Estée Lauder Taps Into Community With Manchester United Partnership
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Estée Lauder has tapped Manchester United as its latest partner in the Chinese and the Asia-Pacific markets.
The partnership, which kicks off this month, will start with a campaign featuring first team players Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw, Alejandro Garnacho and Raphaël Varane. It will live on Manchester United’s social accounts, which have a combined following of more than 250 million just in China, according to a statement.
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“Our winning strategy is tapping into the community — it’s a new way of engaging with them, looking into their cultures, their values, what they really like to do, and starting those conversations,” said Erica Kwok, Estée Lauder’s senior vice president of integrated marketing. “Soccer and football is where we see a big passion among the men in our target consumers.”
The brand is performing well. “The brand globally is on a very good growth momentum. We have multiple pillars of products that we have balanced on our hero products, and this drives good momentum across the board,” Kwok said. To that end, the campaign will feature players using Advanced Night Repair, one of the brand’s longtime hero products.
“The partnership is across China and APAC. And if we look at that side of the world, the brand has a very, very strong footprint,” Kwok said. “We are one of the most loved brands, particularly in China, and we’re the number-one leading position, being the most desirable luxury brand among Chinese consumers.”
That was part of the club’s rationale for taking on the partnership, too. “Estée Lauder is a globally renowned and trusted brand, and we are excited to be partnering with them in China and Asia Pacific,” said Victoria Timpson, Manchester United’s CEO of alliances and partnerships. “As one of the most followed sports teams in the world, we understand the importance of educating fans on a healthy lifestyle, and skin care is an integral part of that process. In the same way our athletes prepare the night before a match with regular training rituals, healthy skin also requires a consistent and effective regimen.”
Though Asia still encompasses some of beauty’s biggest markets, pandemic-induced slowdowns have caused industrywide declines in the region. For the quarter ending March 31, organic net sales fell 8 percent, which the Estée Lauder Cos. attributed to sluggish recoveries in Asia’s travel retail business.
The partnership still gives Lauder street cred with Chinese consumers — particularly male ones. “Manchester United is the most popular football club on the planet with over one billion fans and followers worldwide, more than 250 million fans in China alone — 80 percent of which are men,” said Jon Roman, senior vice president of global consumer marketing and online. “Their fans are also extremely influenced by and loyal to the club.”
Added Kwok, “We are seeing the market data; there is a very, very fast-growing consumer segment among males in China and Asia Pacific. They are enriching their beauty routine, and they’re looking now for building their regimens as part of their grooming steps on a daily basis.”
It’s not the only news to come from Lauder this week. On Tuesday night the brand’s parent company said in a statement that an unauthorized third party gained access to some of its systems, and that it is “implementing measures to secure its business operations and will continue taking additional steps as appropriate,” which include remediation and restoring its systems. It is also working with a cybersecurity expert, as well as law enforcement, per the statement.
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