Teen spending on beauty products has reached an all-time high.

According to Piper Sandler, the average teenager spent $2,361 on makeup, skincare, and fragrance products in 2024, up 6% from the previous year. As a result, beauty brands are trying to connect with young consumers in a way that resonates and breeds loyalty. However, even well-established names can struggle for recognition among Gen A and Gen Z.

Until recently, Gen Z and Gen A had little to no awareness of Galderma-owned Differin (which according to the company is the fifth-largest acne care brand in the US), Lindsey Scales, Associate Director, Acne Skincare at Galderma, told BeautyMatter.

Scales recalled her experience at TwitchCon 2024, when several teen consumers expressed interest in Differin yet thought it was a new brand, despite being older than the teens themselves, having been founded as a prescription brand in 1996, and FDA-approved for over-the-counter use in 2016. “It was really eye-opening for us as a brand to be hit with a lack of awareness—it's humbling and sobering; it makes you realize you need to do a lot more work to get out there with young audiences.”

Recognizing the limited reach Differin had with young consumers (of which 85%  between ages 11-20 suffer from acne), Scales and the Differin team tapped into the realm of gaming—a common hobby for 90% of today's teens—through a campaign named Level Up. Featuring innovative, connected touch points across Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube, the acne education-based campaign (which launched in late 2024) gained over 271 million impressions and increased consumer purchasing intent by 5,800%, while boosting sales conversions by 52%, and driving website traffic by 266%, according to the brand.

The campaign's debut Differin Duo gamer battle amassed over 1.2 million minutes watched, exceeding usual Twitch benchmarks by 163%, said Scales. “People are actively engaging with our streamers and the gamers, and it's important to note that with gaming, we really feel like we're getting quality engagement versus just quantity of engagement,” Scales explained.

To expand its reach to audiences as young as 13, Differin took Level Up one step further, working with advertising agency Dentsu and metaverse game builder Dubit to become the first acne care brand to launch on gaming platform Roblox. “We were recently on a panel with Roblox at SXSW, and they said that average users spend two and a half hours a day on the platform—that's a lot of time; when we need to build awareness with an audience, what better way to do that than in a place where they're [teens] already spending their time?” Scales said. “Additionally, 60% [of Roblox Users] are 13 or over, and that's the perfect age for acne sufferers because acne usually comes when you reach puberty, around those early teen years.”

The strategic move aims to help young consumers build confidence around their skin, regardless of its condition, fostering a supportive community for all players. “Confidence with an acne sufferer really comes from empowerment and power over their breakouts,” Scales added. “We see a lot of brands out there saying, ‘be confident, feel confident.’ But we want to give them the educational tools they need to tackle their acne, not just tell them to feel a certain way. Confidence is power and control over your situation.”

The Level Up campaign appears across five popular Roblox experiences, including NewSmith, Teamwork Puzzles 2, Carry a Friend, Paradise RP, and The Floor is Lava. Additionally, the Level Up Lobby features three minigame experiences: Foam Blaster, where players use the foam blaster to clean hovering faces with Differin’s 10% Benzoyl Peroxide Maximum Strength Foaming Cleanser; Power Patch Splatter, where players launch Differin Power Patches at the right moment to splat pimples; and Zit Zapper, where players zap zits as they appear on hovering faces with Differin’s 10% Benzoyl Peroxide Spot Treatment Zapper.

Keeping in mind the ongoing conversations around young beauty consumers using products not intended for their age range, Scales explained that Differin chose products for the game that wouldn’t be too harsh for young players' skin barriers, should they make a purchase in real life. “When you get acne, at first, it's really overwhelming. There are so many brands, so many colors, so many ingredients, we wanted to simplify this. So, we made sure to choose products that were really good entry-level products for young people suffering from acne. Differin does have more aggressive acne treatments on the market, like Adapalene Gel, but we chose not to put that product in Roblox.”

Once the minigames are completed, players are surrounded by a sparkling aura, which symbolizes the afterglow of Differin acne care, as well as a gift box with a power-up to use on the spot. Scales noted that minigames were chosen to capture young audiences' short attention spans while still remaining educational and fun. “As a brand, I might want to talk to someone for 60 seconds, but they only want to play a game for 30 seconds,” she stated. “That’s why we wanted to put fun first because you can have the most educational piece of content out there, but if no one wants to interact with it, then you've already lost—realistically, what's the point if no one wants to play with it?”

While Differin chose not to include commerce integrated into the game, it did create an incentive to drive sales offline that linked back to Roblox. As part of the campaign, shoppers can upload a receipt from any Differin product purchase (regardless of where it was purchased) and receive a power-up of their choice in participating in Level Up Roblox experiences. “At first glance, Level Up on Roblox is an awareness driver because our name is showing up in these well-established five games, so we're already getting the traffic of those games and exposure to our brand. But, what made our campaign really interesting is our connection to commerce—that’s where we're making this a full-funnel approach,” Scales affirmed. This strategy works well, allowing anyone to engage with the brand with no pressure to make a purchase, yet it is still sure to drive sales among some users.

With Roblox now a solidified marketing avenue for beauty brands, it takes new and innovative entries outside the norm to connect consumers within the gaming space. Differin perfectly exemplifies going beyond sales to drive brand awareness in a way that positively benefits consumers.

By bringing acne awareness to Roblox, Differin normalizes conversations that many teens are nervous to begin—and rightly so; 60% of individuals with acne report decreased confidence, with a further 58% stating the condition makes them feel lonely. With a growing focus on mental health and self-esteem in the virtual world, activations like Differin’s are set to play an important role in shaping the future of not only teen skincare routines but also mental health.