Campaign Imminent: RoC Skincare taps TikTok AOR (Score 25)

Sales Lead: RoC Skincare recently selected Gravity Road as its TikTok AOR.

• Though the agency is located in the UK, it does have a presence in the US, and the appointment will affect global strategy.
• Gravity Road will now oversee all of RoC's creator-driven campaigns on TikTok.
• Roc's social strategy has included this social media platform since 2021, but the brand didn't launch this influencer-centered platform refresh with Gravity Road until March 2023.
• According to RoC's CMO, Hillary Hutcheson, mentioned that the brand now has more than 400m views on the #RoCSkincare hashtag.
  • So far, Gravity Road's efforts have resulted in a new TikTok initiative, #BeARoc," which identified more than two dozen influencers such as Stephanie Valentine (AKA Glamzilla), Mikayla, and Miah Carter.
• The hire reflects a shift as the 66-year-old skincare brand moves toward social and influencer marketing strategies.
• Up until now, ToC's in-house efforts have included its social media content and influencer partnerships.
  • The brand also received support from its communications agency partner, M Booth, which has maintained partnerships with various dermatologist influencers such as Muneeeb Shah and Scott Walker and ambassadors such as Sarah Jessica Parker.
  • M Booth will continue providing such services.
• As far as similar platforms are concerned, ​​​​​​​RoC will continue launching work on Instagram but will lean more heavily on TikTok in the future.
  • ​​​​​​​Its TikTok strategy will focus on education- and influencer-centric campaigns.
• ​​​​​​​We predicted that RoC would seek additional agency partners following the May 2021 appointment of media AOR Empower.
• The brand will likely:
  • ​​​​​​​Continue ramping up TikTok efforts
  • Pursue additional influencer and ambassador partnerships
  • Continue increasing digital spend
  • Seek additional new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • ​​​​​​​Gen-Z women
    • ​​​​​​​CMO Hutcheson specifically mentioned that RoC is ramping up "a targeted effort to go after Gen-Z."

Additional spending insights:

• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: RoC has spent roughly $586k on digital ads YTD, 9% more than the roughly $537.1k spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, the brand has earned around 81.9m digital impressions, 75% via Facebook ads, 21% via Instagram ads, and 4% via YouTube ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, RoC spent approximately $1.2m on this channel, less than half of the approximately $2.5m spent in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • RoC utilizes Facebook, Instagram, and online video (via Youtube.com) ads.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Since agency reviews often follow one another, reach out soon to see if RoC seeks additional social media platform support and/or makes creative, digital analytics, experiential, multicultural, and/or programmatic hires.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​Gravity Road: TikTok AOR (August 2023)
  • M Booth: Communications agency partner
  • Empower: Media AOR (May 2021)

Insight Sources: Digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix.