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While the campaign is resonating with fans, it’s also hugely important to the players involved.  

“It’s just so good to see them [Clinique] at the forefront,” says Aitchison.

“Obviously in football, they’ve had Il Makiage and other brands come to the front, but for a brand that’s invested previously to the World Cup, it’s really nice that they can have this moment and we can celebrate it.”

Beauty brands investing in women’s rugby is something she “didn’t see” five years ago, or when she was a child, although Aitchison believes “there is a space”.  

“[Clinique] took the time to understand the different values of different women’s sports,” says Tom Allwood, co-founder and managing director at Matta.

“Women’s rugby is very different to women’s football, is very different to women’s cricket. Clinique chose a sport which really fitted with its brand. That’s why it’s worked and they’re still there three years later.”

Game Face originally started at a time when most attention was on football.  

“We were trying to understand if there were white spaces and communities that would need more help, and would not be saturated,” says Ehrlich.  

It was the “perfect moment” to start, she reflects, rather than “jump in a crowded place” where Clinique couldn’t make a difference.  

With England hosting this year’s World Cup, perhaps women’s rugby will experience a similar impact commercially as the boost generated by the Lionesses’ 2022 Euros win on home turf.