For a decade now, American TV networks QVC and HSN, formerly the Home Shopping Network, have hosted Beauty with Benefits, an annual livestream shopping event to celebrate how a touch of makeup can help boost confidence and contribute to even greater causes.
Beauty with Benefits is an example of the latter at work, having generated more than $14 million for its official partner, Cancer and Careers, in the past 10 years. Cancer and Careers, launched in 2001 by the Cosmetic Executive Women Foundation, is a nonprofit providing supports to help people with cancer thrive in the workplace.
As part of this year’s multiplatform event, which began May 1 and continues through July 31, QVC and HSN are offering a luxury gift with purchase to home shoppers who buy a Beauty with Benefits featured product. More than 50 brands are participating this year and a minimum of 70% of the proceeds from each product sold are to benefit Cancer and Careers. To entice customers further, shoppers are promised a 10-piece beauty gift, valued at $180, filled with cosmetics, skincare and other beauty products; some items are full-sized, some are travel-sized and others are sample sizes.
Every gift box includes a full-size Nakery Beauty Shower Gel, TULA Dual Phase Skin Reviving Treatment Pads and a 4-ounce treatment oil from WEN, in addition to other items from brands such as Crepe Eraser, Lancer, Laura Gellar, Malley, Peter Thomas Roth, philosophy and tarte. All items were housed all housed in blue box customized with Beauty with Benefits branding.
The gift-with-purchase serves a multifaceted purpose in this campaign, which contributes to collective support of the event and associated cause.
First, the gift itself is on-brand for both QVC and HSN, and thus for its target demographics. Second, it offers consumers a tangible takeaway of their contribution to the event; items they can use daily and which activate brand recall of Beauty with Benefits. Next, it also offers participating brands the chance to stand out as supporters and in a way that places their own branded product into the hands of all event shoppers.
The gift-with-purchase comes full-circle by representing participating brands inside, and carrying the campaign message on the packaging and in promotional materials; all the items are housed in a box, colored in blue, with the Beauty with Benefits logo. Collectively, these factors ensure that Cancer and Careers is given the spotlight and supports it deserves, and which is the overall campaign purpose.
Danielle Renda is an associate editor at PPAI.
