Musinsa invited a beauty influencer to open the venue a day before the beauty festival on April 28. The huge 2,180 square meter venue was filled with hundreds of influencers. Wearing trendy clothes and fancy makeup, they each held a camera and recorded their reviews and impressions by experiencing cosmetics in person at the booth. A similar scene was staged at the Olive Young Festa held at Noddle in May this year. Beauty influencers were busy filming by traveling around the venue to test products or pose in front of brand booths.
Along with K-beauty’s popularity, the beauty influencer’s influence is growing as well. Inviting influencer to large-scale Festana pop-up store events to introduce them to the site and attract consumers’ attention has become an essential marketing strategy in the industry. It can aim for high advertising effects not only in terms of cost reduction but also in terms of being able to communicate directly with consumers. Retail and beauty brands are also strengthening their marketing activities. According to the industry on Wednesday, marketing using influencer is getting more active recently. There are also increasing cases of inviting influencer to beauty festivals and pop-up events to maximize the effect of attracting guests or to select them as brand models or ambassador. There are many cases of strategic collaboration beyond simple promotions. Musinsa’s own beauty brand, “Ode Type,” launched a new product in collaboration with Sydney, a beauty YouTuber with 160,000 subscribers, while Etude also introduced BB cream jointly developed with 370,000 YouTuber Cine. In addition, a number of brands, including Pia and Lilybyred, are jointly developing products with influencer and conducting promotions that put them to the forefront.
There is also an active movement to discover and support influencer. CJ Olive Young recruits Shutter Britain twice a year through a beauty creator support program. Shutter Britain is a platform that shares the latest beauty trends and makeup know-how, and it refers to creators who work here. Through the program, you can naturally achieve a product promotion effect while strengthening communication with consumers. Cost is the most direct reason why brands use influencer as a marketing tool. Using a top celebrity model costs hundreds of millions to billions of won in advertising costs. On the other hand, influencer can expect marketing effects at a relatively low cost depending on the size and influence of their followers. For small indie brands, in particular, this marketing method can quickly raise brand awareness and gain loyal customers.
Another important factor is that it is easy to communicate with consumers. Consumers nowadays tend to trust reviews of influencer with similar skin types, such as their skin tone, oily, and dry skin. According to the ‘influencer Marketing Trend Report in the Second Quarter of 2025’ published by the global influencer platform company Review Corporation, about 72% of MZ generation consumers have purchased actual products through influencer recommendations. The influencer’s actual use reviews have a greater impact on purchase decisions than advertisements with celebrity recognition as in the past.
It is also positive that once you find a influencer you like, it is difficult to find a new influencer that fits your skin type, so there is less deviation from consumers. Consumers naturally settle into a specific influencer of content, which leads to repeated purchases, contributing to increased sales.
The influence of the influencer in the beauty market is expected to expand in the future. Business Research Insights, a market research agency, also predicted that the global influencer market will grow to $265.24 million by 2031. An industry official said, “As more and more consumers get beauty information from YouTube and Instagram, the industry is also conducting marketing that is widely used from famous influencer to micro influencer.”
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
