Beauty and the (tech) Beast: Dissecting the Maybelline and Microsoft Collaboration

For this case study we tested a recent collaboration between Maybelline and Microsoft that released an AI-powered virtual make-up filter for Microsoft Teams. At launch, it provides users with 12 unique makeup looks with different colours and blur effects that can be "applied" to a user's face. Not only that, each look has a product breakdown so users can understand which Maybelline product constitutes the virtual look and recreate it in real life.

The video ad for the beauty filter highlights that getting ready for work only takes a click. It is now possible to literally roll out of bed and into a work video call looking perfectly put-together.

Place your bets: do real people love the Maybelline x Microsoft collab or feel something other than love?

Contrary to what we expected, the General Perception Score is critically low, according to Fastuna's standardisation norms. The abundance of the colour red in this report speaks for itself. Let's see what exactly threw off our respondents and dragged down the GPS.

Good news first: the people we asked thought the virtual make-up filter was Unique and Believable. In the comment section many pointed out that it's a useful tool in more ways than one: it saves time, makes you feel confident, lets you try cosmetics before purchasing it.

And my personal favourite:

Saving hours on doing make-up before work doesn't seem to be an advantage for everyone, though. Now that good news is over, let's move on to the not so good part.

The metrics that reflect a respondent's level of engagement with a product or service are all slacking. The respondents are not likely to tell others about the filter, try it or learn more about it. Neither did they like the concept, find it clear or relevant. Although many said it was relatable, many others also doubted whether the filter would work at all.

Let's circle back to that high Unique metric for a moment. Once again we get proof that if a product is considered unique, there is no guarantee it will also be liked. Uniqueness does not equate likability. It doesn't even seem to correlate with a desire to tell others. In our LG smart home devices case study we already discussed how uniqueness is not a big enough driver to stimulate action in consumers. The makeup filter is following its footsteps.

A lack of trust in technology behind the virtual make-up filter leads to users not even willing to try it out. One conclusion to draw here is that ads for this filter should spend more time proving it's reliability.

Uncovering users' pain points and concerns (in order to address them and improve a product idea or marketing communication) is exactly the type of problem Fastuna can solve.