As competition in the beauty industry heats up, leaders are looking for new ways to stand out.
“I’ve worked in beauty for 24 years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it more competitive than it is right now,” Amy Liu, CEO and founder of Tower28, told Glossy. “Maybe in five more years, I’ll say that again. Who knows, right? But it feels like we are at a real peak right now, and a bubble of sorts.”
In a lot of ways, the industry is moving away from speaking at consumers and leaning into a two-way dialogue — but what does that look like for out-of-home advertising?
In June, Tower28 gave the industry one of its best examples: The company debuted a custom-made NYC billboard with a large button that spritzed passersby with its hero SOS Daily Skin Rescue Spray. The billboard was up for two weeks in June, located on Canal Street in SoHo.
Developed with outdoor advertising agency MilkMoney, the billboard was a first-of-its-kind endeavor. “[The billboard] was very bespoke — and, actually, there were a lot of problems that ensued, which is normal anytime you do something that has never been done before,” Liu said.
This included space limitations, technical challenges in the actual mister and storage of the product, and a liability issue that caused a last-minute location change. Luckily, Tower28 got lucky: The weather was hot and sticky – making a refreshing face mist especially alluring — and the city was busy and buzzing from its Knicks Championship win.
The primary ingredient in Tower28’s SOS Daily Skin Rescue Spray is hypochlorous acid, an increasingly popular ingredient in the skin-care space because it’s safe and gentle, yet helps prevent acne, especially after sweating or working out. It’s also great for conditions like eczema because it helps to reduce inflammation.
Tower28’s SOS spray is a darling in the category and has been a hero for the brand since it launched in 2020. The brand sells various sizes of the popular mist, including a mini for $12, a 4-ounce bottle for $28 and a refill jug for $68.
Overall, Liu estimates that Tower28 spent around $200,000 on the billboard investment — $150,000 to MilkMoney and another $50,000 on promotion, staffing and ancillary campaign. The billboard garnered industry attention and spritzed more than 188,000 New Yorkers during the two-week run.
Liu sat down with Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack to unpack the experience and investment, and discuss — knowing what she knows now — if she would do it again.
On the goal of the interactive billboard
“[Tower28 SOS Spray] is a huge part of our business. … It’s been our hero product for a long time, although now our concealer is neck-and-neck. … I just really believe in hero SKUs and that you have to keep introducing them to people and showing people how to use it and educate. [The goal is to] find ways to talk about things in a more novel and interesting way…”
On navigating production hurdles
“It’s funny because the vendor who did this for us said, ‘Like, just put water in [the billboard] — no one will know the difference.’ And I was like, ‘No, it has to be the actual product!’ Like, of course, it has to be the actual product, but doing [a billboard like this] is a little more complicated than you’d think. You have to replenish it — it’s a whole thing. We really had to think about how [the consumer experiences the mist]. It’s actually hilarious, but I have all these videos [tracking the spray mechanism] because I was really worried that it would spray aggressively or not enough.”
