Dior lights up holiday collection with first Instagram makeup filter

Brief:

Dior Makeup introduced its first augmented reality (AR) makeup experience on Instagram to show off its 2020 Dior Holiday Make-up collection, according to an announcement shared with sister publication Mobile Marketer.
Unlike other AR makeup try-ons that demonstrate cosmetics to mobile consumers, Dior's face filter adds a fireworks effect to selfies. To see the filter, users need to visit the @diormakeup account on Instagram and click on a link in the biography section that opens the image-messaging app's camera feature. The Dior face filter appears in the carousel of AR effects at the bottom of the screen.
Dior demonstrated its 3Dior Makeup feature in a YouTube video that shows a makeup artist using the brand's holiday color palette while putting makeup on a model.

Insight:

Dior is taking a somewhat different approach to using AR as a cosmetics showcase with its campaign for the 2020 Dior Holiday Make-up collection. While other brands use AR lenses to demonstrate how lipstick, blush and eye shadow might look on users in real life, Dior has created a more whimsical face filter that simulates animated gemstones emanating from an Instagram user's face. The idea was to expand beyond physical makeup in a world where social media is creating a new form of "homoinstagramus" beauty, the brand said.

Dior's animated face filter follows past efforts to incorporate AR in campaigns aimed at mobile consumers. Dior this year was one of the first fashion brands to create an AR filter for Instagram, letting app users try on virtual versions of its DiorSoLight sunglasses or double headbands marked "Christian Dior J'Adior." The AR filter also had abstract motifs from Dior's spring 2019 collection that show up as an animated kaleidoscope background in a selfie.

However, Dior doesn't provide links to buy its products directly through Instagram, which has added more shopping features in the past couple of years. Other brands have used AR technology to spur direct-to-consumer orders or retail sales.

The popular YouCam Makeup app from Perfect Corp., which boasts more than 700 million users, allows for testing of products from more than 200 beauty brands. L'Oréal-owned Modiface also introduced AI-powered skin diagnostic technology to let customers get treatment advice based on their uploaded selfies.