It Must Be in the H20+: How This Beauty Company Is Building a Strong Future for Girls
A good foundation matters.
2016 marked the kickoff off year of H2O+ Beauty’s Making Waves Initiative.
The international beauty company that believes that water and hydration are the foundation of true beauty and great skin, made it their goal to directly support organizations whose social missions align with their own.
They partnered with Girls Inc. of Alameda County, a non-profit organization on a mission to inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. It was a natural pairing.
H2O+ knows that strong, empowered girls bolstered by encouragement from their community make for even stronger, empowered women. Beauty comes from within, so does the courage to believe in yourself. But none of us do it alone.
"Beauty comes from within, so does the courage to believe in yourself."
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In 2013, Girls Inc. opened its new headquarters in Alameda County, becoming the first and only resource center for girls in the area. They provide year-round academic achievement and skills-building programs to underserved girls as well as counseling services to over 8,000 girls and families.
When Cindy Melk founded H2O+ Beauty in 1989 she had the goal to put beauty back into the hands of the consumer. She was only 27 years old when she had the idea, but coming from an entrepreneurial background, she had the support of her father, John Melk, the name behind successful ventures like Blockbuster, and her mother, the founder of a successful spa in Chicago. She pitched her father on her business plan, proved her plan viable, and received a small amount of seed funding to get the company up and running for about 6 months. While the rest was up to her, she had the foundation and the support from her family, something that H2O+ recognizes as crucial to success and a bright future.
H2O+ believes that, “progress is forged when communities support, challenge, and inspire women. In our work, we are inspired by the courage of our own founder in her quest to define beauty on her own terms.”
They fulfilled the 2016 mission by sharing the proceeds of their best-selling Oasis Hydrating Treatment with a $10,000 donation to Girls Inc of Alameda County. Moreover, H2O+ Beauty employees supported girls in their local community by volunteering more than 40 hours of their time in workshops and mentoring sessions at the Girls Inc. of Alameda County Simpson Center for Girls.
H2O+ plans to build on the success of their partnership with Girls Inc. with an even bigger and more impactful contribution of time and resources in 2017. We also got wind of a very special event that they’re hosting with Girls Inc. this fall (details are still under wraps), but stay
To learn more about Girl Inc. of Alameda County, visit here. To learn more about H2O+ Beauty Social Mission visit here.
5 Steps To Creating Charitable Content For Your Brand
90% of Americans are more likely to trust brands that back social causes. What’s your social cause?
90% of Americans are more likely to trust brands that back social causes. What’s your social cause?
If you think that your brand is going to run on just the product or service that you’re selling, you need to expand beyond being one-dimensional and tap into a social cause that you can bring attention to.
Take it from our friends at EMU Australia. They specialize in premium footwear using the best natural materials and offer beautifully simple, innovative and luxurious products, however, they’ve made sure to also be the brand that has attached itself to a social cause.
They recently teamed up with WaterAid, a global non-profit, to support access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene in the world's poorest and most marginalized communities. To kick off their partnership and create buzz among the blogger community about their partnership, they focused on building #Blue4Water, a global campaign for World Water Day last week (March 22), one of the largest fundraising days of the year for WaterAid.
If your brand is looking to tap into a social cause to bring attention to a global social issue, take notes from EMU Australia on how to dip your toes into charity work and make the campaign work for your brand successfully.
1. Find a cause that aligns with your brand’s goals and visions.
When collaborating with other companies, make sure that your goals and visions align. WaterAid and EMU Australia were able to come together in helping 15 communities across Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste, two locations that are near and dear to EMU’s HQ in Australia. Not only that, EMU Australia and WaterAid were able to come together in a clear vision of what their campaign’s messaging and look needed to be, which helped make the campaign more impactful.
When collaborating with other companies, make sure that your goals and visions align.
2. Team up with social media influencers, and make it easy for them.
EMU Australia created a #Blue4Water blogger kit, which included DIY elements to allow bloggers to create customized, blue boots for World Water Day. These kits were sent to several influencers in the US, Canada and Europe and all posts went live the morning of March 22nd for a bigger impact. Also, they outlined everything down in a fact sheet that included key messages, social media handles and hashtags as well as some social copy for their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. This ensured a consistent message was delivered across the globe.
3. Keep it simple and consistent. use your resources.
EMU used the same DIY kit in each region and used the same hashtags so they didn’t their followers were not confused by the message. Regardless if your audience is in Australia or the U.S., your message will always stay consistent the minute you publish it, so make sure that stays consistent across the globe, especially if the message is a global effort.
4. Set your goals.
With every campaign, you should always set your goals and make sure that the campaign was effective for you and your collaborators. Set your web traffic goals, newsletter signups, sales and donation goals, and follower goals and regroup at the end of the campaign to see successes and losses, and see how you can make your next charitable campaign better than the last.
With every campaign, set your goals and make sure that the campaign was effective for you and your collaborators.
5. Have fun with it and engage inclusivity.
While charities are done in all seriousness, engage your audience and followers into participating by letting them get creative and having them show how they support the cause on their social channels. Although Emu had a campaign set with 10 bloggers to ensure they were getting enough traction on their campaign, they made sure that the followers felt included as well just like the 10 influencers.