ceft and company launches nars cosmetics first social media luxury website

fully integrated with facebook the social media site will auto post entries on facebook

the facepile module below allows users to see like minded friends who have also joined the experience
social media modules allow users to invite friends to the challenge or upload an entrants image with comments.


posted comments on the NARS site can be shared on facebook
products related to achieving a look are gracefully integrated and are linked to e commerce site

custom cropping tool will allow users to crop photographs as desired
about section
about francois nars' instructional book "make up your mind: express yourself"
the 12 looks available in the book and linked to each of the challenges on the site

the website (www.makeupyourmind.com) designed and produced by ceft and company new york was the answer to NARS' desire to broaden its audience and create a presence in the social media world.

the website, which marks the shiseido-owned company’s largest digital initiative to date, contains 12 step-by-step tutorials adapted from the pages of the book by francois NARS, "makeup your mind: express yourself".

to encourage visitors to try out the products and makeovers, NARS is offering 13 prizes to the women who upload photos of their makeovers to the site. the look with the most votes by august 31 will win a backstage pass to new york fashion week in february 2012, travel accommodations included.

the contest not only promises to increase engagement on the site, but it also creates a rich resource of user-generated imagery. it gives visitors an idea of how featured makeovers will appear when applied by less expert hands on a variety of complexions.

the luxury site features heavy facebook integration throughout. one must log in to facebook to vote and comment on looks, and users are somewhat frequently prompted to share content with their facebook friends.

when asked why NARS created a separate site for the experience, rather than building it directly into facebook, ucef hanjani, creative director of ceft and company had this to say: "it's always important for a certain brands to maintain and control their own aesthetic and feeling" — a complaint often expressed by fashion and beauty brands that want to use social media but don’t want their content to sit under a facebook or youtube logo.

FANGATE AND FACEBOOK APP:

the fangate on facebook encourages users to "like" the NARS facebook to get in

inside a custom app will allow users to see the top candidates next to the "looks" and allows them to go to the site to enter the game.

although the site was not intended for ipad due to the inability to upload images, the coding was done in a way that allows users to interact, view, vote and comment on the site using an ipad or portable device.