23.09.26
News
How we combined creator-first thinking, performance-led content and paid amplification to take Milani’s Moisture Boost launch beyond awareness.
The Challenge
For the UK launch of Milani’s Make It Last Moisture Boost Setting Spray, the challenge wasn’t simply to introduce another beauty product into an already crowded category. We needed to make Moisture Boost feel relevant to the way beauty consumers actually use products today, while creating enough awareness, consideration and retail intent to encourage discovery at Superdrug.
Our approach was therefore built around more than reach. We wanted to create content capable of performing naturally with creator audiences, while also being strong enough to sit at the heart of a wider paid social strategy.
The Strategy
Rather than approaching influencer and paid social as two separate disciplines, we developed a creator-first model designed with amplification in mind from the outset. We partnered with four creators across Instagram and TikTok, selecting talent who could place Moisture Boost naturally within different routines, interests and occasions.
The creative was built around three distinct territories. Poolside Glam positioned Moisture Boost as the ultimate holiday and warm-weather beauty companion, while Spritz Then Sprint brought the product into fitness and wellness routines, showing how it could be used to prep and refresh the skin. Spritz and Shop connected the social content directly with retail, taking audiences into Superdrug and encouraging product discovery.
By creating several different entry points into the product story, we were able to communicate Moisture Boost’s multitasking benefits without relying on repetitive product demonstrations. Instead, every piece of content gave the product a credible role within a real consumer moment.
Paid, By Design
A key part of our approach is that paid doesn’t begin once the content has already been created; it influences the creative strategy from the start. Creator content gives brands something traditional advertising can often struggle to replicate: a recognisable person, an authentic environment and a format that feels native to the platform. Paid amplification then gives that creative the opportunity to scale.
Rather than being restricted to the creator’s existing following, strong-performing assets can be placed in front of carefully selected audiences based on relevant demographics, interests, behaviours, platform signals and purchase intent. This allows creator content to combine the relevance and credibility of influencer marketing with the reach and precision of paid media.
It also creates greater flexibility throughout the campaign. Different creators, hooks, formats and creative territories can be tested against one another, allowing investment to move towards the assets and audiences generating the strongest response. Instead of treating creator reach as the ceiling of a campaign, it becomes the starting point.
The Results
Across four creators and seven pieces of paid content, the activity generated 2.62M+ combined plays, 40K+ link clicks and a cost per view of just £0.004. The campaign also achieved a 335% ROI based on EMV, demonstrating the efficiency of the creator investment.
Why It Worked
The campaign showed the value of connecting three elements that are too often planned independently: creator, content and paid media. Creators gave Milani relevance and credibility, while a varied creative strategy gave audiences multiple ways into the product story. A performance-led mindset then ensured the campaign wasn’t judged on engagement alone, but on its ability to generate meaningful attention, traffic and commercial impact.
The result was an approach that could work across both brand and performance objectives, using creator storytelling to capture attention and a paid strategy to help that content work harder.
