Beauty YouTubers Get Ready: Maybelline vs. MAC

You may have heard of top beauty vloggers like Michelle Phan, but there are tens of thousands of other women on YouTube who are also making videos about similar topics. These videos can range anywhere from a few views to millions of views. In a recent Octoly study, we compiled data on 295,000 cosmetics and beauty videos on YouTube, categorizing them by brands and mentions across 117,000 independent YouTube creator channels.

From that data we found some interesting results when we extracted the earned media (fan-created video) statistics about two popular brands: Maybelline and MAC. Our discovery: Maybelline has almost twice as many fan videos as MAC, but MAC videos get 3 times as many views per video as Maybelline.

Beauty Vloggers Take Many Forms on YouTube

First, some examples of creator videos about these two brands. Beauty vlogger videos can take many forms and be of varying popularity on YouTube. In this video on the “Hillary’s Hobby” channel, Hillary uses her cell phone to do a side-by-side test of MAC Pro Longwear Concealer versus Maybelline Eraser Dark Circle. She did one eye with each product and checked in with her phone throughout the day. This video resonated with viewers — while Hillary only has a few subscribers (35 as of this writing), the video has 1,400 views.

Of course, some beauty vloggers have quite a lot of subscribers and viewers. The “ItsJudyTime” channel, which has more than a million subscribers, has touched on Maybelline in 12 different videos, totaling 4.7 million views, or 4.33% of all views from fan created videos about the brand. This recent video, “NEW Maybelline THE BUFFS Color Sensational lipstick swatches,” was viewed 280,000 times.

Here’s a pie chart showing the share of voice of top beauty vloggers talking about Maybelline.

YouTube beauty vlogger “Shaaanxo” has 935,000 subscribers and this video “Top MAC Must Haves! ♡ Favorite MAC Makeup ♡ MAC For Beginners” has 270,000 views to date. She has done 13 videos that discuss MAC totaling 1.2 million views. Shaaanxo is responsible for 1.11% of all views of fan-created videos about MAC.

Here’s a pie chart showing the share of voice of top beauty vloggers talking about MAC.

Overall, fans created more than 7,800 videos about MAC, but they created 16,000-plus videos about Maybelline. These Maybelline videos garnered 112 million earned media views for the brand, yet the MAC videos earned the brand a whopping 225 million views.

Maybelline Video Content More Engaging, But MAC Has More Views

Interestingly, YouTube users found the Maybelline videos more engaging. They had 2.2 social actions per view across all social media (likes, comments, and shares across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter). But MAC only had 1.6 social actions per view. On average, however, each earned media video about MAC was viewed 13,700 times, while Maybelline videos were only viewed 4,100 times on average.

By this math, any MAC video released by a creator essentially has the value of three Maybelline videos. The Maybelline brand may have more creators singing their praises, but MAC is winning the war for earned media viewers.

Want to drive YouTube earned media for your brand? Contact us at Octoly.