While awards in the beauty and wellness sphere often spotlight the brands and founders, it's important to recognize the ecosystem of service providers playing a supporting role behind the scenes. Sometimes overlooked, these professionals span design, strategy, product development, social media, and communications.
It’s not enough to just be creative now. The best agencies really understand the industry in which their clients operate and work as an extension of their team. They know the problems and challenges to ensure that ideas are not only creative, but they’re also relevant and pertinent. Behind every timeless brand or campaign is tight collaboration between the brand and its agency partners. The best agencies play a unique and crucial role in their client's success.
BeautyMatter's NEXT Awards are designed to recognize people and businesses across the entire value chain that raise the bar and define the future of beauty.
The criteria applied by our judges while evaluating submissions included:
The Judges:
Meet the 2024 NEXT Award finalists in the agency category.
Best Social Media + Influencer Agency: Recognizes agencies responsible for developing social media strategies, campaign execution, content creation, and connecting influencers with brands.
Artisan Council(AC) was founded by Leilani Williams and Adam Kinnane in 2013 to apply the philosophies they adopted working together at Universal Music Group (streamlined budgets, innovation, and entertainment) to consumer goods. Eventually, the agency became more centralized in the beauty landscape.
They tap their knowledge of creating fandoms around music artists and transfer it to building brands and fandoms online, bringing innovation and agile management systems to always be first movers in the creative and social space. What started as a creative and social media management agency has evolved into a full-service agency specializing in digital marketing, creative, and content production.
Artisan Council also invests in culture and creativity. They are 100% remote with core hubs across the US. Office and studios are available with zero pressure return to it. AC team retreats travel to LA, Miami, Puerto Rico, upstate NY, and Joshua Tree in 2023, which included creative motivational activities like group art, poetry workshops, and stargazing, alongside workshops to realign team missions and values to drive a sense of belonging and intention within wider and individual teams.
Client Snapshot:Thayers, NYX Professional Makeup, La Roche-Posay, belif, Fenty Beauty, Kiehl's, The Face Shop, Aveeno, Erno Laszlo, Creed
Ogaki is a solution for digital-first beauty and fashion brands seeking 360-degree communications strategies to reach today’s online consumers. It dives deeply into each brand’s DNA to understand how to translate that brand’s look and feel into a social-first approach while tapping into social best practices to consistently exceed industry KPIs.
A dedicated social strategy and creative team works to find the perfect balance of aesthetics and performance.
Its deep relationships and experience in the influencer space enable the agency to tap into influencers clients aren’t normally able to reach, negotiate fair rates, and provide insight into partners it is working with that are performing strongly.
Client Snapshot: D.S. & Durga, Lancer Skincare, Luna Daily, 8Greens, SŌM Skin, Arey Grey, Retrouvé
Song Candy Media (SCM)is the first-of-its-kind community-marketing agency and audio production house founded by a team digital marketing and music industry veterans in 2020. The name represents two divisions. The ”song” part speaks audio expertise and ”candy” represents a community mindset. Like marketing, candy can captivate and entice, appealing to our senses and creating lasting impressions.
Its mission is to put the fun back in marketing to help brands form meaningful, long-term connections with their consumers. Specializing in beauty, its approach is backed by social trend data, music science, and audience insights to give brand content a ”sticky” factor that makes clients stand out in their category and be remembered and beloved within their communities. SCM drives connection by developing content that is entertaining, relatable, and worthy of our audience’s attention.
Client Snapshot: K18 Hair, Neutrogena, Olaplex, Revlon, Youth To The People, Moroccanoil, Living Proof, Kosas
Best Design + Branding Agency: Recognizes agencies responsible for crafting best-In-class brand strategies and the execution of design services.
1r Agency is a global full-service agency with a multidisciplinary team of designers, developers, strategists, digital marketers, and technologists who work in close collaboration to focus on digital content strategy, creative direction, site design and builds, site audits and optimization, and digital marketing. 1r Agency is a leading force in the digital realm, collaborating with a diverse range of start-ups and established brands in the beauty, skincare, and health and wellness sectors to bolster their direct-to-consumer (DTC) presence.
The agency creates unique experiences that blend best-in-class e-commerce features and functionality with beautiful, tactile designs to tell rich brand stories. In addition to a core business of DTC, it offers a wide range of complementary solutions, including creating digital-first content and brand strategy, pre- and post-production, and executing full-funnel digital marketing strategies across prospecting, retargeting, and retention that are structured to scale.
The agency's main pillars are creative, digital, and marketing, with service offerings spanning content strategy, creative direction, website design, website development and Integrations, business analysis and solutions, UX and strategy, paid social, paid search, email/SMS marketing, SEO.
Client Snapshot: PAPATUI, WYN Beauty, Function of Beauty, DIBS Beauty, Maison Louis Marie, Naturium, Sally Hansen, Burberry, Westman Atelier, Clairol, Makeup by Mario, Gucci, Philosophy, MAC, Live Tinted, Coty
Front Row partners with leading beauty, wellness, and consumer brands leveraging capabilities and proprietary technology to design, market, distribute, and accelerate a brand's e-commerce on a global scale. The agency collaborates with brands at any stage of their lifecycle, catering to their diverse commerce needs and applying their understanding of the intersection between marketplace partnership, creative, and overarching e-commerce strategy. This empowers brands to maximize their potential and thrive in today’s dynamic market.
The agency's collective capabilities range from strategy and design, content creation, digital consumer marketing, digital B2B marketing, marketplace partnerships, e-commerce management, and business intelligence.
Client Snapshot: WYN Beauty, We Are Future Society, Symphonic M.D., La Mer, Versed, Rae, Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, Makeup By Mario, Kosas, Womaness, Glow Recipe, Youth to the People, Elemis, Rare Beauty, Obagi, HigherDOSE, DevaCurl, Soap & Glory, Olaplex, Rimmel London, Summer Fridays
Best Digital Agency: Recognizes agencies that provide best-in-class strategic direction, creative design, and technical development for screen-based products and services.
Iced Media is focused on the intersection of beauty and paid social, with deep expertise in content, creators, and ads in paid social and social commerce. It's developed and employed tools and technology within the paid social media ecosystem to create meaningful business growth. Its technology offers precision, fluidity, unrivaled benchmarking, and transparency because it was built for this sole purpose.
Iced Media is a credentialed partner with Meta and TikTok, offering clients access to the latest innovation from the leading platforms. Along with clients, it develops what has become best practices for the industry to adopt. Acting as an extension to client teams and taking on the role of real business partners, it creates a roadmap for emerging, indie, and established brands to realize their greatest commercial potential.
Services span content and creator and media strategy and execution where we are best in the world at social shopping—across retail, e-commerce and social commerce—and help clients navigate ever-changing and increasingly crowded platforms profitably.
Client Snapshot: Flower Beauty, Hairitage, La Roche-Posay, Maybelline, Naturopathica, Redken, Revlon, SkinsCeuticals, Vichy, CoverFX, Kiehl's, Morrocan Oil, Paula's Choice, StriVectin, Babyganics, Elizabeth Arden, Louis Vuitton
Superbolt is a full-service, DTC growth marketing agency that helps its clients grow through paid customer acquisition on channels such as Meta Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Pinterest Ads and more. Superbolt approaches paid advertising in a full-funnel manner combining strategic muscle with creative capabilities and marketing know-how and layering on data and web capabilities to enable its clients to acquire customers in a cost-effective way and sustainably scale from there. Superbolt fosters long-term relationships with clients, given that customer acquisition is essential for their revenue growth.
Superbolt has 35 active clients and has grown over the last seven years to house a 70-person-strong team. It has no sales team having built the business on client referrals, which is a testament to the quality of work.
Client Snapshot: Saie, Skinfix, Ellis Brooklyn, Malin + Goetz, KORA, Dieux, Maison Louis Marie, Beauty Pie, and Trestique.
1r Agency is a global full-service agency with a multidisciplinary team of designers, developers, strategists, digital marketers, and technologists who work in close collaboration to focus on digital content strategy, creative direction, site design and builds, site audits and optimization, and digital marketing. 1r Agency is a leading force in the digital realm, collaborating with a diverse range of start-ups and established brands in the beauty, skincare, and health and wellness sectors to bolster their DTC presence.
The agency creates unique experiences that blend best-in-class e-commerce features and functionality with beautiful, tactile designs to tell rich brand stories. In addition to a core business of DTC, they offer a wide range of complementary solutions, including creating digital-first content and brand strategy, pre- and post-production, and executing full-funnel digital marketing strategies across prospecting, retargeting, and retention that are structured to scale.
The agency's main pillars are creative, digital, and marketing, with service offerings spanning content strategy, creative direction, website design, website development and integrations, business analysis and solutions, UX and strategy, paid social, paid search, email/SMS marketing, SEO.
Client Snapshot: PAPATUI, WYN Beauty, Function of Beauty, DIBS Beauty, Maison Louis Marie, Naturium, Sally Hansen, Burberry, Westman Atelier, Clairol, Makeup by Mario, Gucci, Philosophy, MAC, Live Tinted, Coty
Best Public Relations Agency: Recognizes agencies for developing and executing best-in-class communication strategies across media and content platforms.
Beach House PR is a bicoastal communications agency specializing in beauty for more than 17 years. Led by industry experts Brittany Hohl and Brittany Savastano, Beach House honors its rich history in beauty, eco-commitment, and creativity through dynamic, brand-centered programming and powerful storytelling. Beach House prioritizes staying at the forefront of industry trends and continuously monitors industry shifts, consumer preferences, and emerging trends to ensure strategies remain cutting-edge and relevant.
Client Snapshot: Mad Rabbit, Medik8, Velour Beauty, Archipelago Botanicals, FOREO, Sultra, Apres Nails, Bodyography, AQUIS, Voluspa, Face Halo, Bondi Sands
Chasen Creative Media (CCM)is a bicoastal public relations and marketing consulting firm with a forward-thinking approach to brand building. Our multifaceted expertise is focused on the beauty, lifestyle, and digital sectors. With a hands-on methodology, our clients see our agency as a cohesive extension of their in-house teams. Services include brand marketing and consulting, media relations, experiential, and influencer marketing.
In 2016, Cole Chasen Trider saw the PR landscape quickly evolving. As traditional firms neglected to adapt to the digital age, he created a business model that did not exist, creating a cohesive relationship between traditional and social media. CCM pushes brands to constantly evolve, activate in new spaces, and be on the pulse of digital trends to sustain voice, reach, and growth. His expertise lies in discovering start-up brands and bringing them to market, scaling indie brands primed for investment, and reinvigorating industry-leading heritage brands towards the now.
Client Snapshot: Paul Mitchell, Tan-Luxe, BYOMA, Clinique, LOVED01 by John Legend, Glow Recipe, OUAI, Peace Out
Creative Media Marketing (CMM)is a full-service PR and influencer marketing agency specializing in beauty and lifestyle marketing. It is based in New York City and has a satellite office in LA. Since 1999, its mission has been to uncover a brand’s ethos and hone in on its consumer values to develop a meaningful and compelling media strategy that consistently moves the needle.
The agency is composed of state-of-the-art storytellers, over-the-top creatives, and analytic experts who work as extensions of brand teams. As an all-beauty agency, employees are separated into teams working with four to six brands to ensure no conflicts. Client longevity runs is part of its DNA. La Roche-Posay and Biologique Recherche have been clients for 18 years, Henkel for 16 years, ColorProof for 11 years, and Ole Henriksen for five years. CMM has also taken countless brands through acquisition (Goody, DenTek, Jurlique, and PCA Skin).
CMM is led by four women who are industry veterans, moms, and consumers. Each one embraces the ever-changing media landscape; challenging both their teams and clients to break boundaries. Corinne Pipitone leads creative strategy, Carolanne Coviello leads influencer marketing, Jennifer Keel oversees philanthropy, and Carolyn Marquez is the GM.
Client Snapshot: Goody, European Wax Center, La Roche-Posay, Biologique Recherche, ColorProof, OLEHENRIKSEN, LolaVie, KVD Beauty, göt2b, OPI, Kendo Brands, Haus Laboratories by Lady Gaga
Dreamday is a first-of-its-kind, award-winning communications and performance agency offering Performance PR. The term coined by the agency represents full-service PR and full-funnel affiliate marketing combined as one synergistic scope and strategy to drive unprecedented quality and quantity of placements and increased traffic and revenue through the affiliate channel. Performance PR emphasizes the importance of aligning performance goals with broader PR objectives to create a cohesive and impactful narrative.
The agency was built with the intention of breaking the mold through transparency and measurable results that most traditional agencies are unable and unwilling to provide to clients. Dreamday has future-proofed the industry with its innovative Performance PR discipline that has driven industry-wide discussion around data-driven PR.
Client Snapshot: Act+Acre, HUM Nutrition, FabFitFun, Artifact Uprising, Quince, Glamnetic, selfmade, Kitsch, Maev, Fly By Jing, Brightland, and Girlfriend Collective
Foundationspecializes in building beauty brands. A group of forward-thinking communicators who are deeply immersed in social media, industry trends, and actively engaged in conversations with key industry players with the goal of getting people talking. Our result-driven commitment to excellence drives us to provide cutting-edge tools and resources to keep our clients ahead in the industry.
To adapt to the ever-changing beauty landscape their comprehensive suite of services is designed to empower beauty brands across Influencer Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Creative Services and Executive Leadership PR.
Client Snapshot: Nécessaire, Hero Cosmetics, Ellis Brooklyn, Homecourt, NARS, Dae, Patrick Ta Beauty, Youth To The People, Lion Pose, NARS, iNNBEAUTY Project, SickScience, YAWN, and NOYZ
JGroup is founded by Juliette Levy, a beauty industry veteran with 20 years of agency, in-house, and freelance PRexperience. She founded JGroup to bring her one-of-a-kind approach and magic touch to a wider breadth of brands creating a unicorn PR shop that marries the hustle and speed of an agency with the commitment and white glove service of an in-house team. JGroup is small by design, holding 10 or fewer brands on its roster at a time so Juliette and the senior team at JGroup can provide an unmatched level of service.
JGroup builds and accelerates game-changers in the beauty and wellness space through skillfully crafted, of-the-moment storytelling, backed by heart and expertise. The specialize in propelling brands into cosmic pacesetters, positioning them to inform and establish the standards for what is culturally relevant in the ever-evolving universe.
Client Snapshot: rhode, Haus Labs by Lady Gaga, CAY Skin, KNOW Beauty, Pacifica, LoveShackFancy Beauty, Roxie Nafousi, Huda Beauty, Kayali, ONE/SIZE, DWB Beauty, Anablue.
Join us in Los Angeles, CA, for the NEXT Award and Summit on October 24, 2024 to find out who wins. Secure your space.
