To disrupt traditional influencer content, Cover FX launched the "Hickey Magic" campaign, strategically designed to boost brand awareness during its relaunch year. This bold campaign focused on Valentine's Day hickeys—a trending topic that saw a significant surge in Google searches like "how to hide a hickey” in the week following the holiday. Recognizing this, Cover FX enlisted a diverse group of influencers to showcase its hero product's impressive coverage and versatility, Total Cover Cream Foundation, positioning it as the ultimate solution for covering up any marks. By tapping into this trending topic, Cover FX aimed to create attention-grabbing content that would resonate with a TikTok audience.
On February 15th, Cover FX collaborated with 17 influencers to flood TikTok with content showcasing the "Hickey Magic" effect driving consumer interest and sparking sales in an online-exclusive environment. Re-emerging in a crowded beauty industry after a 2-year hiatus, the brand sought to reintroduce its hero product, rebuild and expand a customer base, and reconnect with previous followers through culturally relevant and highly shareable content.
Cover FX set out with a carefully crafted strategy to reintroduce itself as a high-coverage, high-performance brand with the Hickey Magic campaign. This campaign aimed to engage and expand the brand’s core audience—skincare-aware consumers aged 20s-40s who value professional-grade products and transparent discussions around skin issues. Recognizing that their audience appreciates skin positivity and real conversations, the brand knew a playful yet purposeful campaign around the often-taboo topic of hickeys would capture attention, particularly among Cover FX’s existing followers while enticing new customers.
The plan began by leveraging the relatability and reach of popular TikTok influencers. Through social listening and trend analysis, the brand discovered a notable post-Valentine’s Day spike in searches for “how to cover a hickey,” signaling a perfect opportunity to highlight the Total Cover Cream Foundation's exceptional coverage. Building on this insight, the campaign celebrated skin-first beauty without sterility—positioning Cover FX as a brand unafraid to embrace real, everyday skin concerns with humor and confidence. By associating the product with a cheeky, relatable situation, the brand demonstrated its high performance in an approachable way.
For execution, Cover FX partnered with 17 well-known TikTok creators, each chosen for their boldness and relatability. These influencers posted TikTok videos showing how they used Total Cover Cream Foundation to conceal hickeys, connecting with audiences around a shared, relatable issue. Influencers shared their videos on their personal TikTok pages, allowing the campaign to resonate organically and foster trust. Cover FX ran a simultaneous earned media initiative to complement these posts, promoted the foundation on their website, and offered a limited-time promotion further encouraging conversations. Additional support channels included email marketing, SMS, and the brand’s owned socials. These tactics ensured that each element worked in harmony, providing multiple touchpoints for consumers to engage with the campaign.
A unique challenge of this campaign was Cover FX’s absence from the market for two years. With the brand’s customer base diminished and no retail presence, selling complexion products online presented a challenge in a crowded beauty market. To overcome this, Cover FX relied on the organic reach of TikTok and the influencers’ credibility to drive traffic, focusing on creating buzz that encouraged immediate action. The influencers’ authenticity and the inherently engaging nature of TikTok helped rebuild trust and attract attention from potential new customers.
Using TikTok as the lead marketing channel and layering on owned channels like email and SMS, Cover FX effectively reached its target audience, generating excitement among skincare-conscious makeup consumers. The social-first approach, bolstered by earned media placements, resulted in heightened brand awareness, expanded customer engagement, and increased website traffic. Ultimately, the "Hickey Magic" campaign showcased Total Cover Cream Foundation’s performance and re-established Cover FX’s position as a bold, authentic brand dedicated to meeting real skin needs.
The "Hickey Magic" campaign successfully re-established Cover FX in the beauty market and expanded the brand’s customer base. By partnering with 17 TikTok creators, the campaign generated significant engagement and viral traction, with top influencer Haley Kalil’s post alone garnering over 1.3 million views on launch day. This immediate response translated into over 1,100 new customer sign-ups, with 82% of sales coming from new customers. The campaign’s success also included an 87% increase in daily average sales and a 100% lift in email signups on launch day, reinforcing the brand’s revitalized presence.
The digital strategy amplified brand visibility across TikTok, resulting in a remarkable 147% increase in TikTok profile views. On TikTok Shop, visitors surged by 433%, while the discount code “Hickey” alone generated $16.9K in revenue. Earned media totaled 4 million impressions, further enhancing the brand’s credibility and reach.
Cover FX's targeted ads and influencer collaborations reached 21.6 million people, yielding 8.92 million impressions, 896,000 social engagements, and 9.55 million video views. Cover FX effectively showcased the brand’s skin-focused, high-coverage products, driving customer acquisition, loyalty, and sustained growth in online sales.
