Shiseido’s 150th Anniversary: “From Life Comes Beauty” Campaign

Yubin Ma
Marketing in the Age of Digital
3 min readOct 22, 2023

In the modern era, the digital realm has become a playground for brands to connect with their audience. Shiseido, a well-renowned beauty brand, steps into this playground with a masterstroke — a campaign marking its 150th anniversary, aiming not only to celebrate its heritage but to forge a connection between beauty and life. This campaign is a mirror to its competitor Estée Lauder’s digital ventures, reflecting the evolving digital marketing strategies in the beauty industry.

Unveiling the “From Life Comes Beauty” Campaign:
Shiseido launched the “From Life Comes Beauty” campaign on June 1, 2022, to celebrate its 150th anniversary. This campaign isn’t just a marketing gimmick; it’s a narrative, a story that conveys Shiseido’s enduring focus on life as the essence of beauty. Through a global launch of three limited-edition products powered by their unique Life Science research, Shiseido aims to explore and celebrate the relationship between life and beauty

Dissecting the Campaign:
The core objective of this campaign was to intertwine the brand’s rich history with a forward-looking perspective on beauty and life. Shiseido wanted its audience to delve into a conversation about the essence of beauty, promoting a discussion that could potentially lead to a more fulfilling future. They achieved this through various digital mediums — a campaign movie featuring individuals from around the globe, sharing their views on beauty, a global rollout of a graphic showcasing lively facial expressions from people of different cultures, and the creation of a campaign emblem named the “Alive Ring” which symbolizes Shiseido’s long-standing research into the mechanisms linking beauty and life. The campaign also saw the opening of a digital museum with content themes around Stories, Innovation, and History, reflecting Shiseido’s journey and its scientific inquiry into beauty​

Measuring the Milestones:

This campaign is undoubtedly successful as it elevates brand engagement and communicates Shiseido’s rich heritage alongside a modern perspective on beauty across different generations. Here are some specific success factors:

  • Engagement: The digital museum and the global discussions triggered by the campaign movie indicate a high level of engagement, showing that the campaign was successful in sparking conversations around its intended theme of life and beauty.
  • Narrative Continuity: By seamlessly blending its 150-year old heritage with a contemporary take on beauty, Shiseido managed to create a narrative that resonates across generations.
  • Digital Innovation: The campaign showcased digital innovation through its various digital platforms and interactive content, setting a precedent in the beauty industry.

In wrapping up, the “From Life Comes Beauty” campaign by Shiseido stands as a hallmark of how a brand can leverage digital platforms to not only market its products but to engage its audience in a meaningful narrative that spans across its rich history and the contemporary discourse on beauty. Personally, this campaign struck a chord with me. It makes me trust heritage-rich brands like Shiseido more, even with limited skincare knowledge. I’d confidently buy their products for my mother and sister, knowing they’d appreciate the quality associated with a well-established brand.

Reference:

https://corp.shiseido.com/en/news/detail.html?n=00000000003398

https://www.pamper.my/news/beauty/shiseido-launches-from-life-comes-beauty-campaign-to-celebrate-its-150th-anniversary/#:~:text=,campaign%20%E2%80%9CFrom%20life%20comes%20beauty%E2%80%9D

https://www.shiseido.com/us/en/?ds_rl=1275711&gclid=CjwKCAjwkNOpBhBEEiwAb3MvvVGKkJigqa0bnJfWLQHlBaqDcy2ZuPgLZxaL6QOalEczhuodKBFz5BoClOYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

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